Energy-Saving Diet

Re “Hooray for the Red, White, Blue and Green,” Opinion, Nov. 11: David and Arlie Hochschild are right, as of course are many others, in pointing out the link between this war on terrorism and our addiction to cheap oil--and a link to the Gulf War. They recommend making it a “home front” defense to achieve energy independence based on developing renewable energy sources. That would at least reduce or even eliminate the reliance on oil from politically unstable regions like the Middle East.

Part of that energy conservation strategy could be for the supposedly 50% of us who are overweight to drop an average of 10 pounds each. This would reduce the maintenance of flesh equivalent to the average normal weight of about 8 million of us. Think of the savings in energy, transportation and health care.

Ricardo Nicol

San Clemente