Al Gore on Environment

It’s curious, but revealing, that Virginia Postrel’s “Al Gore Has Met The Enemy, and It’s Us” (Column Right, July 19) provides an excellent summation of Gore’s position on the environment, and the dramatic steps necessary to “use . . . every means to halt the destruction of the environment and to preserve and nurture our ecological system.” By recounting what is rapidly becoming a mainstream position on the environment, demonstrated by numerous polls of the American people, who are indeed willing to make dramatic changes to preserve the environment, and expecting it to appear as unreasonable, extremist and unworthy, Postrel’s conclusion, that Gore is simply a “radical . . . pressing the panic button,” rings hollow and disingenuous.

What has been lacking is leadership, and vision. While Gore’s vision may be a sweeping one, even idealistic, we have arrived at a point, with the vast range of serious environmental problems confronting us, where idealism is the ultimate pragmatism.

It is clear, as Gore cited in his acceptance speech, that our old ways of looking at the environment are a metaphor for how we treat each other, and that by redefining this relationship, we may indeed come to understand the very basic law of ecology, that everything is connected to everything else.

MARK L. MAWRENCE

Santa Monica