Air Date: Week of August 21, 1992

Steve reads the mail.

Transcript

CURWOOD: Just ahead on Living on Earth. . . the new North American Free Trade Agreement is still largely under wraps. But some environmentalists in the US and Canada don’t like much of what they’ve been able to see. We’ll have reports from Washington and Toronto, but first, let’s open our mailbag.

(Letters theme under)

Bruce Burhans of Seattle writes about our recent program on losses of the ozone layer. “you have aired two excellent programs on the ozone problem, “ Mr. Burhans writes, “but have not mentioned the semi-conductor PC chip industry.” Their solvents, he says, are a growing source of ozone-destroying chemicals.

John Carroll’s commentary, taking the “Beyond Beef” ad campaign to task, provoked a stampede of responses. Tony Thibodeau of Santa Fe, New Mexico calls the comments “absurd and immature,” and asks how Carroll can criticize the “documented and well-founded statistics he presents and not offer any substantial alternative.” And David Diamond, of Dover, New Hampshire, writes, “Based on the commentary, it sounds like ‘Beyond Beef’ has been presenting some basic facts about beef eating that are important to know if we are going to correct our habits of devastating the environment.”

And Robert Wilson of Asheville, North Carolina has this to say about Carroll’s comments:

WILSON: His comments seemed to tell me, after hearing them and knowing that he eats beef, that beef cannot be considered ‘brain food.’

Larry Turner of Flagstaff, Arizona heard our report on Cuba’s new reliance on commuter bicycles in response to cutbacks in Russian oil imports. He says our report “showed only a part of the changing Cuban picture. Cuba is also soberly busy with building and operating its own nuclear power plants . . . It is, after all, difficult to operate hospitals and factories with pedal- or mule-power.” This omission. Mr. Turner writes, “reflected the characteristic American perceptual problem concerning nuclear power.”

And from a listener to KUNM in Albuquerque, New Mexico comes this comment. “(Havana is) a neat city to bike in and the recording of the bell brought back memories to me. For all of the political problems, Cuba is using bicycles, little gas and (few) cars . . . What will happen when the Americans return? . . . By the way.” he writes, “our government makes it a crime to travel to Cuba.”

If you have comments, send them to Living on Earth . . . Box 639, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02238. That’s Living on Earth, Box 639, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02238. Be sure to include a daytime phone number if you’d like your comments considered for broadcast, or call our listener comment line . . . at 617-868-7454. That’s 617-868-7454.