Addressing the fundamental cause: overpopulation
I read your editorial “Environmental Remedy” in the March 6 Times.
There are very few environmental issues unrelated to the impact of human overpopulation. Government regulations may seek to address the symptoms of overpopulation or environmental impact, but will do little to address the fundamental cause.
Thus, environmental policies of the hated former President Bush or the much-loved President Obama, or your support or opposition of such polices, will make no difference.
— John Cartmell, Redmond
Aiding the Arctic
In his first international visit as president, President Obama pledged to work with Canada’s government toward a clean-energy future. A vital part of this clean-energy future must be the protection of our shared wild places, including the Arctic region, suffering most from the impacts of global warming.
Over the past 50 years, global temperatures have increased an average of more than 1-degree Fahrenheit, but temperatures in the Arctic have increased by an average of 4 degrees.
After eight years of the Bush administration pushing to develop this region with no regard to the global impacts, both the United States and Canada must develop a comprehensive energy plan that includes protection for the land, water, wildlife and people of the Arctic.
As part of this plan, certain places in the Arctic must be kept off-limits, including the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, known as the “sacred place where life begins” to the people of the Gwich’in Nation, which is both American and Canadian land.
Any industrial development in the Arctic region must not compound the damage already done.
— Kit McGurn, Seattle