As the World Spurns

U.S. attacked on three fronts for obstructing climate action

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin took direct aim at the U.S. during yesterday's climate summit meetings in Montreal, reproaching the planet's leading emitter of greenhouse gases for not joining in international efforts to combat global warming. "To the reticent nations, including the United States, I say this: there is such a thing as a global conscience," said Martin at a press conference. "And now is the time to listen to it." E.U. environment minister Stavros Dimas and other European officials also criticized the U.S. stance. And representatives of the Inuit filed a petition yesterday with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, charging the U.S. with human-rights violations for failing to curb greenhouse-gas emissions and thus contributing in large measure to Arctic warming, which threatens to destroy traditional Inuit hunting practices and native culture. "What is happening affects virtually every facet of Inuit life," said Inuit leader Sheila Watt-Cloutier. "We are people of the ice."