Pretty Is as Pretty Does

The number of people who think that drilling for oil in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge will help solve our immediate oil crisis (or even our long term one) is high enough that if they all stopped driving, we’d be fine. One of the helpful myths that keeps that idea alive irks me to distraction: The idea that it’s okay to drill in ANWR because it isn’t pretty. (Jonah Goldberg is a real leader in this field, having mined this particular “mosquito-plagued tundra” since 2001.) I have to admit there’s a certain appeal to this logic, especially if applied more globally. Like, you know what’s a real eyesore? Houston. Sell it for scrap and then we’ll drive to the mall.