Big Oil Eats Itself (and us with it)

For those still convinced that global warming is a well-orchestrated hoax by environiks and primitivists - or that the evidence is "inconclusive," here are two of what we call "reluctant witnesses."

1. The Bush Administration, while lifting regulations left and right and refusing to enter into the international dialogue regarding the Kyoto pact, has stolidly maintained that warming is a virtual non-issue, only recently paying it lip service. The Pentagon, on the other hand, pragmatic as it is, has already taken it as a foregone conclusion and is crafting military strategy based on its likely disasterous effects: that weather patterns will change, droughts and floods will capriciously descend, and that water will become the "new oil" - the precious resource that will determine future political alignments. Weather will outpace terrorism as the main security threat. Take it from none other than Fortune magazine. Read the Pentagon report.

2. Big Oil itself is feeling the pinch. In Alaska, the permafrost is melting, which is making it difficult to patrol and maintain the Alaska pipeline. Large areas are being turned into marshy bogs over which heavy machinery cannot pass. Blissfully unaware of the irony of the situation, oil companies are lobbying congress to lift environmental regulations that limit heavy machinery on soft earth. In 1970, there were 200 days per year of permafrost to drive over. That number, much to the chagrin of the oil companies, has shrunk to a narrow window of 103 days.