Marc Morano’s latest e-mail missive features an item from the U.K.’s Catholic Herald entitled “Green ideology ‘as deadly as Communism,’ ” which is worth a read.

The article includes this picture of a furry someone protesting the airport expansion at Heathrow:

Planet Gore has noted again and again the polar bear’s mythic ubiquity. And today brings yet more examples, one kindly suggested to me by the ever-more intrusive Google Ads: National Grid’s website, Floe.

There, you’ll find a cartoon polar bear on a shrinking ice floe, surrounded by shearing glaciers, and looking very serious indeed. But take heart! You can befriend her cuddly cartoon cub–I named mine “Dead Meat”–and take part in a host of virtual activities all designed to increase his overall “wellness.” Ah, the emotional power of pointless action.

Feed Dead Meat some fish to increase his “health.” If I answer questions correctly about what’s better for the environment–Playing games on an Energy Star laptop computer? or Playing tag outside with your friends?–I can get more fish for hungry little Dead Meat. (Alas, baby seals are not a menu option; but fortunately, when you run out of fish, your own wellness is not in jeopardy). You can bat around a beach ball with your cub to increase his “happiness.” You can also hold up a punching bag for some playful sparring–that makes Dead Meat happy, too. And you can tickle him with a feather or stroke him with a grooming brush to increase his “friendship” with you. Uh-huh. Don’t try this at home.

At the end of a long day of play, the sun goes down so Dead Meat can take a nap. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to offer Dead Meat an icy cold Coke to keep him up a while longer.

But enough with the fun and games for your now-more-ignorant kiddies. The serious part of the Floe website is in helping to decrease your carbon emissions (and to save you money!) You can calculate the pounds of carbon (and buckets of cash!) you can save by using Energy-Star appliances and CFL lightbulbs, all of which savings help rebuild poor little Dead Meat’s icy environs. As of this writing, some 23,000 people are a part of the Floe community, having pledged to save almost 41,000,000 pounds of carbon. Together, we have helped to turn Dead Meat and his momma’s little ice floe into a mighty iceberg (threatening a nearby ocean liner, I might add).

What really bothers me is that National Grid–the former Keyspan–is my gas company. Presumably, some portion of my utility charges went to pay for this pointless emotive exercise.