Green fatigue

It goes like this:

(someone) I see you drive a Prius, that’s great!

(me) Thanks!

You will find that people in Seattle are very concerned with the environment, unlike in other places.

I found there was a high degree of environmentalism in New York.

Oh, really?

And sometimes I read stupid things like these:

• You should never eat meat, and become a vegetarian. Do it for the environment.

• Bottled water is evil. Filtered tap water tastes great, anyway.

• The problem is India and China becoming wealthier. We must tutor them.

• Don’t eat mammals, they have souls. Mollusks are OK, they’re too small to have souls.

The last item comes from Michael Pollan’s famous Omnivore’s Dilemma - yes, really. I like to think I’m pretty green, but I’m getting tired of all the sanctimony I get fed. I will continue to eat red meat. I will continue to eat fish. I tried the water filter, and Seattle tap water still tastes nasty. I don’t know why nobody worries about plants’s souls, or killing plants. And I continue to be surprised that over-population is rarely mentioned as an environmental threat.

Here is a cartoon from the wonderful xkcd that got a laugh out of me: