Bi-polar disorder

It is a full seven days since the polar bear was grudgingly placed on America’s endangered species list. Protection came with the damning caveat that it should not impede development.
 
Now, exactly 168 hours after these limited safeguards were agreed, the US government is being sued for imposing them. And guess who is doing the suing: the governor of Alaska, whose electorate just wants to keep on drilling.
 
Experts forecast that two-thirds of polar bears will be gone by 2050 because so much Arctic ice will have melted. The remaining ice could disappear entirely within 80 years, US scientists have warned.
 
For many years, President Bush’s administration refused to acknowledge climate change and particularly man’s role in causing it. Listing the polar bear at least suggested an acceptance by the government that temperatures were rising.
 
But denial continues in one of the oil capitals of the world. This comes as a British company tells of the massive savings it has made for some of the world’s biggest industries by reducing their energy use.
 
In a letter in today’s FT, the director of Sustainability and Procurement says his firm has cut customers’ costs by £930,000 in five years, by using greener equipment in buildings. Plenty more orders should soon be coming his way.

It has long been time to move on from our obsession with oil but some of us still don’t seem able. Reluctance is inevitable if your livelihood depends on oil and your politicians neither provide nor encourage alternatives.

But instead of insisting we suck our oil reserves dry then ravage untapped sources in adjacent but protected parts of Alaska - and even the south-east England’s South Downs where oil has also been found - we should be demanding our governments, and our big industries, recognise climate change not just for its dangers but also its opportunities.

The policies of today will win the next election but the elections of tomorrow will be hi-jacked by climate change. Use it or lose it, Mr President. Or so does the polar bear.

The FT letter is here

And news on the polar bear here