Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 1, 1990                   TAG: 9005010364
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WORST POLLUTION IS CAUSED BY HUMANS

Although it is true that ants release formic acid and sheep release methane, these are natural occurrences that are in balance with the Earth. Man-made pollution disrupts this balance. Ants have existed for millions of years, yet acid rain is a recent tragedy brought on by industrialization.

Her claim that horses polluted more than automobiles is ludicrous. Horse manure is an agriculturally valuable organic substance, while auto exhaust fumes decrease our air quality and add to many of the problems that Ms. Kamwell thinks do not exist. A shipful of horse feed never spilled into an Alaskan sound, wreaking havoc on the habitat of numerous creatures, including man.

Kamwell says, "The ozone `hole' does not indicate any planetwide deficiency of ozone." How does she explain the dramatic increase in skin cancer rates in recent years? She cites an opinion from an economics professor to support her assertion that overpopulation is not a significant problem, yet what qualifies an economist to make such claims?

She does not even offer a reason for her declaration that free enterprise would save the rain forest. Free enterprise is what is destroying the world's forests. Without governmenmtal regulation, individuals and corporations strip away any resources that they can profit from.

Perhaps the most ridiculous of Kamwell's claims is that environmentalists are working "to destroy America's independence." If the United States recycled more, wasted less, and found alternatives to fossil fuels, it would make us a more free nation by lessening our dependency on foreign resources.

Contrary to her insinuations, environmentalism has nothing to do with communism (China and the Soviet Union are horrible polluters in many areas), but is a non-political outlook concerned with the very real and urgent dangers that threaten the existence of human life on Earth. DAVID A. HURT HARDY