Some Give a Hoot for Wildlife
Hewitt uses the emotional rather than the rational argument when he equates the economy and the environment.
The environment and the economy may be equally important, but they are not equally resilient. No amount of money can make a raped forest virgin again. The hills that have been beheaded cannot be replaced after the houses built there have decayed and crumbled. In a desert climate, houses built on brush-covered hills are in danger from fire--natural, accidental or criminal. Nature is sometimes her own economic argument.
Hewitt’s suggestion that the environmentalists should go to Brazil and Texas to preserve species and so leave California to the developers is the most cynical of all. He seems to believe that preserving the environment and endangered species is all right--just do it where California developers will not be affected.
MARGARET LORENZ ROMANI
Los Angeles
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