The ultimate goal of the environmental movement can be summed up with a photograph of North Korea at night:

In short, moonbats want the lights to go out. Britain has moved toward this highly symbolic objective by killing street lights at night, accepting higher crime rates in exchange for an insignificant reduction in harmless carbon emissions, effectively retreating so that the darkness might reassert its hegemony.

Now Japan is doing its part for the polar bears by calling for convenience stores to close at night, which would supposedly help avert global warming by reducing carbon emissions.

A spokesman for the Japan Franchise Association inappropriately attempted to inject sanity into the climate change issue:

Suppose we open at 7 a.m. and close at 11 p.m. — 16 hours instead of 24. A store couldn't shut down its refrigerators and freezers for just the 8 hours, and they'd have to have staff on hand an hour before and after closing. It would mean losing 20% of our business for an energy saving of 4%.

Clearly he's missing the point. Since global warming isn't real anyway, it doesn't matter if energy savings are significant, only that people be required to make gestures of obeisance.

The JFA points out that all-night convenience stores serve as valuable refuges for crime victims, lost children, stalked women, and others in need of help in the night. But they haven't done a thing for the polar bears allegedly menaced by global warming.

Hat tip: Watts Up With That? On a tip from Lou.