A Political Icy-Hot Patch.(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(EDITORIALS)(Editorial)

Leadership: The annual gathering of world bigwigs at Davos's World Economic Forum is known for its trendy forecasting. So naturally you wouldn't expect Bill Clinton to warn them of the coming ice age.

Ice age? Yup. Ice age.

Was the former president, now on stage before a rapt audience at the ritzy Swiss resort, now bidding to become the world's contrarian-in-chief? Was he nixing Al Gore's career as an award-winning documentarist? Was this Davos versus Sundance?

Wasn't Clinton aware that all the global warming science is "in," and that it is conclusively verified? Certainly his long-ago vice president needs to talk to him. Gore, of course, wowed them in Park City when movie mavens watched his film -- Gore starred as himself -- on the Great Spherical Greenhouse.

Movie makers returning to Hollywood from Utah may anticipate the great box office guaranteed by Manhattan Island's submersion under rising sea waters. Business, science and political figures, likewise, may fly back from the Alps with their own stake in global warming.

But, Bill, we're talking warming, not the Biggest Chill. Are we on the same page?

There are sea walls to build, research grants to secure. And with the regulatory state now found so inefficient, maybe politicians can turn their attention to regulating the climate.