Didn't have much time for reading The Corner this week, but Anne of Idaho sends along an excerpt from a new carbon emissions story Jonah mentioned, followed by her own comments (with which I heartily agree). According to a memo on beach bonfires from the Seattle Parks and Recreation Dept. released this Thursday, "The overall policy question for the Board is whether it is good policy for Seattle Parks to continue public beach fires when the carbon ... emissions produced by thousands of beach fires per year contributes to global warming."
Anne: This can be likened to a dieter wiping sweet peas off the list of things he can eat while retaining ice cream and cake. Or a husband coming home with a set of new golf clubs after telling his wife she needs to have fewer manicures in order to help with household economies. Doesn’t anyone on these boards and committees and government entities ever raise the issue of rationality? There were nearly one million acres of forest land burned in Idaho last year due to past government policies about logging. I hardly think a few thousand beach fires, or even a few million, matter.
Andrew Stuttaford on NRO had this to say about the world's New Religion: The Seattle Sacrifice An entertaining story...and yet another example of how certain aspects of environmentalism are, in some ways, taking on the characteristics of a religion. You can read the banning of the beach bonfires both as ritual sacrifice and as no less ritual renunciation of pleasure. The whole thing is, in all likelihood, futile, but it generates a comfortably shared illusion that 'something' is being done, as well, of course, as providing an excellent opportunity for those in charge to demonstrate their moral superiority and for those beneath them to be bossed about. In its own remarkably petty way, it's perfect.
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