The EU's Global-Warming Fantasy.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

The Environment: In a last-ditch attempt at reviving the moribund Kyoto Accords, the European Union has vowed to cut its emission of greenhouse gases beyond what's called for by 2010. But don't count on it.

The meeting that began this week in Montreal -- and that will last nearly two weeks -- has brought a new deal of sorts. The 189 nations in attendance have vowed to continue pursuing cuts in greenhouse gases, even as fresh evidence suggests the effort will be a massive, and extraordinarily costly, waste of time.

No bloc of nations was more enthusiastic about this inanity than the European Union, which seems to view getting the U.S. to go along with Kyoto as a more serious challenge than, say, quelling the riots by Muslim youth in Europe's major cities.

The image of "green" Europe squaring off with "greedy" America is a compelling one -- especially when it's repeated uncritically by the mainstream media, with nary an effort made to check facts. Still, the image endures.

The press is on, as government officials, U.N. bureaucrats and "protesters" all try to shame the U.S. into accepting the unacceptable: a dismantling of our thriving, free-market economy in the name of reducing the global temperature by roughly 0.04 degree Celsius over 100 years.

That's no exaggeration. The most conservative estimates out -- made by those who supported Kyoto, by the way -- put the cost to the U.S. of compliance with the greenhouse deal at $250 billion a year. Other estimates put it at half a trillion -- or higher.

It's a sign of sheer bravado or, more likely, political insanity that the 15 core EU nations now say they will cut total output of greenhouse gases by 9.3% in 2010 compared with 1990 -- well beyond the 8% they promised in 1997.