BOSTON -- I spent last week on assignment in Portland, Oregon. Smaller than both Seattle and San Francisco, Portland is a gem. A very green gem. And not merely because of its temperate climate, nearly 40 inches of annual rainfall, or the abundance of trees left to stand on its city streets.

Portland is a world leader—and way in front of all other American cities—when it comes to grappling with climate change, global warming, and general environmental awareness. And they love to talk about it. Others love to write about it. In fact, renewable resources (like trees) will need renewing considering how many articles about Portland have been published.

All of which, on paper, can become very boring very fast. But what might be boring on the ground can become oddly engrossing when you’re stuck in a seat at 32,000 feet and have six hours to get through.

Did you know that Portland has reduced its carbon emissions below the level (1990) called for in the Kyoto Protocol? Or that it counts the highest number of bicycle commuters of any city in the country? Or that—what a shock!—Portland has more hybrid vehicles registered than any other U.S. metro area? You get the idea.

But all well-honed cynicism aside, the week was genuinely revealing about what Americans can do—in this case, Oregonians—when they are determined to face facts about climate change.

The New York Times has called Portland “America’s environmental laboratory.” And there is a real sense for a visitor (minus the white lab coat) of seeing what results can be achieved with genuinely bold and innovative initiatives. For instance, Portlanders enthusiastically and scrupulously recycle. (Oregon pioneered the nation’s first bottle bill.) Steadily-growing numbers of them take public transportation into the city, and the trains are clean, fuel-efficient, fast, and plentiful. The city captures its abundant rainfall and processes its runoff. Portland requires new buildings to meet rigorous green standards. They have dramatically reduced the city’s so-called carbon “footprint.” How green does it get in Portland? One firebrand city commissioner (the aptly named Sam Adams) is pushing for curbside composting. And here I’m still feeling green about merely separating paper and plastic!

Oh, and the city is booming economically.

All of which made the return from Portland this week and the news from Washington even more discouraging.

In an astounding interview with NPR, NASA’s chief, Michael Griffin seemed to question the very significance of dealing at all with global warming.

“I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with,” Griffin said.

Say again, sir?

Many of the nation’s leading scientists excoriated Griffin. “His remarks show that he is either totally clueless or a deep, anti-global warming idealogue,” said Jerry Mahlman, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Others called for Griffin to resign.

President Bush, meanwhile, inching out of his own characteristic denial, took baby steps when urgent, meaningful strides are called for. While avoiding any specific, mandatory guidelines, Bush suggested a vague “long-term global goal” for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, and called on the other major industrial nations to join in negotiations that would hopefully conclude in some type of agreement by the end of next year.

Keep fiddling, Nero.

Never mind that just such an agreement (Kyoto) was there for the U.S. to sign almost 10 years ago. Never mind that the host of the upcoming G8 conference (Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany) has already suggested a specific timetable for reductions (the U.S. refused). Never mind that the spectacle of America doing nothing on emissions is made more spectacular by the fact that it is the world’s largest polluter. And the president suggests….meetings. Maybe, not to get too crazy, a timetable. Maybe we’ll all agree on something 18 months from now. Which also happens to be when a new U.S. president will take office. Maybe he or she will feel somewhat more compelled to help save the planet.

“Mr. Bush should get a briefing on Portland’s experience, and accept that we don’t need to surrender to global warming.”

That was Nicholas Kristoff writing in the New York Times two years ago. Before President Bush went off to yet another G8 summit where, yet again, he brushed off the appeals of other world leaders for more firm action on global warming.

Just like he will do next week.

And two years from now the earth will still be warming. Fortunately by then, our denier-in-chief will be cooling his heels in Crawford. That’s one timetable I am counting the days to.