Garbage heresy - environmental magazine 'Garbage' attacked by readers for its defense of disposable diapers - Editorial

National Review, May 10, 1993

THE GREENIE magazine Garbage is in deep doo-doo with many readers for defending disposable diapers. A recent issue pointed out that washing the cloth variety makes similar demands on energy resources and releases chemicals into the environment just like the manufacture of the disposable paper type. Hardly a shattering revelation, perhaps, but it provoked letters like this:

"Please cancel my subscription and refund my money in full. I read enough of this c--- elsewhere."

"Garbage has become an apologist for the disposables industry. Procter & Gamble is pursuing shameless tactics to make the world safe for disposable diapers. Luckily New York was not fooled."

"Greedy mega-corporations such as Procter & Gamble purposefully [sic] inject cancer-causing dioxins into disposable diapers and maybe a decade into the future our sons will be dying of scrotum cancer."

The latest issue has another shot at the ultragreens. A backpage column called "In the Dumpster" takes Greenpeace to task for calling for a boycott on du Pont products including polystyrene food containers foamed with ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Garbage points out that polystyrene is not foamed with CFCs and guesses that Greenpeace knows this. Garbage thinks that when environmental groups are seen as deceitful and hysterical "then all environmentalism is tarnished." True, but as their letters show, deceit and hysteria are what many environmentalists want.

NOTES & ASIDES

* Dear Mr. Buckley:

The enclosed clip, a column by Aissatou Sidime, comes from the Oakland Tribune, which relentlessly pushes the liberal agenda--even more so now that it has received a grant from the Gannett Foundation.

I draw your attention to the sentence, "As the country moves toward increased ethnic and gender diversity . . ." Increased gender diversity! That's a new one, even for the Tribune. Maybe they've been working overtime in the science lab.

Yours truly, Jim Grodnik, Oakland, Calif.

Dear Mr. Grodnik: Sounds fascinating. On the other hand, I think I've met some of those . . . Cordially, WFB

* Dear Mr. Buckley:

After years of relentless searching, I finally found the man of my dreams. We plan to be married. However, I do have a problem.

My sister voted for Bill Clinton. My mother has thought for the past 17 years that the CIA has had a transmitter implanted in her brain. She says that she receives messages from Moscow every Tuesday evening. My father had a sex-change operation last year, so now I have two mothers (just like Heather). He changed his name from Horace to Hortense. My older brother is serving time in the state pen for attempted murder, and he bears a striking resemblance to Barbra Streisand. My younger brother sells drugs to 12-year-olds on the playground.

Now back to my problem. I really love this man and I don't want to lose him. Should I tell him about my sister?

Very truly yours, Nancy E. Camp Front Royal, Va. Dear Nancy: You are putting me on, but it's fun. Cordially, WFB

* Dear Mr. Buckley:

Is it "the Presidents Clinton" or "the President Clintons"? I'm confused.

Sincerely, Jeffry Jamouneau Harrisburg, Pa.

Dear Mr. Jamouneau: I don't know. But maybe Dee Dee will tell us. Cordially, WFB