President George W. Bush sided with his vice president, Dick Cheney, in denying that a global-warming problem even exists (his treasury secretary, Paul O’Neill, and his administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Christine Whitman, disagreed). This has probably cost the world a decade of wasted time in developing a policy to deal with the problem, particularly given that intentional inaction is likely to continue until Bush’s term is finished.
那些谈判签署议定书的人用以上两种解释都不能说明他们造福了世界。当然，议定书签署以来这个世界更为糟糕。布什总统同副总统切尼一同否认甚至存在全球气候变暖的问题（而其财政部长奥尼尔和环境保护署署长惠特曼则意见相左）。这恐怕让世界耽误了整整十年来制定处理问题的政策，特别是鉴于在布什任期结束前，国际上的无所作为还有可能持续。