The United States is a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Framework Convention),¹ which requires parties to implement programs and measures to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO₂), trap solar energy in the atmosphere in proportion to their concentration, rather like the way glass windows in a greenhouse or a parked car trap solar heat.² Their increased atmospheric concentration from human emissions is believed to be affecting the earth's climate. In 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, the parties agreed to a protocol under which developed countries would reduce their net emissions by at least 5% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012, and the United States would reduce its emissions by 7% below 1990 levels.³ Since that time, there has been a vigorous debate in the United States about the Kyoto Protocol.

To a great degree, this public debate is a case study in asking the wrong questions: