A question of priorities

As I read the good news about the deal for North Korean denuclearization (eventually, we hope), I thought to myself, "wouldn't it be hilarious to start complaining about it because in exchange for shutting down their nuclear plants, the North Koreans get shipments of oil, which will contribute to global warming?" Well, imagine my surprise at discovering that someone actually thinks this way. Well, okay, it's only one letter to the editor, and no one knows better than me the sort of cranks and whackos that the Globe prints on their letters page, but still. Sometimes I'm convinced that the environmental movement is more like a religion than a political movement: it sees the world in such black and white terms that George Bush himself would feel at home. Anyway, aren't environmentalists always complaining about nuclear power? While I disagree with those objections when the plants are operating in developed countries, I make an exception when it's North Koreans running the plants.

Oh, and for those who want to read about that deal, as usual, I like Slate's Fred Kaplan on the subject: "President George W. Bush finally got a nuclear deal with North Korea because he finally started negotiating like Bill Clinton."