Six former chiefs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who gathered this week to celebrate the agency's 35th birthday, took some time off to bash the current administration for its myopic position on climate change.

"We need leadership, and I don't think we're getting it," said Russell Train, EPA chief under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, talking about global warming. "To sit back and just push it away and say we'll deal with it sometime down the road is dishonest to the people and self-destructive."

In a Jan. 19 editorial, titled "Kyoto's Big Con," the Wall Street Journal declared:

"The U.S. dropped its signature from Kyoto because arbitrary emissions targets are both pointless and economically damaging. No proof exists that lower emissions reduce global warming. The idea that human activity influences climate change one way or another is far from proven, given the overwhelming role nature itself plays in atmospheric changes. And if the warming trend of recent decades continues -- by no means a certainty -- it might well be a boon to humanity."