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To:
letters@nytimes.com |
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Dear
Editor,
After
reading Sarah
Vowell's op-ed
contribution in today's NYT
("The
Speech the
President
Should Give"),
I wondered if
she, or anyone
else, realises
that back in
the early
1970's,
instead of
facing up to
the underlying
truths
contained, for
example, in
the Club of
Rome's
"The
Limits to
Growth",
which
President
Carter,
perhaps
ineptly, was
urging
Americas to
do, we
virtually all
went into
"collective
denial".
More than 30
years later,
that is where
we still are,
although
struggling now
with such
persistent
indicators as
climate change
and oil
prices.
Instead
of us adapting
our economy
and way of
life (along
with the
values,
attitudes and
aspirations
that underlie
them) to
sustainability
on a small
planet with
more than 6
billion
(that's 6,000
million!)
human
inhabitants,
but limited
resources and
a finite
carrying
capacity, we
are leaving it
to a ruthless
mother nature
to do it for
us, which
means that the
21st Century
may turn out
to be our
last.
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