No Easy Answers to Environmental Issues

Michael Schrage’s use of “cyberpunks” to beat environmentalists over the head strikes me as a bit nutty. Amusing yes, but nutty.

It’s true that environmentalists range all the way from New Age Greens and Earth Firsters to Sierra Club Orange County Singles and Wilderness Society white water kayakers.

Most of us have high-tech cars, fax machines, Gore-Tex and modems that talk to each other. But it is true we are suspicious of nuclear energy, malathion spraying (which doesn’t appear to work) and high-tech fixes such as messing around with genes.

Actually, as Schrage sort of admits, technology got us into these messes (and most of us environmentalists pump as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the next guy). We can’t turn the clock back. But we can’t stop it from ticking either.

Hey, Mr. Schrage, what are we going to do?

LU HAAS

Pacific Palisades