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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 19, 1991                   TAG: 9104190695
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROAD MAY BE SMART; STILL A PERIL TO ENVIRONMENT

NO MATTER how many people at the April 8 hearing of the state Transportation Board in Salem spoke in support of the "smart road," I have attended several other public hearings on the same topic where by far the majority did not. Many expressed deep concern that the proposed "smart highway" represented a clear and present danger to our local environment and could not be considered a necessary development.

Around the world, the alarm is being sounded - a wounded ozone layer, chemical rain, sick people, air, soil, etc., as well as a need to conserve energy sources, which every new highway - smart or dumb - helps to deplete, magnifying our use of cars, weakening the ecosystem, cutting ever more trees.

Before calculating potential growth in terms of $$, it is time to calculate how many trees, how much topsoil, how many animals will be destroyed in the process of constructing such highways. Smart people everywhere are coming to realize that game time is over, and that the prospects for a future demand all our efforts to protect our remaining wilderness and life systems for our children and theirs. More roads, cars, strips, etc., spells sicker air, soil and loss of resources which diminishes all of us.

A "smart" economy would be one that protected the environment, not one that "grows" by endlessly destroying it. Where are our creative, caring minds?

ALLYN M. MOSS\ BLACKSBURG

by CNB