T

en months before Hurricane Katrina le much of New Or leans underwater, Queen Elizabeth II had a private conversation with Prime Minis ter Tony Blau about Gege W. Bush, The Queens tradition of meeting once a week with Britans docted head of government to Jiscuss matters of state usually on Tuesday evenings in Buckingham Palace and always alone, to ensure maximum confidentiality goes back to 1952 the year she ascended the throne. In all that time, the contents of those chats rarely if ever kaked.

So it was extraordinary when London's Onzie reported, on October 31, 2004, that the Queen had "made a fare intervention in wirkt poitus by calling ker of her grave converts over the White House's stner on global warming" The Oserver did not name ila sources bent one of them suhasently spoke to Las Fier

"The Queen first of all made it clear that Buckingham Pakice would be happy to help raise awareness about the imate problem." xave the source a high-level environmental expert who was briefed about the coreton. "[She was] detinitely concerned about the American portion and hoped the prime minister could help came fit."

Press aides for both the Queen and the prime minister declined to comment on the meeting, as is their Imbit. But days after the Observer story appeared, the Queen indeed raised awareness by presiding over the opening of a British German conference on dimate change, in Berlin "I might just point out, that's a pretty unusual thing for her to do." says Sir David King. Britain's chief scientific adviser. She doesn't take part in anything that would be overtly political." King who has briefed the Queen on climate change, woukl not comment on the Oh. serwy report except to say, "If i were true. il wouldn't surprise me."

With spring arriving in Englund three weeks earlier than it did 50 years ago, the Queen coull now see egns of climate change with her own eyes. Saxitinglaun. her country estate north of London, overlooks Britain's premier hird-watchmy spot: the vast North Sea wetlands known as the Wash. A lifelong outdoorowoman, the Queen had doubtless

had estimated that 60 percent cuts in emissions were needed, and he committed Britain to reaching that goal by 2050.

But it wouldn't matter how much Britain cut its greenhouse-gas emissions if other nations didn't do the same. The U.S. was key, not only because it was the world's largest emitter but because its refusal to reduce emissions led China, India, Brazil, and other large developing countries to ask why they should do so. All this Blair had also said publicly. In 2001 he criticized the Bush administration for withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol. In 2004 he said it was essential to bring the U.S. into the global effort against climate change, despite its opposition to Kyoto.

It was no secret that Bush opposed mandatory emissions iimits, but Blair, who had risked his political future to back the deeply unpopular war in Iraq, was uniquely positioned to lobby the president. Bush owed him one. At the same time, Blair needed to show his domestic audience that he could stand up to Bush, that he wasn't the presi dential "poodle" his critics claimed.

To compel Bush to engage the issue, Blair made climate change a lead agenda item at the July 2005 meeting of the Group of 8, the alliance of the world's eight richIest nations. A month before the meeting, which was held at Gleneagles, in Scotland, Blair flew to Washington to see Bush faceto-face. That same day, the national academies of science of all the G-8 nations, as well as those of China, India, and Brazil, released a joint statement declaring that climate change was a grave problem that required immediate action.

On the morning of July 7, the summit was interrupted by the shocking news that four suicide bombers had set off explosions in London, killing 56 people. Blair rushed to the scene, but he returned that night, still determined to secure an agreement.

In the end, however, Bush held firm. Washington vetoed all references to mandatory emissions cuts or timelines, and the climate-change issue was overshadowed by African debt relief, which had been publicized by Bob Geldof's Live 8 concerts. "There were no tough targets at Gleneagles because we would not have got all signatures on the document," says King, who adds, "We might well have" gotten seven-that is, every nation but the U.S. The farthest the G-8 leaders went-and even this required a battle, says King-was to include a sentence that read, in part, "While uncertainties remain in our understanding of climate science, we know enough to act now."

But seven weeks later, nature acted first, and it was the United States she hit.

MAY 2096

PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS, SECOND AND FOURTH FROM TOP, BOTH PAGES, BY JOHN BLACKFORD