Conspicuous Consumption

While America, sandbagged by theocrats and Hummers, is only now emerging from the ridiculous debate about the existence of global warming, the New York Times reported this week that plenty of other countries are looking to economically exploit the imminent thawing of the northern polar ice cap. Russia, Canada, Denmark, and Norway have all begun to jockey for rights to explore the arctic seabed. This past August, the Russians made the first voyage to the North Pole in a vessel unaided by an icebreaker. Within 20 years, the Canadians estimate, the legendary Northwest Passage will open to regular seasonal navigation, knowledge that would have brought great relief to British explorer Sir John Franklin. These countries have all made confident investments in the polar thaw while the Bush administration repeatedly implied that the jury is still out on global warming. According to the United States Geological Survey, a quarter of the world's untapped oil and gas lies beneath the Arctic Sea.

In a 1979 report--a quarter of a century ago--the U.S. Dep't of Energy stated that "it is the sense of the scientific community that carbon dioxide from unrestrained combustion of fossil fuels potentially is the most important environmental issue facing mankind." But Bush's EPA ruled in 2003 that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, reversing the position of the Clinton administration. Here is a brief timeline of other recent statements by our combuster-in-chief:
October 2000: "I don’t think we know the solution to global warming yet and I don’t think we’ve got all the facts." (I mean, if the world is round, half of us would fall off.)
June 2001: "We do not know how much effect natural fluctuations in climate may have had on warming." (She asked for it.)
February 2002: "Addressing global climate change will require a sustained effort over many generations. My approach recognizes that economic growth is the solution." (At least we now know the solution, but this is akin to advocating viagra to prevent rape.)
September 2002: "We need an energy bill that encourages consumption." (per O.E.D.: con·sump·tion n. 4.a. A wasting disease.)
February 2003: "A year ago, I challenged American businesses to develop new, voluntary initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." (Probably more effective than challenging hurricanes to develop voluntary initiatives to devastate only Cuba.)
October 2004: "[The Kyoto Treaty was] one of these deals where in order to be popular in the halls of Europe you sign a treaty." (Leave it to a cheerleader to play the popular card.)
May 2005: "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
September 2005: "Americans should be prudent in their use of energy during the course of the next few weeks. Don't buy gas if you don't need it." (Bush's first-ever lip service to conservation, post-Katrina; sounds like guzzler's lent.)

Global warming is very much a reality to the world's energy interests. The imminent exploitation of the once inaccessible arctic seems doubly cruel given that climate change, a phenomenon attributable to excessive use of fossil fuels, is the force that will drive the arctic's transformation from stark frozen wilderness to hydrocarbon hotbed. Ironically, the United States cannot yet lay claim to any of this new frontier because, due to years of largely Republican opposition, it has yet to ratify the Law of the Sea treaty. But as long as conservation remains a "personal virtue" as characterized by oil advocate Dick Cheney, and not a national goal, the U.S. will want to claim a slice of the polar pie.