Agenda for Cleaning Up Our Dirty Air

I appreciated Stanford President Donald Kennedy’s creative suggestion (“Civics 101: a Prime Export,” Editorial Page, June 10) that “it is not even outlandish to imagine that sometime in the next century, a treaty will be concluded through which certain nations agree to limit rates of population growth in return for fixed ceilings of fossil fuel consumption or carbon dioxide production in other nations.”

This idea is not at all outlandish. What will be outlandish will be waiting so long to enact creative, bold solutions that they will have little or no effect because the problems they address will have mushroomed beyond control! Every opportunity should be taken to float possible new solutions as measures to try now. The year 2000 is close enough to be regarded as a target date for every good idea we can think of.

Individual action can start now. Regarding the fossil fuel-population trade-off above, for example, each of us can put it into effect immediately: How about adhering to the fuel-conserving 55-miles-per-hour speed limit, folks?

GREGORY WRIGHT

Encino