Year-ender 2007

…It really is amazingly cheap to buy the U.S. Congress. Since 1990, fossil fuel industries, logging interests, agribusiness companies and the transportation industry have given federal politicians only about $750 million, but that money plays such a key role in funding their election campaigns that on the question of climate change Congress usually toes the line. With no early prospect of campaign finance reform, there is no reason to believe that the next Congress will be very different in its behavior.

George W. Bush will no longer be there in 2009, but even a more climate-friendly president will probably still face a sold-out Congress. The crisis has finally been acknowledged around the world, but we may not be anywhere near a coordinated global response yet.


The other event with truly global impact was the soaring price of oil, which has been hovering at just below $100 per barrel for the past four months. It may go back down, of course, but it is unlikely ever to drop below $50 again and it is just as likely to rise as to fall. Indeed, many people suspect that we are now at or near