Environmental Grief

* The Jan. 7 commentary by Richard B. Anderson (“The World Is Dying--and So Are You”) is full of the stages of grief for the environment, and he wrings his hands in despair that we are not facing up to the task of emotional survival. He misses the entire point of what is really going on in our environment. He says, “Even if we face the consequences of our assault on the natural environment, we may still find that the problems are too big.” He ends by saying, “To live authentically in this time, we must allow ourselves to feel the magnitude of our human predicament.” Huh?

Did it ever occur to him that we the people have it within our power to curb the population growth that is causing the very thing he is talking about and that he’s ignoring what makes all the disaster happen? So we grieve about what? Our own stupidity?

MAURINE REEDY RUZEK

Los Angeles