More than 100,000 people took to the streets in more than 30 countries Saturday, in the first world-wide demonstration to press for action to combat global warming.

The marches - timed to put pressure on the most important international climate change negotiations since the agreement of the Kyoto Protocol eight years ago - took place against a background of a blizzard of new research showing the heating of the planet is seriously affecting the world sooner than scientists predicted.

White House spokesperson Freon J. Bilgewater responded to criticism of inaction by the Bush Administration on global warming as "hysteria mounted by radicals like those who opposed the Catholic Church and claimed the earth wasn’t flat." When reminded that the earth, in fact, is not flat, that Galileo was correct, and was tortured for his beliefs, Bilgewater asked the reporters if they’d "like to go on a little CIA plane flight", before cackling maniacally. 

The White House later issued a "clarification" saying Bilgewater meant his comments merely as a jocular aside.

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