Gordy pointed me to a hilarious Slashdot comment; it's been awhile since I've read a funny as opposed to stupid Slashdot|Digg|Reddit comment.
First, complaints about the extreme weather found in the US…
This is probably a really dumb question, but as I Brit I have never figured out why settlers chose to live in America. I mean, the climate seems to spend half the year trying to KILL you. I've been to Boston in January and got snowed in my hotel with 6-foot/2-metre snowdrifts that arrived in ONE NIGHT. I've been to Houston in May and been stuck in my hotel lest the 48c/115f heat burn me to a frazzle. I went to California in February and they had to close the coastal highway because the sea had smashed it up.
Then a nod to all the dangerous things you might encounter in the US…
Then there's the wildlife. We don't have any dangerous wildlife, we shot it all, whereas you lot appear to have a country full of poisonous plants and poisonous/pointy-toothed predators. If the American weather isn't trying to kill you, there's some ivy or crocodile waiting to give you grievous pain.
And finally the comment ends, beautifully on topic…
When it comes down to energy conservation, do you never hover your finger over the thermostat, hesitate and think "Wouldn't it be a lot more energy efficient if I lived somewhere else entirely?".
Brilliant, just brilliant.
Update: A funny reply to the dangerous things
Yes, and after doing so, the Europeans invented environmentalism and inflicted it on us, inhibiting our ongoing efforts to do the same. I expect Rousseau wouldn't have gone rambling on about how fabulous the State of Nature was if wolves were trying to eat him…
And now we have bobcats mauling joggers in California. No doubt the grizzlies and polar bears will be pitching in soon, as soon as they figure out that we've stopped shooting at them.
