Haitian Refugees

In response to “Bush Orders U.S. Ships to Turn Back Haitians,” May 25:

Although The Times has published several articles analyzing the problems of Haitian refugees fleeing to the U.S., none mentioned the basic and central fact that the island of Haiti no longer has a natural environment capable of sustaining human life. Centuries of unmanaged resource exploitation and population growth have culminated today in environmental devastation and a population explosion so massive that in 1985, the Cousteau team filmed an entire village crammed onto an offshore sandbar, begging passing ships for fresh water. Does it come as a surprise, then, that democracy does not thrive in an environment in which life itself cannot thrive?

Since the time of Darwin, ecologists have used islands as living laboratories to examine environmental impacts on species population. I find it horribly ironic that, on the eve of the first Earth Summit, we have in Haiti a perfect “laboratory experiment”--and its tragic result--of modern humans’ impact on the planet, and yet the world leadership fails to recognize it as such. The Earth Summit was conceived to address such issues. I challenge President Bush and other world leaders to take this opportunity for global salvation seriously and to use it wisely.

RACHEL PAGONES

Escondido