American Notes ECOLOGY

White House chief of staff John Sununu infuriated environmentalists last month when he blocked creation of a special international fund to help developing countries reduce their use of industrial gases that deplete the ozone layer. Charging that a U.S. failure to support the fund would undermine George Bush's vow to be the Environmental President, Democratic Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee called the policy "pigheaded and obstinate." He predicted that once the angry reaction set in, Sununu would reverse himself.

Last week Sununu did just that. He announced that the U.S. would contribute $25 million to a $100 million World Bank fund that will help underwrite the cost ofchlorofluorocarbon-abatement efforts in less developed nations. Sununu claimed that the Administration now found itself able to endorse the fund because financial safeguards that the initial plan lacked have been put in place.

But a White House official pooh-poohed Sununu's explanation for the abrupt turnabout in policy as "a mere fig leaf." Said he: "It became clear to us that almost everybody was unhappy."