ABSTRACT
Introduction Most of the delegates to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro came from countries which sincerely supported the meeting’s professed values and ecological goals. On this count, however, the representatives of the United States stood apart from the rest. Because of President Bush’s opposition to the meeting’s climate change and biodiversity treaties, the 300 American delegates intransigently resisted the conference’s basic agenda, which severely dampened the entire affair’s overall diplomatic success. This difference is significant. While the other chapters in this collection examine the more positive intended effects of the Rio summit outside America, this chapter looks more closely at a few of its negative unintended effects on politics in the United States.
