Goodwin on Environment

I am hardly a proponent of despoiling our environment. Yet I could not help but react with alarm to Richard N. Goodwin’s column (“The Final Disaster We Must Avert,” Op-Ed Page, Oct. 23). Sorry, but civilization cannot just “take a vacation” as Goodwin seems to suggest. The sources of hazardous pollution--manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, etc.--do not exist merely to provide material luxuries. For many people, they are the source of sustenance required for mere survival. To suddenly and dramatically curtail these activities would not only lead to global economic chaos, but would also condemn tens of millions to death by famine, disease and war.

No, the answer to our environmental problems lies not with simply abandoning civilization as we know it, but, ironically, with the very cause for these problems: science and technology. We must increase our efforts to understand the complex and fragile laws that govern planetary ecology. We must then use this knowledge to develop alternative means to achieve the same ends we are currently pursuing, i.e., a higher standard of living for all.

There is no “quick fix” for the environmental problems we currently face. Things will probably get worse before they get better. And it will be expensive, no doubt about that. But things will get better if we set to work now on developing alternative and, in the long run, better and more efficient ways to house, move and feed the billions of individuals who inhabit our fragile planet.

ALLEN B. URY, Costa Mesa