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The phrase “Nixon to China” has become so common a description of bold, unexpected leadership, which even one’s opponents could not initiate, that it should become a single noun: Nixontochina. Or perhaps a verb, as in, “President Bush could really chinix the issue of global warming.”

And so he could, and indeed might, if current rumors prove credible.

Sound farfetched?

Perhaps no more so than a former professional bodybuilder becoming governor of the most populous state — and then signing the most far-reaching American legislation yet that’s aimed at preventing a climate crisis.

For whatever else you think about President Bush and President Nixon, both could play a shrewd political game.

Bush may be hearkening back to the late 1960s, when rising sentiment over environmental problems led to the first Earth Day in 1970 and a host of new laws designed to safeguard the public. Nixon gained far more credibility by leading the parade than he ever could have by trying to stop it — and he simultaneously defused opposition, as no one among the Democrats might have.

As this administration works to burnish its accomplishments and craft a legacy, stories have been circulating about an impending policy shift regarding climate change. And what a change it would be.

Bush, having once advocated — during his 2000 campaign — reducing global warming emissions from power plants, quickly backed away from the idea once elected.

Since then he’s put his faith in voluntary measures and the hope of future technologies. The Government Accountability Office recently called the first a failure, and the second remains even less accessible than a “hydrogen highway.”

Meanwhile, carbon emissions have continued to rise and everyone from the National Academy of Sciences to the American Meteorological Society has become more certain of the danger of climate change inaction.

The President and his advisers can read emissions trends as well as anyone, whatever their public statements. Perhaps the rumors are just wishful thinking, but the White House has certainly seen the good press garnered by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for boldly confronting the issue of global warming.

Also visible are the multiple states joining a coalition to cap and trade greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, state attorneys general suing EPA to regulate carbon dioxide and still more states following California’s lead on trying to restrict global warming pollution from cars.

As oil prices ride a roller coaster and defense hawks fret about our reliance on oil from unstable or unfriendly regimes, the confluence of energy, security and climate becomes more and more clear. The costs of inaction, from diminished water supplies and increased wildfires in the West to stronger hurricanes and more flooding on the Atlantic coast, will eventually sway even ideological skeptics.

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By ANGELA ANDERSON