Environment
Carol Browner, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, is quoted in The Times (July 24, re Lake Tahoe) as saying that “we do not have a conflict between a strong economy and a healthy environment.” This remark has roots in wishful thinking, but not in observation.
Every human activity that derives benefits from fossil fuels, metals, manufactured chemicals, nonsustainable harvesting--i.e., just living in contemporary civilization--damages the world to some extent. The population explosion intensifies the degradation of our home.
It may be comforting to tiptoe around this realization, and it may be impossible to take effective remedial action, but Homo sapiens ought, at least, to know where we are going.
WALTER SPATZ
Pacific Palisades
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