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Editor: 

Two countries that have lived with terrorism for a long time, Spain and Ireland, come to mind, as examples that history does not give the United States of America much hope of winning the war against terrorism either in a few years or a few decades. In the meantime, we have seemingly forgotten that our scientists have been telling us that terrible things are in store for us as a consequence of our misuse of world resources and pollution of the environment, especially the effect on planetary weather patterns from global warming, and that a likely outcome is the end of civilization as we know it. Our scientists have even given us a prescription to remedy the situation, and I recommend the site www.naturalstep.org for anyone interested in looking further into the remedies. 

Simply put, we need to shift from the mentality which has created the insane advice of our leaders to buy, buy, buy if you are a good American, to a mentality which understands and accepts the concept of sustainable growth and sustainable industry, that is, creating a way of living that our children and their children can follow without destroying the means for subsistence on our planet. 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if our City Council members in Berkeley could address these life-threatening issues, by creating an environment in Berkeley for attracting sustainable and non-polluting industry? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we established a time-table for non-sustainable industries to make the transition to non-polluting sustainability? Wouldn't it be wonderful if our City Council offered special incentives for sustainable and non-polluting industry to move to this area and serve as a model for the rest of the country? 

The true madness in our country these days is the degree of denial that exists around the issues of pollution, degradation of the environment, global warming, in short, those things which are slowly but surely undermining the very basis for human life on the planet. While we find new ways to track down a few thousand terrorists, mother nature is not holding her breath to see if we can wake up. 

Thomas de Lackne Editor: 

Two countries that have lived with terrorism for a long time, Spain and Ireland, come to mind, as examples that history does not give the United States of America much hope of winning the war against terrorism either in a few years or a few decades. In the meantime, we have seemingly forgotten that our scientists have been telling us that terrible things are in store for us as a consequence of our misuse of world resources and pollution of the environment, especially the effect on planetary weather patterns from global warming, and that a likely outcome is the end of civilization as we know it. Our scientists have even given us a prescription to remedy the situation, and I recommend the site www.naturalstep.org for anyone interested in looking further into the remedies. 

Simply put, we need to shift from the mentality which has created the insane advice of our leaders to buy, buy, buy if you are a good American, to a mentality which understands and accepts the concept of sustainable growth and sustainable industry, that is, creating a way of living that our children and their children can follow without destroying the means for subsistence on our planet. 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if our City Council members in Berkeley could address these life-threatening issues, by creating an environment in Berkeley for attracting sustainable and non-polluting industry? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we established a time-table for non-sustainable industries to make the transition to non-polluting sustainability? Wouldn't it be wonderful if our City Council offered special incentives for sustainable and non-polluting industry to move to this area and serve as a model for the rest of the country? 

The true madness in our country these days is the degree of denial that exists around the issues of pollution, degradation of the environment, global warming, in short, those things which are slowly but surely undermining the very basis for human life on the planet. While we find new ways to track down a few thousand terrorists, mother nature is not holding her breath to see if we can wake up. 

Thomas de Lackne 

Berkeley