Salt of the Earth: "Here's Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma: 'Could it be that manmade global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.'"

His handlers hope that the images will protect him from awkward questions about his actual polluter-friendly policies and, most important, his refusal to face up to politically inconvenient environmental dangers.

So here's the question: will we avoid the fate of past civilizations that destroyed their environments, and hence themselves? And the answer is: not if Mr. Bush can help it