Bush Abandons Kyoto Accords

* Re “Bush Asked to Devise Greenhouse Gas Plan,” April 2: Thank you, past President Carter, for having enough sense to realize that the long-term consequences of greenhouse gases are more important than any short-term economic problems. President Bush’s shortsightedness may mean his grandchildren face a future of breathing dirty air, drinking arsenic-laced water, playing on polluted earth and having to stay out of the sun. He doesn’t think the cost of taking care of all those problems won’t be more than today’s problems?

Wake up and smell the roses, before we lose them all! All of us need to realize that we are going to have to make sacrifices in order to save what’s left of our world for any future generations.

NANCY CLARK

Upland

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President Bush explains his environmental policies, declaring that America’s energy and economic concerns must take priority over global concerns (March 30). That almost makes sense, until one realizes that America is part of the globe. When the waters start rising and flooding Florida it will be too late to cut the carbon dioxide emissions, but then, George W. will no longer be president.

WALTER MAYA

Claremont

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Upon reading “Melting Releases Riddles on Global Warming” (April 1), it is abundantly clear that scientists lack a sufficient understanding of weather models and “global warming” itself. Because of this, strategies to lessen CO2 output lack any logic except the logic of mass hysteria. The 20th century has shown the progression toward war, malevolence and evil provided by lackluster economies and starving constituencies. Pragmatic evaluation shows that such degradation is Kyoto’s only guarantee. Is sabotaging the planet’s most important economy justified? Scientists might show that polar cap recession resulted from events of the last ice age.

It seems that Kyoto is also a European Union tool for sabotaging the U.S. economy. If not, Europe’s reluctance in allowing the U.S. to use Third World improvements as credits could be understood. One wonders if a depleted U.S. economy and armed forces could protect the EU from its next adversary. Many thanks to President Bush for making this difficult decision. Luckily, Bush is considering our future and not his legacy.

DINO BUIATTI

Irvine

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I don’t know if “global warming” is a threat or not. But it is clear to me that while industrialization plays a role in the increase in human-caused gases in the atmosphere, population growth must also be a factor. Population growth multiplies industrialization’s effect in whatever process may be unfolding. While I hear voices clamoring for a slowdown in humanity’s increasing reliance on some technologies, I never hear a popular clamor for a slowdown in the increase of humanity. If what we’re doing is bad for us, more of us doing these bad things can’t be a good thing, can it?

BERT SAAVEDRA

Apple Valley