In a 2003 poll, global warming ranked ninth out of 10 possibilities among environmental concerns that worried Americans. A year later, global warming was again ninth out of 10 choices. Both years, global warming barely finishing ahead of acid rain and well behind concerns such as water pollution and soil contamination.

"Last year at this time, Gallup reported that global warming was 'a bit of a yawn' to most Americans. Today, one might say the public is practically dozing," senior Gallup Poll editor Lydia Saad, wrote of the 2004 poll.

In another set of Gallup questions about Kyoto, the largest number of poll respondents said they had "no opinion" about whether the United States should have signed up with the global warming pact or not.

Redford, a long-time environmental champion, has been coping with such ambivalence for a long time. It was in the '80s that the movie star first began hearing about global warming. The prospect alarmed him enough that in 1989 he organized a meeting of scientists, artists, environmentalists and industrialists at his Sundance Resort. He called the gathering Greenhouse Glasnost.

The group discussed global warming and fired off letters to the U.S. and Soviet presidents, suggesting that national politicians take action to stem the tide.

Nothing ever came of those letters, and Redford felt that his efforts had been in vain.

Considering Redford's Glasnost dejection, Anderson contacted the movie mogul and said it was time to revisit the issue. This time instead of targeting national leaders, the pair decided to go local, inviting mayors from around the county to hear expert discussions about what cities can to do curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Much planning for the summit has been left to ICLEI, which is committed to taking politics and scientific debate out of global warming talks, Wyman said. Despite having Gore as a summit speaker, Wyman says there will be no Bush-bashing or scientific debates about what is causing global warming.

The summit will be practical, not theory or politics. Mayors will receive the tools and ideas they need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their cities, Wyman said.

Many of those tools have been in part developed by Anderson's administration. Under the mayor's guidance, Salt Lake City has replaced interior and exterior light fixtures with more energy-efficient models at certain city buildings. With those changes the city saves $33,000 in energy costs annually and has used $12,000 of that savings to purchase clean wind power from Wyoming.

Many city vehicles have been converted to natural gas models, and the municipal landfill works to capture methane gas emissions and reuse it as energy.