I periodically like to flatter myself by thinking that I'm intelligent enough to blog about things more important than celebrity gossip. But I find that news stories today fall into one of three categories; 1) things that are too depressing to blog about, 2) things that are way over my head, or 3) celebrity gossip, classified as "entertainment news". As one of my primary interests is making fun of people, I usually end up putting way too much energy towards the third category.

However, there were a few news pieces today with promising environmental news - something that gives me more feel-good vibes than the "celebrity don'ts" sections:

1) From the environmental armageddon that is the USA, CNN is reporting a record decline in driving. Americans drove 11 billion fewer miles in March 2008 than they did in March 2007. This probably has a lot more to do with gas prices than environmental concern, but positive results regardless.

2) The LCBO is going to stop providing plastic bags to customers. Before you whine about it and tell me the plastic bags are recylable, let me provide you with an overload of information that only an idiot would argue against (Chris, go ahead):

• The LCBO is still going to provide paper bags and cardboard boxes, so you can still be a boozehound and buy more than you can carry in your two hands.
• The manufacturing of plastic bags uses 4% of our oil supply - oh, are we short on that non-renewable natural resource?!
• Only 1-3% of plastic bags are actually recycled (putting recyclable items in recycling containers seems to be unfathomably difficult for some people)
• Beer comes in boxes with handles.
• If you used those plastic bags to pick up doggie poop, Home Depot now supplies biodegradable bags for that.

CBC has a pretty interesting and informative "in depth" look at plastic bags that you can check out if you're still cynical. Also, one of my comments got featured in the LCBO article, so I'm feeling pretty special about that!