Hey, isn’t this great news:

Oil spills in Arctic ice may be easier to clean than those in open water, according to research funded by oil companies that are seeking offshore exploration in federal waters….

…The researchers said they conducted the test by discharging thousands of gallons of crude oil in broken and slushy ice off the northern coast of Norway - such experiments have never been approved in U.S. waters.

Wait a minute… isn’t polar ice melting much faster than we initially thought? And the biggest emissions producers in the world are still dragging their heels about changing their ways?

So at the rate the ice is melting, this study really won’t make that much of a difference in the long run, will it? Thanks, Norway!

Yes, we’re still going to need oil and gas for a while - it is the dominant form of energy right now, and the alternatives either aren’t well supported or, like ethanol, cause a whole new set of environmental issues.

But we can still take steps to make our energy use more efficient - like using public transportation, rather than showing off doing burnouts in a gas-guzzling Hummer. And we can be careful with the limited resources we’ve got - like researching more fuel-efficient vehicles, rather than dumping thousands of gallons of oil into the Arctic just to prove something pointless.

If we can drain away the planet’s supply of oil and gas a little more slowly, maybe it’ll buy us a little more time to come up with an actual sustainable solution that won’t destroy us.