Not really. It's a matter of mixed signals coming from the administration. As you might have heard, the Bush administration has subtly shifted its position on global warming. A new EPA report admits that global warming is taking an environmental toll, but the White House is more inclined to make accommodations to changing conditions rather than issue policies to combat effects.

EPA's report to the United Nations says that global warming exists, that it is man-made, and that it will transform the environment. Likely effects in the U.S. include "the disruption of snow-fed water supplies, more stifling heat waves and the permanent disappearance of Rocky Mountain meadows and coastal marshes." But the report suggests that the U.S. will have to accept the changes, rather than take any action to try to avert them.

The U.S. climate action report can be found on EPA's Web site, www.epa.gov.