Administration Must Start Protecting Earth

Re “Climate Change Accelerating, Report Warns,” Nov. 9: What is the United States waiting for? How many scientific studies are needed by the Bush administration to acknowledge that global warming is a fact? The latest report involved hundreds of scientists from eight countries, including the United States, over a four-year period. So are we going to believe it or not when scientists are warning about global warming? Are we going to join the world community and try to reverse or at least bring to a halt this alarming trend?

Greenhouse gases are a major reason “climate change is accelerating sharply,” and ice caps and glaciers are melting; and the sea level is rising, which may be more alarming to Florida than hurricanes.

Surely, this is a moral issue. Maybe the United States does not value the Earth? Maybe the United States, which produces exorbitant amounts of greenhouse gases, isn’t as moral as all the countries that signed the Kyoto agreement.

Joan Forman

Redondo Beach

*

After reading “Environment Officials See a Chance to Shape Regulations” (Nov. 10), and considering how the president looks forward to relaxing many regulations for the benefit of business, I think it’s about time we started naming agencies for what they do, not what they once did. I’d like to start by renaming the Environmental Protection Agency the Environmental Prevention Agency. The name is so similar that there could be great savings by not even changing the letterhead and people everywhere would know what the agency does.

Dean Blau

Van Nuys