Obama told reporters that although he wants the country to move completely away from fossil fuels at some point, domestic oil and natural gas production is still necessary in the short term.

via Obama defends Arctic drilling decision | TheHill.

When we frame this in terms like “short term” and “long term”,  we get a good indication that the two have already overlapped,  and that the only “long term” worth considering now is the amount climate change mayhem to which we are sentencing “long term” generations by refusing to recognize that NOW is the time to act,  that NOW presents us with the choice of either avoiding a far worse future than that to which we have already committed ourselves by our delay.

The problem with  this climate crisis we face is that “Long term” thinking requires short term action to do serious reversals.  If we don’t,  feedbacks will only accelerate (or increase the acceleration,  since it is already accelerating- which is the nature of feedback loops).  Obama and his administration have chosen the political path, which is never going to allow us to seriously face this.