KYOTO REJECTED AGAIN

Environmentalists have roundly condemned George Bush for choosing to protect the US economy by refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Well, Bush isn't the only one who thinks Kyoto's cost could be too high:

Asian leaders rebuffed European pleas for tighter curbs on greenhouse gases, refusing to shackle their fast-growing economies to future limits on energy use.

At a summit in Helsinki today, the heads of Asia's main developing economies balked at the European push for new binding targets for air pollution cuts once the Kyoto Protocol runs out in 2012."

Developing countries in Asia are counting on rapid economic growth to lift millions of people out of poverty, making it politically difficult to impose a clampdown on energy use.

European speakers at the Helsinki summit put emissions at the top of their priority list. The Asian representatives weren't buying it:

The two Asian speakers -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung -- left global warming off their list of priorities, focusing on industrial development, trade, fighting terrorism and disease.

Fighting terrorism is more important than limiting emissions?