Whenever I see a headline like the one quoted above, I always go searching for some hint of irony in the story. Woefully, London’s Telegraph doesn’t do irony.

Rather, Tele contributor Roger Howard asserts with grave conviction that while climate change is “unmistakable,” while its effects are “depressing and disturbing,” that it’s great to see the Arctic ice melting because now BP – that paragon of responsible environmental stewardship – can get into bed with the Russian oil giant, Rosneft.

It’s as though the resident of a burning house, madly in search of a fire extinguisher, stops to celebrate instead the discovery of another pack of matches. “Oh goody! Climate change is bad, but the ‘silver lining’ is that now two of the biggest climate culprits on the planet can work together to make it worse.”

Seriously.