A Jury Of Your Pyrrhus

G8 climate deal is failure or triumph, depending whom you ask

Welcome to another installment of "Days of Our G8 Lives." Yesterday, the G8 agreed to a climate deal it's been fine-tuning for weeks. It notably did not commit to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's goal of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions 50 percent by 2050, but it did say countries would "consider seriously" adopting such a goal. Thanks, George! The agreement also endorses Bush's plan to bring developing countries to the negotiating table, but confirms that the U.N. is the best place to work out future climate treaties. Many observers were outraged that the U.S. had once again purple-nurpled the world, but others tried to look on the bright side. "While Europe has been itching on the starting blocks for the past decade, Bush has been sulking in the changing room," said one European policy adviser. "At least he is now on the track." Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, chief climate adviser to Merkel, offered this take: "The United States is now on a bandwagon they cannot stop."