The fate of our warming planet hinges on six nations, and five of them are meeting in Sydney, Australia.

Through his long years of greenhouse denial, US President George W. Bush must have been particularly grateful to John Howard. The Australian prime minister was quick to join Bush in refusing to ratify the Kyoto protocol, and has batted for his country's coal interests as trenchantly as Bush has batted for US coal and oil interests.

Now Bush has had to deal with the impact on American public opinion of hurricane Katrina and Al Gore's movie, and can no longer afford to ignore climate change.