The Washington Post has a major piece today exposing how Bush administration officials working behind the scenes have succeeded in weakening key sections of a proposal for joint action on global warming by the G8 group of major industrialized nations ahead of next month’s summit. The paper obtained documents that show that U.S. officials pressed negotiators to drop sections of the report that highlight some problems tied to global warming, warn of more frequent droughts and floods, and commit a specific dollar amount to promoting carbon sequestration in developing countries. One deleted section initially cited “increasingly compelling evidence of climate change, including rising ocean and atmospheric temperatures, retreating ice sheets and glaciers, rising sea levels, and changes to ecosystems.” It added, “Inertia in the climate system means that further warming is inevitable. Unless urgent action is taken, there will be a growing risk of adverse effects on economic development, human health and the natural environment, and of irreversible long-term changes to our climate and oceans.” Instead, U.S. negotiators substituted a sentence that reads, “Climate change is a serious long term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe.”