Letters From Our Readers

E: The Environmental Magazine, Nov-Dec, 2001

SAVE OUR SEAS

It is essential that our seas are saved, and I am glad that the cover story of E ("On the Blue Frontier," July/August 2001) places this vital information into perspective. The article was a wake-up call for the reader, and the challenges require mankind to take some kind of action now. Ocean pollution and overfishing need to be stopped. If we work in harmony with other world leaders, this major issue can be brought to the table. President Bush, are you listening?

Lydia Ayala
Vallejo, CA

I had to notice, in the otherwise wonderful cover story about ocean activism, this statement: "I talk to Doug Hartley, a buff black man with a cheerful, mellow demeanor and a ready rap." No problem there, until you compare it to some other introductions in the story: "Doug Bennett, the tall, gristled 68-year-old director"; "an attractive, sun-etched couple named Craig and DeeVon Quirolo"; "Ray is a tough `bama boy' born and raised." Why is Hartley alone among the article's players identified by race? Maybe it's because he's involved in a non-traditionally black sport, surfing, or maybe it's that he has started an outreach program for low-income youths. Regardless, I've seen similar descriptions in other publications whose readership is presumably mostly white, so I assume identification of non-whites is a literary convention. The problem is, it seems to suggest that the default setting for a human being is white. Not only does this smack of Old World superiority, but the numbers would prove such a convention wrong anyway. This kind of benign racism is unworthy of such a forward-thinking publication as E.

Rebecca Tatum
Los Angeles, CA

MAD ABOUT MEAT

Thanks for the feature on mad cow disease ("It Can Happen Here," July/August 2001.) On PBS in California, I watched a dairy owner explain to the interviewer about the "wonderful stuff"--meat and bone meal--he was feeding to his herd. But there is no shortage of cheap, easily available vegetables and grain to feed our cattle. The meat and bone meal is simply cheaper. Our food supply has already been contaminated! Radiation, autoclaving, burning, burying or other methods of sterilization cannot destroy mad cow disease. Beef cattle have been recalled for a new virulent form of E. coli, which is probably the result of feeding them chicken manure. Each of the cows is given an antibiotic, which is resisted by the E. coli normally found in the animal's intestines. When the microorganisms come together, the result is a mutation of E. coli that is resistant to both antibiotics.

Betty Quinn
Lemoore, CA

SEEING GREENER

I bought a newsstand copy of E because of the great article on natural eye care (Your Health, July/August 2001). My daughter, who will be nine soon, has been diagnosed with 20/400 and 20/370 eyesight. Her naturopathic doctor recommended eye exercises in lieu of glasses. I just took her to see an eye behaviorist last week. She'll be going back for her first lesson of eye exercises next Friday. Your article is so timely and helpful. I will be following up with the organizations mentioned in the article. Thanks so much for a great publication!

Debra Lombard
Norwalk, CT

BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE

The article "Enlightened Indulgence" in the July/August 2001 E issue about organic chocolate made for scrumptious reading. However, only a week before the magazine came out, I read in my local paper, the Centre Daily Times, that a large proportion of the world's chocolate is harvested using slave labor and child labor. Since then, chocolate hasn't tasted nearly as good.

Joan G. Creager
State College, PA

RELATED ARTICLE: LESSONS FROM THE WORLD TRADE CENTER

When faced with events of the magnitude of September 11, it's very hard to go back to business as usual. Sure, global warming and the fight to stop polluting your local river aren't going to go away, but who wasn't shaken by an attack that leveled two of the tallest buildings in the world and killed thousands of people?

But we will go on, writing about such new and unwelcome environmental topics as the health threat posed by clouds of smoke and grit from major building collapses, and the vulnerability of America's nuclear power plants to similar airborne attacks (see "The Nuclear Phoenix," page 34).

Nothing can justify the horrific attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., but we can learn some painful lessons from them. And one of those is the folly of continuing to depend on Middle East oil to run the engine of our society. Saudi Arabia, which gave birth to Osama bin Laden, is the depository of 25 percent of the world's oil. The U.S. stations troops in this repressive monarchy, home to Islam's holiest places, because that oil is vital to American interests. Protecting a similar regime in Kuwait was a major impetus to the Gulf War. The Center for Strategic and International Studies says that new pressures from China and India will increase demand for Persian Gulf oil by 80 percent in the next 20 years. It's increasingly likely that more wars will be fought to keep that oil flowing.