Letters

How

We can no longer ignore the maladies of our host planet; we are her guests only as long as we respect the rules of the house.
CAROLYN M. POISSANT
Breckenridge, Colo.

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"How to save the earth" was relevant, timely and interesting [SPECIAL REPORT, Aug. 26]. The corporations and organizations that are implementing positive environmental change must have the support of the general population. This is difficult to achieve, especially in the U.S., with our profligate use of the earth's resources. Unless Americans realize that bigger is not better, environmental improvement will not occur. We need to get rid of our giant single-family houses and gas-guzzling suvs, for a start. While your report was very positive, I am pessimistic about the future of the earth.
MICHAEL D. LEE
Wheeling, Ill.

It won't take a huge increase in population to bring about the destruction of the planet. Americans have shown that even modest population growth causes devastating overconsumption. As the materialistic aspirations of the middle class spread to the developing world, no amount of technology will save our species from extinction. There has to be a generation of people who see merit in consuming less than their parents and who are willing to set an example for their children. Saving the earth is not about government regulation; it is about personal responsibility.
DOUG DEANGELIS
Ipswich, Mass.

This "green century" stuff is all one-sided propaganda. Why don't you do a story on the damage the environmental activists are doing to our property rights and individual liberties?
BARRY BRIGHT
Lebanon, Ky.

Perhaps the biggest blunder the proactive environmentalist folks made was to coin the phrase "Save the Earth." It should be "Save the Human Race." We are egotistical to believe that humans can kill the earth. The earth will survive. It will be mankind that will not endure.
CHRISTI E. GEORGE
Fayetteville, Ark.

The common thread running through all environmental problems is overpopulation. Modern medicine and agriculture have made it possible for a larger percentage of our species to reach adulthood, reproduce and live to a ripe old age than at any other time in our history. At the same time, we are consuming more of the world's resources than our ancestors. Only by limiting population growth can we control these problems.
JOHN N. VOLANTE
Newton, Mass.

Mankind must realize that growth should not outpace the ability of a natural resource to replenish itself within its given time frame. The human species has grown arrogant. Nature does not run on our clock; it has its own.
HARRIETT E. BOWIE
Ruckersville, Va.

I am often discouraged by the condition of our planet and its rate of decline, but conservationist Jane Goodall, in her piece "The Power of One," balanced her concerns with optimism and the idea that we can each make a difference. In my little way (biking to work, recycling more, consuming less), I will try.
JEAN COCKBURN
Issaquah, Wash.

Enviro-Friendly Economics

Is it possible to reconcile economic and environmental goals [SPECIAL REPORT, Aug. 26]? Yes. Though pollution and global warming are the legacies of systems designed without thought for the environmental consequences, technology holds the solution. Properly channeled, technological change could be the key to environmental sustainability and economic productivity.
OWEN CYLKE
Bethesda, Md.

More than technological or supply- side solutions, we need policies that affect the demand for environmentally destructive activities and products. It helps to juxtapose the "substance of things hoped for"--the available technologies and environmental goals — with the "evidence of things not seen"--the trillions of small, daily, individual, human choices that collectively lead over time to much better results for life on this planet.
JEFFREY N. JONES
West Los Angeles, Calif.

Saving Afghanistan

Re U.S. efforts to "Save Afghanistan" by building a national army out of ragtag ordinary Afghans, most of whom are illiterate [WORLD, Aug. 26]: Instead of sending in more weapons and Green Berets to train these men, how about sending in educators, doctors, agronomists, entrepreneurs and engineers? Have them meet with the Afghan warlords and, in exchange for the destruction of private weapons caches, offer skills and resources to rebuild homes, businesses, schools and clinics. (This might work for Iraq too.)
ANN MORRISSETT DAVIDON
Philadelphia

Drifting on the Canals

In writing about the appeal of rail travel [VIEWPOINT, Aug. 26], Lance Morrow went from Boswell and Johnson in their 10 m.p.h. post chaise in 1776 to train travel in the early 1800s, skipping over the intervening period when canals were the dominant form of transport. There was an extensive waterway system in the British Isles, and these canals have been wonderfully restored and serve the tourist trade.