Oil Spill in Persian Gulf
Bad, bad Saddam! He broke the nice war rules by dumping oil into the gulf. Suddenly, Americans have all become environmentalists. What a perfect opportunity to focus some attention on our own continent:
* The average American is 60 times more corrosive to the environment over a lifetime than the average world citizen. The U.S. sacrifices a forest a day on the altar of “convenience” to avoid such travesties as washing dishes, two-sided copying and exposing one’s groceries in public.
* The U.S. and Britain are the only two holdouts against international global warming accords and a nuclear test ban treaty.
Open space is no longer a default, but something we have to fight for.
* Our cities are far more incommodious than the harshness of nature they shelter us from. In Los Angeles, politicians beg us to conserve water so that they can keep approving massive housing tracts.
* America continues to do nothing to wean itself off fossil fuel dependency.
The rest of the globe notwithstanding, no country does hypocrisy like the U.S., making the world safe for our Dixie-cup democracy.
BEN ROSENFELD
Tarzana
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
