In a side-story accompanying WaPo’s Cancun coverage today the resident geniuses appear to call greenhouse gases (the two leading of which are water vapor, followed by carbon dioxide), toxic.

The [Kyoto] accord doesn’t make developing nations responsible for reducing emissions because they haven’t produced much, but they are encouraged to preserve natural resources and invest in alternative energy to lower future emissions.

It all looked great on paper, but not so much in the real world. The biggest polluters, the United States and China – which account for about a quarter of the world’s people and nearly half of its toxic emissions – are not bound by the agreement.

Note: they’re not beyond editing up their mistakes, as ‘haven’t produced’ in the very close vicinity of ‘toxic’ was originally ‘haven’t produce’ in my print edition. This comes on the heels of President Obama twice saying in speeches, to no comment by WaPo, that carbon dioxide ‘poison[s] the water we drink’.

Right, guys. But, yes, I know, I know. ‘The science is settled.’