Both later ran unsuccessfully for President in their respective countries -- Lalonde in 1981 -- and both went on to further high office, with Lalonde serving as France's environment minister from 1991 to 1992, and subsequently as French climate change ambassador under President Nicolas Sarkozy.  

Both men are now deeply embroiled in pushing for the U.N.-sponsored  agenda of radical economic reorganization to combat climate change: Lalonde as one of Rio + 20's top organizers, and Kerry, as the self-described "leading advocate in the United States Senate for action to address international climate change,"  who delivered a thunderous, stem-winding speech against climate-change "denial" and in support of Rio + 20 on Tuesday, just before the Brazil meeting began.

Yet remarkably, neither Senator Kerry's office, the U.S. State Department, nor U.N. staff working with Lalonde at