Most surprising was what did get in the Gleneagles communique. It conceded that "uncertainties remain in our understanding of climate science," rejecting the environmentalist dogma of "settled science" about global warming. The G-8 summit's public conclusion in favor of stopping and slowing the growth of greenhouse gases "as the science justifies" lifts Bush's language verbatim from 2002.

 Bush's lone "concession" was a line in the communique that use of fossil fuels is "associated with the warming of our Earth's surfaces." This, too, echoes past statements by Bush. "That's really a trivial concession," a White House source told me.

 In the aftermath of the G-8, Blair did not emulate Chirac's absurd claims of victory at Gleneagles and, in fact, had little to say publicly about global warming. Less than a month earlier on his visit to Washington, the British leader was preparing his last chance to get Bush's reversal on Kyoto. Given Blair's steadfast support of Bush on Iraq, the White House had to swallow its indignation that the prime minister was secretly lobbying U.S. senators.

 Blair hoped that the Senate in late June would repudiate Bush on global warming for the first time, creating a momentum for Kyoto at the G-8 summit. Just the opposite occurred. The McCain-Lieberman bill actually lost ground; a nuclear energy provision added to attract conservatives lost four liberal Democratic senators. Sen. Pete Domenici, the Energy Committee chairman, withdrew support from an alternative proposal when a headcount showed 52 senators opposed. A non-binding resolution by Sen. John Kerry urging international negotiations on global warming had passed two years ago but was defeated this time.

 All that passed in the Senate June 22 was a non-binding resolution, carried with 53 votes, that cautiously called for "market-based" limits on greenhouse gases that "will not significantly harm the United States economy." For his first term and a half, Bush will have held the line against the global warming hysteria and even got his G-8 colleagues to go along with him.