AS IF anyone needed more proof that the Bush administration won't consider even minor measures to protect the environment.

Last year, the Bush administration pulled out of the Kyoto treaty--an international agreement designed to reduce greenhouse emissions and slow global warming. Now, Bush adviser Dr. Harlan Watson has told reporters that the U.S. won't even review the treaty again until the year 2012.

The Kyoto agreement is due to be renegotiated in 2005, but the U.S.--by far the largest producer of greenhouse gases--isn't sending a representative. At least if Dubya and the boys get their way.

Of course, the White House has an "alternative" to the Kyoto treaty--which Watson calls "a different approach." You can say that again.

Misnamed "Clear Skies," the Bush plan would allow corporations to peg their greenhouse emissions to the growth of the economy --meaning that pollution would actually go up.

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