North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

I believe that the earth is warming; I believe that the sea level is rising; I believe that climate change is at least partially due to anthropomorphic activities such as burning wood around a campfire; I believe that the earth has been warming consistently since the last global maximum, about 12,000 years ago.

I believe that cow flatulence and the melting of permafrost emit methane and probably other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere; I believe that if people who live next to the ocean become aware of the fact that in a hundred years or so the sea level will rise two or three feet; they will move inland a little; I believe that if the subways of Manhattan are flooded by the odd nor'easter, commuters will take the bus.

I believe that no matter how outrageous the current administration is with regard to the development of resources; the bums will be voted out of office next year and the next administration will make things worse.

You can call me a "true believer" if you like, or a cynic, or maybe just a graybeard; but I have yet to hear the first candidate for POTUS say, imply or even acquiesce in the concept that we need to mine for metals and coal, drill for oil and gas and harvest timber in Alaska. Income disparity, immigration reform, terrorism in the Middle East, income tax reform, black lives, gay rights, universal health care, free post-secondary education and I forget how many other pressing issues are all hugely important; however, for me cutting down trees, breaking rocks and pumping oil have the edge.

I note with interest that our tax dollars were turned into a glossy report by NOAA last week entitled "Explaining Extreme Events of 2014 From a Climate Perspective." According to the report 32 groups of scientists from around the world investigated 28 individual extreme climatic events in 2014 and, after much deliberation determined that seventeen of them were most likely influenced by deep breathers exhaling carbon dioxide and the rest, such as bad winter weather along the Atlantic seaboard were due to "natural variability" [read: deep breathers inhaling].

I also note with interest that our Supreme Leader last week released a memorandum to the secretaries of Defense, the Interior, Agriculture, and the administrators of the EPA and NOAA on the subject of "Mitigating Impacts on Natural Resources from Development."

The memorandum is a classy wish list requiring the U.S. Forest Service to develop a handbook that addresses "avoidance, minimization, and compensation for impacts on natural resources" in the forests and a minimization regulation. It also directs the Bureau of Land Management to "finalize a mitigation policy that will bring consistency to the application of avoidance, minimization, and compensatory actions or development activities and projects impacting public lands and resources."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not spared. In addition to developing a revised mitigation policy, it also must finalize a policy for taking "action to conserve species in advance of potential future listing under the Endangered Species Act."

Of course, there's more - much more - in the President's "memorandum," but the fun part is that the foregoing mitigation policies are, for the most part, required to be in place within one year; and, kiddies, guess what happens exactly one year from now. Election Day! Yep, we're talking legacy here.

To be sure, the entrenched apparatchiks will work with all their hearts and souls to meet the deadline, even if it does leak over into Inauguration Day in January 2017. You can count on the folks in Interior to be finalizing the associated implementation documents as they clean out their desks.

One other tiny problem sits on the horizon. If the authors of these mitigation policies come up with their final product just before they head for the ivy towers of academia or a six-figure job with a green lobbying group, who will make sure that the policies aren't rescinded or allowed to fall by the wayside?

That problem, fortunately, will be solved by the 100 or so minions who, true to faith, will "burrow in" to the professional civil service.

In the best tradition, even as we speak, mid-level political appointees are scurrying about trying to find a quiet perch where they can weather the storm of a new administration. If successful, these new public servants will be able to wait quietly in the wings, doing as they are told, with the sure and certain knowledge that they cannot be fired or demoted or reprimanded for "doing their job" even if they do it in a way that bears a striking resemblance to the Obama Doctrine.

These hearty souls will keep their heads down and their mouths shut until opportunity knocks. Then they will spring into action, making sure that pipelines don't get built (how many permits does a trans-Alaska gas pipeline need?); trees don't get cut; and coal doesn't get loaded onto trans-Pacific tankers.

I believe in global warming; and I believe in the Tooth Faerie; but I do not believe in the Easter Bunny anymore, because I understand that Santa Claus ate him for Christmas dinner last year.