Saving the Vanishing Forests of the World

A. Kent MacDougall’s “Vanishing Forest” (four-part series, June 14-22), is journalism at its finest. It will become required reading for my middle school science students; I only wish that every American voter, Third World subsistence farmer, corporate head, and most importantly, government leader would read it and pay heed. As MacDougall aptly demonstrates, so many of the world’s problems--famine, drought, homelessness, poverty, mass extinctions, erosion, pollution, even warfare--can be traced to the exploitation and mismanagement of forested land by burgeoning human populations.

As the forests disappear, we all suffer, but our children will suffer the most. They will inherit a globally altered climatic balance and all of its consequences if the carbon dioxide removed by and stored in the world’s forests is released into the atmosphere, so that multinational corporations can sell us more hamburgers or cardboard-packaged stereo components.

We don’t equate American industry and fuel production with the loss of temperate Canadian forests to acid rain and other pollution.

The solutions lie in education, not just in terms of national policy, but personal life styles. By sorting and recycling virtually all household paper products, I have found that I can supplement my income (albeit modestly) but more importantly, do my part for forest preservation. I require that my students use both sides of their paper for homework assignments, thus they use half as much paper.

MARTIN J. BYHOWER

Redondo Beach