From: Mikel Maron [mikel_maron@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2002 5:38 PM
To: nick@nickdenton.org
Subject: Environmentalist Catastrophe

Dear Nick,

Why is good news so often used against environmentalists? The reversal of ozone depletion in no way deligitimizes the concerns voiced 20 years ago. Without the efforts of concerned politicians, activists, and scientists, the Montreal Protocol would not have been ratified, and the ozone hole would be a much larger problem today. What should be a victory for the environmental movement, you turn into ammunition.

I understand your derision for the vocal doom-sayers. I can only say that in an unwelcoming and ignorant political climate, such exclamations may be the only way to attract any attention, an expected response to an unresponsive politic, part of a system of responses needed to create action. A fully rational and well informed discussion is completely welcome by myself, but what's the likelihood?

Predictions on our changing environment are very unpredictable and deserve much more research. But to continue blindly, dismissing the certain fact that human activities are drastically modifying the atmosphere, oceans and forests is a much bigger folly than sometimes makes incorrect predictions.

It's great that the Sahara is retreating. But what will happen to the ocean's fish stocks, sinking South Pacific Islands, melting Alaskan permafrost, the Western US's tinderbox forests, and countless other potential catastrophes? Perhaps more people have adequate diets now, but also more people than ever have inadequate diets. A larger population and more is more! The population explosion places much more strain on all resources, especially if there's any hope for the 4 billion people of the developing world ever achieving more than an adequate diet.

So, if you bothered this far, I'm really interested in your answer to the question above!

Sincerely
Mikel Maron

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http://alumni.cse.ucsc.edu/~mikel

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