American President George Bush's refusal to ratify the Kyoto treaty was a "declaration of war on the environment" according to Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer.

The Kyoto treaty was an agreement by 100 countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases which cause global warming.

It should have led to less use of cars and greater investment in railways and other forms of public transport.

But it was the big oil companies - Texaco and Exxon-Mobil - which funded Bush's campaign to be president. Exxon which trades as Esso in Britain, contributed £800,000 to Republican funds.

Now it is payback time for them.

But Bush is an also oilman himself.

'Oil runs through every sinew and vein of the Bush administration,' according to Ed Vulliamy of The Observer.

'Rarely, if ever, has a western government been so intimately entwined with a single industry.

'Until Bush assumed office, the oil industry had been in the political cold after eight years of Bill Clinton's environmental record.'

Now oilmen are in key positions in the Bush administration.

Even America's ambassador to London, Doug Farish, is a Texas oil magnate from a Texas oil family.

But in Australia, the first-ever conference of the world's Green parties agreed on 16 April 2001 to launch a boycott against Exxon and other US oil companies.

Another threat to an effective environmental policy is the World Trade Organisation which wants to be allowed to overrule an individual country's transport policies if they stop multinational companies making money.

The WTO wants to prevent unions and groups campaigning for the environment, human rights or the consumer, having any say.