Animals need box-office mojo

The Los Angles Times reports on Bush's decision to create the waters around Hawaii into the world's largest marine reserve:

A turning point came in April, when Bush sat through a 65-minute private White House screening of a PBS documentary that unveiled the beauty of — and perils facing — the archipelago's aquamarine waters and its nesting seabirds, sea turtles and sleepy-eyed monk seals, all threatened by extinction.

The film seemed to catch Bush's imagination, according to senior officials and others in attendance. The president popped up from his front-row seat after the screening; congratulated filmmaker Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the late underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau; and urged the White House staff to get moving on protecting these waters.

It's great that we are preserving the marine life around Hawaii. But I wish our conservation policy had a more rational basis than what niffty movie George Bush happened to have seen. Don't we end up saving only land and animals that look entertaining on film to a not-very-bright guy?