Pet Food Exposé Grows
The November 3, 1997 Wall Street Journal ran a wonderful article on the payoffs the veterinarians are receiving from the pet food industry. They were also kind enough to mention my book [Food Pets Die For, Summer '96 EIJ]. The book is now in its second printing. A friend in Ottawa has posted the newspaper articles [concerning the controversy the book has generated] on his website (http://www.vsquare.com/jordemm).
- Ann Martin
Ottawa, Canada
What's Needed is Less Electricity
Thank you for enraging your readers again about climate change and the transnational corporate agenda. However, in Rhys Roth's article [World Climate Showdown, Fall 97 EIJ] one discerns a technological-fix approach that is flawed for (1) assuming continued justifiable power demand, and (2) omitting the absolute need for a global moratorium on new roads and new paved surfaces.
It is all well and good for more solar power to replace fossil fuels (and nuclear). But what is the assumed need for so much electricity anyway?
Massive electrical consumption is questionable in an overpopulated world. The associated mining, manufacturing, transport, packaging and [to support consumer products] are trashing the Earth. A refrigerator and computer in every home is an environmental disaster for the climate as whether they are solar powered or not. The pollution and energy involved in making photovoltaic cells, cannot be swept under the rug in an emotional embrace of the "solar century." In fact, almost any combination of overdue changes will be too late for the world's climate and ecosystem because of the likely runaway greenhouse effect.
Economic collapse, accompanied or caused by insufficient new-car sales, will dismantle most of the global CO2 machine. Stopping road-building now must be a higher priority than regearing the power sources, because more roads mean more electric demand and loss of life-giving land.
- Jan C. Lundberg
Alliance for a Paving Moratorium
Arcata, CA
Depopulation Education
As always, Earth Island Institute has put together an informative as well as shocking edition of the Journal [Fall '97].
"Everybody Talk About the Weather..." notes that "Earth's population has doubled (over the past 30 years)" [and highlights] the disparity between America's population (4% of the world's total population) versus its overwhelming production of greenhouse gases (25%). If all countries had the US standard of living, the planet's resources would be depleted much faster. En route to the consumption of earth's finite resources, we would be polluting ourselves to death.
"Climate Change Threatens Democracy" [cautions] that anarchy will be the ultimate result of burgeoning population growth. What no one wants to say, however, is that along with dictatorial control of population movement and consumption of natural resources, populations must eventually be controlled.
Your publication has, in my opinion, proved itself to be the most intelligent environmental journal available on the market today. I hope you will educate your general audience about what they can do to save the planet through population control.
- Robert W. Gillespie
Population Communication
Pasadena, California
More Noise about 'Copters
I don't disagree with any points Justin Lowe made in favor of helicopters [Letters, Fall '97 EIJ]. And I also don't disagree with Terri Scott's concern for "sacred" places [Letter, Summer '97]. I live in a place, Portland, Oregon, that is not necessarily sacred, but it's home, and for 15 years I agreed with most of my neighbors that the city was "livable." No more.
Within the past year, four television stations have gotten helicopters and are using them extensively. Noise between 80 and 90 decibels occurs every minute or two, for three hours most afternoons. This noise level is illegal for most individuals but, as with many other laws, loopholes are written for the benefit of business.
It is impossible to live a normal life, due to this pollution. We who call ourselves environmentalists haven't begun to organize around this issue. Earth Island is typical: With more than 30 projects, not one addresses noise pollution. A generation ago, Americans had to be taught that air and water pollution were neither good nor inevitable. A similar education process needs to be undertaken to deal with noise pollution. Let's get going.
- Bruce Silverman
Portland, Oregon
Aspartame Hurts Animals, Too
Jennifer Cohen is to be commended for her innovative science project which exposed the dangers of aspartame - the artificial sweetener known as Nutrasweet™, a subsidiary of Monsanto ["How Diet Soda Turns to Poison," Spring '97, EIJ]. But it's a shame she was lured into citing cruel and misleading animal tests to make her case. There are numerous controlled human studies Jennifer could have cited that show that aspartame causes adverse health problems.
Animal testing is part of the same life-destroying paradigm environmentalists and health advocates oppose. Force-feeding primates and other nonhuman animals unrealistically high doses of chemicals is a common practice in toxicity tests. Rodents, like the Sprague-Dawley strain used in the aspartame studies Jennifer mentioned, are genetically bred to be cancer-prone and have high rates of spontaneous tumors. Differences in species and individual biology and metabolism, among other things, make results from animal tests unreliable at best.
Government agencies cannot be trusted to protect our health. It is up to all of us to reduce our dependence on, and consumption of synthetic chemicals.
- Alix Fano
Medical Research Modernization Committee
Grand Central Station, New York
Save Our Planet: Use Less
We are 21 students in the Eighth Grade Class from Geyserville Educational Park in Sonoma County, California. We have been learning about humans' effect on the environment and we are very concerned. Some of our major concerns are about our landfills, pollution, global warming, acid rain and the ozone layer. Our town of Geyserville has only 4,000 people and still we have all these problems.
Landfills are overcrowded. Each person makes five pounds of garbage a day: That's at least 20,000 pounds a day just from our town. Most of our garbage can be recycled, reused and composted.
Our planet is heating up. By the year 2000, temperatures will rise, forcing animals to move or die. During the industrial revolution, there was 280 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air. Today there are 400 ppm and by the year 2000 there will be 500-800 ppm! Factories, airplanes, cars and electric companies are all part of this problem. If we do not take charge, we will watch plants and animals suffer because of our greed. Is it already too late?
Our class tested the pH level of Geyserville rain and it was 4.5! Clean rain is 5.5. We are a small town out in the country: Imagine what it is like in big cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Air pollution from burning fossil fuels goes into the clouds and mixes with the water and rains back down on us, and on plants and animals. We need to use renewable resources like solar, wind and hydropower. We have to use less energy! We carpool, ride the bus, walk and ride our bikes to school, use fluorescent lights and turn down the heat and air conditioning. This is what we're doing to help.
The ozone layer protects us from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. The cancer rate is multiplying. We all have to wear sunblock and it is scary.
We are 12 to 14 years-old. Adults say that these problems won't affect them in their lifetime and that it's not for them to worry about. The fact is, all these problems will greatly affect us - and you! It will go on for generations (if we last that long) until someone stops it. We all need to work together now to preserve the future.
- Chris, Colin, Josselyn, Gabrielle, Ashley, Lupe, Crystal, Mari, Heather, Melissa, Jorge, Jamison, Derek, Samara, Ruthi, Alison, Jeanette, Jessica, Katie, Darren, Merlinda
Geyserville, California
Corrections
The "Squashed Earth" artwork featured on the Alliance for a Paving Moratorium T-shirts [Fall '97 EIJ] was the work of our friends at Adbusters Magazine [The Media Foundation, 1243 W. 7th Ave., Vancouver, BC, V6H 1B7, Canada, (604) 736-9401].
EIJ website visitor John Hughes spotted an error in our Spring '96 issue. We referred to the Exxon Valdez as a "Chevron tanker." Exxon is a Texas oil company: Chevron is a California oil company. They both were once part of the Rockefeller Standard Oil trust but that's no excuse. Our apologies to Chevron and to Hughes, a watchful Chevron employee.
Want to speak your mind?
Send your letters to the Earth Island Journal, 300 Broadway #28, San Francisco CA 94133 or e-mail them to <journal@earthisland.org>. Letters will be edited.
