Environmentalism is part of the solution, not the problem

Every few weeks or so, one can count on a George F. Will rant on environmentalism, which he called a "political doctrine that rejoices in scarcity of everything except government" in his Nov. 22 column, "Awash in fossil fuels."

Let's agree that there is debate about climate change and that we don't know exactly when oil will run out. But let's also agree that man has an impact on his environment. I don't need a fancy degree or any reports to know that; I can see it every day in the litter lining our roads, in the murkiness of the Chesapeake Bay and in the smog hanging over our cities.

Yes, the environmental movement includes some elements of extremism, nannyism and self-righteousness. But environmentalism is simply a desire to protect nature and our health and to preserve resources for future generations. What's so bad about that? What's wrong with trying to invent technologies that are less polluting than oil? Is it unreasonable to want fewer pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals dumped into waterways? Are people who recycle newspapers, buy organic foods or carry reusable grocery bags all part of a vast left-wing conspiracy?

Mr. Will seems to want to throw the baby out with the bathwater as he focuses on controversies to discredit a movement in which the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Jill Renkey, Frederick

--

George F. Will's spleen seems to have overtaken his reason. The fact that fossil fuel reserves may be more plentiful than some have predicted is hardly a basis for wholesale condemnation of environmentalism. Not all environmentalists use fossil fuel scarcity as an argument for behavior change. Indeed, it is the abundance of and the abundant contribution of fossil fuels to many environmental ills that animates much of environmentalism.

So Mr. Will's argument against environmentalism is a non sequitur. The fact that oil, gas and perhaps coal may be more, rather than less, plentiful only underscores the need to regulate their negative effects.

Virginia A. Sharpe, Takoma Park