As the World Warms

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While the ugly fact of global warming may strike a blow to our self-esteem as a species, you have put together a guide to keep us from descending into negative, cynical despair [April 9]. This roll-up-our-sleeves attitude may yet find America at its best. And thank you for keeping this overarching issue from political partisanship. Global warming is bigger than Al Gore, the Democrats and the Republicans. It is larger than all of us.
Jon Deak, NEW YORK CITY

What's the one thing we can do as a nation to help turn the tide on global warming? We can give up the feeling of entitlement that pervades our society. We feel entitled to use a disproportionate amount of the world's resources, live in larger homes and drive larger cars, always thinking that bigger is better. We drive Hummers to haul our supersized butts to the drive-through and then have the audacity to complain about the price of gas. The American Dream has become an environmental nightmare. As the greatest nation on earth, we should be leading by example.
Bob Tiedeken, WAYNE, NEW JERSEY, U.S.

Re your advice to "skip the steak": Thank you for including switching to vegetarianism as an excellent way to help the environment. As you noted, it's even better than trading a standard car for a hybrid. Your "feel-good factor" was pretty high, and rightly so. We vegetarians know that we are helping save not only the environment but animals as well, not to mention the health benefits!
Melodie Moore, MESQUITE, TEXAS, U.S.

Cutting Carbon Emissions: Idea No. 52
You listed "51 things we can do" to make a difference [April 9]. In my workplace, a green proponent started a campaign to do away with paper cups and get everyone to use coffee mugs. While convenience will take precedence over environmental correctness more often than not, it is heartening to see such issues come to the fore. Someday, TIME will insist that letters to the editor be sent only by e-mail.
Vivek Mehrotra, SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA, U.S.

There's another thing we can do to help. How about if we all cut down on greed, selfishness and impatience?
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyenste, BIR, INDIA

The risk of failing to curb global warming is too high, especially since the poorest people of the world will suffer most. Surely a Plan B is needed. Now it is time for the big thinkers' geo-engineering proposals to be brought into the frame, not to substitute for carbon dioxide reductions but to run in parallel with them.
Steve van Hagen, ST VIGOR DES MONTS, FRANCE

Fighting to Live
After reading that Elizabeth Edwards is living with metastatic breast cancer, I have to warn women that cancer still kills [April 9]. While treatments have improved greatly, without early detection of the first onset or of recurrence, cancer remains deadly. I urge all women to listen to the subtle messages your bodies send. Challenge your doctors, and do not be too afraid or too busy to make an appointment for an examination. Fund-raising commercials and cancer-center advertisements show smiling, apparently healthy patients who seem to have beaten the disease. What Edwards and TV commercials show is only one part of the picture. Cancer is a killer, and we are still engaged in battle. Early diagnosis and detection are what will keep you smiling, improve statistics and keep you alive.
Valerie Mehta, LANSDALE, PENNSYLVANIA, U.S.

In the Footsteps of R.F.K.?
The Democrats' heir to Robert Kennedy's legacy is Hillary Clinton, not Barack Obama, contrary to what William Kristol argued [April 9]. Both candidates have idealism and charisma, but only Clinton has Kennedy's toughness and commitment to economic and social justice as well as political savvy and leadership skills. In her appearance with Obama and other Democratic candidates at the March 24 health-care forum in Las Vegas, Clinton was by far the most presidential, demonstrating poise, policy expertise and political realism. And she concluded her speech with an inspiring and emotionally charged appeal for everyone to join her in the tough fight for universal health care that lies ahead. Kennedy would have been proud.
Horace Newton Barker Jr., HIXSON, TENNESSEE, U.S.

Safety in Numbers?
Your story on U.S. troops fighting insurgents in the Iraqi village of Qubah [April 9] appeared to be a routine report on the war — that is, until I saw the pictures of soldiers writing identifying numbers on an Iraqi woman's hand and an Iraqi man's neck. Those pictures not only symbolized an evil from times past but also underscored the direction this war has taken since the day when an Iraqi finger dipped in ink symbolized freedom.
David Habecker, ESTES PARK, COLORADO, U.S.

Numbering Iraqis seems like branding to me. It would be humiliating to any respectable person. Actions like this can't win the hearts and minds of the people. U.S. forces should respect Muslim religious and cultural tenets prohibiting men from touching women. If the troops need to write numbers on women, they should have the female soldiers do so.
Mohammed Shariff, CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINE, U.S.

It Pays to Be Nice
I was disgusted by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen's "No Jerks Allowed" [April 2]. Her attitude is from the aggressive 1980s. It is ridiculous to claim that there is a correlation between nastiness and giftedness. Some nasty people happen to be gifted, but it is not their nastiness that makes them so; on the contrary, it diminishes their effectiveness and costs their companies in both dollars and goodwill. I would not want to have a Steve Jobs or anyone on my team who "scars" his employees. Warren Buffett and Jimmy Carter, for example, do not find it necessary to be nasty to be effective leaders. Enough of promoting bullying. Life is way too short.
Lisa Quinn, VILLENNES SUR SEINE, FRANCE