Mark Casey Online

Nice little piece on MSNBC.com today, even if it is a little naive.

Apparently someone on their news staff was really surprised to learn that a lot of “normal” people out here are concerned about the environment when they shop.  Among the tidbits is this lead:

Here’s the type of conundrum that Wendy Richardson often finds herself debating: If she is three miles from her office and realizes she has forgotten her reusable water bottle, is it more environmentally friendly to drive her Toyota Prius hybrid back to get it, or to walk 100 feet to a convenience store and buy a bottle of water?

Most people wouldn’t even think twice about buying the bottle of water, then tossing it in the trash. But Richardson is the type of person who tries, with everything she does, to literally help save the world.

Wow.  What a weirdo!

Okay, granted.  That story is both a little lame and a little overzealous.  But the rationale remains:  what a strange thing it is for people to go out of their way to buy ‘Green’ products.  Otherwise, it’s a pretty good piece, and I guess it’s meant to speak more to people who think “Going Green” is totally lame than it is to people who actually do it.

In the latest development in the battle to not worry about anything, a federal judge has ruled that using active sonar in areas known to be inhabited by whales is not exempt from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

President Bush had initially sought to make such activity, which has proven harmful to whales, a non-issue. The judge disagrees. And as with all things this ludicrous, it really doesn’t have to be an issue in the first place–the navy has countless options in their training when it comes to avoiding whales. One such option is low-frequency sonar scanning before their training begins, which harmlessly searches for whales in a given area. It works like this:

No whales = no problem.

It wasn’t a setback for Bush or the Navy, just to people (like Bush and the Navy) who celebrate the idea of not thinking about anything but their own agendas.