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At the United Nations climate talks in Montreal, there are two delegations from the United States. The official one is from the Bush Administration and it opposes the Kyoto Protocol.

But a less-organized delegation, composed of hundreds of politicians, scientists, and environmental activists, emphatically disagrees with the U.S. President.

If this unofficial delegation has a de facto head, it is Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, who on the day the Kyoto agreement came into force this year, decided to do something about climate change, even if his government would not.

He committed his West Coast city to meet or beat the 7-per-cent cut in greenhouse-gas emissions the United States is supposed to make under the protocol. Because 141 countries had ratified the international climate pact, he challenged that number of mayors to join him, a symbolic gesture to prove that not all Americans think like President George W. Bush.

In the process, Mr. Nickels, an unassuming, plain-spoken politician, who says in an interview that "I'm just a mayor," has become a national folk hero, in the quintessentially American way of coming up with the right idea at the right time.

Other mayors embraced his idea. At last count, 190 from cities big and small had signed onto his plan, representing 40 million people.

"The message that the mayors are trying to send internationally is that there is some very strong grassroots support for the United States not only joining the community of nations, but really leading the effort" on climate change, Mr. Nickels says.

Mayors who came forward from bedrock middle-American communities such as Bellevue, Neb., and Kansas City, Mo., are, for Mr. Nickels, a sure sign that "it will be inevitable that the United States will join" the effort to control greenhouse-gas emissions.

The Montreal talks are dealing with global climate change, but Mr. Nickels and others are showing that a second kind of climate change is under way, this one in U.S. politics

A record number of U.S. policy makers are at the UN conference, in part because Montreal is nearby. They are plainly at odds with the Bush administration. Unlike the official government delegation, they represent mainstream U.S. public opinion, where polls generally find about 75 per cent of respondents are concerned about climate change.

The delegates, aside from non-governmental organizations, include elected officials with their own initiatives on global warming. Some are state legislators from Massachusetts, Vermont and California.

"I want the rest of the world to see we're making real progress at the state and local level," said Jim Marzilli, a Democratic state representative from Massachusetts who is at the conference.

"It reflects the growing recognition in the United States that energy, climate change and environmental policy is a black hole in Washington."

Nine northeastern U.S. states have begun working on a regional greenhouse-gas initiative, which is led by a Republican, New York Governor George Pataki. These states aim to curb power-plant emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, by 10 per cent by 2020.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier this year adopted Kyoto-style greenhouse-gas emission reduction targets for his state.

"There's this huge chasm between the bipartisan concerns on the state and local levels, and the utter insanity of the Bush administration and a small but well-funded cluster of Republicans in the Senate and the Congress," Mr. Marzilli said.

One of the clearest signs that the U.S. mood on global warming is changing comes from a big Republican-leaning group -- hunters and anglers.

The National Wildlife Federation polled U.S. sportsmen last year and found 75 per cent wanted action against greenhouse-gas emissions, even though they voted for Mr. Bush by more than three to one. And nearly two-thirds believed global warming had already affected hunting and fishing, or would soon.

"What our work with sportsmen has shown is that even a very conservative and often Republican constituency has really taken notice of the fact that global warming is already affecting the environment in which they live," says Jeremy Symons, director of the federation's anti-global-warming campaign.

He said the administration is out of step with the country. "We're seeing Category 5 denial in Washington on this issue," he said.

Even some in the business community are beginning to say that the United States must deal with global warming.

Ceres, a Boston-based group that helps pension funds analyze whether investments are exposed to climate-change risks, says business in the United States is being harmed by the lack of clear national greenhouse-gas targets.

"More business leaders every day are stepping up to the plate, saying they presume there will be some kind of regulatory framework and the sooner they understand what that is, the easier it is for them to move forward and build the businesses," says Mindy Lubber, Ceres's president.