DAY 41: In March 2001 President Bush withdrew U.S. participation in the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. The protocol is a multinational agreement initiated in 1997, designed to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions each participating nation produces. 125 countries have ratified the agreement or asked to participate. The President did not notify any other nations that the U.S. was about to pull out of the agreement. The United States produces 25 percent of the world's greenhouse gases. His explanation to foreign leaders: "I went to dinner with fifteen leaders of the EU, and patiently sat there as all fifteen in one form or another told me how wrong I was. And at the end I said, 'I appreciate your point of view, but this is the American position because it's right for America.'"
