GEORGE W Bush won, and won quite emphatically at that. John Kerry, his Democratic Party rival, lost. But the greater loss is that of the US electorate: it has abdicated all rights to scrutinise its government's ability to manage the environment. In fact, the US election results are symptomatic of an even greater loss: the environment is no longer a significant electoral issue in the North.

Bush whipped up two emotive issues to bolster his campaign: religiosity and terrorism. Kerry braced up his by arguments centred around the right form of religiosity and the wrong place to fight terrorism. Words such as