IT WAS, for a moment, as if we were in an alternative reality in which Al Gore had emerged victorious from the 2000 presidential election. “America is addicted to oil,” said George W. Bush on 31 January, in his annual State of the Union address. “So tonight, I announce the Advanced Energy Initiative – a 22 per cent increase in clean-energy research.”
Nowadays Gore is promoting his film An Inconvenient Truth, which highlights the threat posed by global warming. Bush’s words could have come straight from its script. The president’s address also heralded a 10-year doubling of spending on research…
