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When seeking environmental sustainability, it is important to phrase demands for change in specific terms, with arguments that combine the environmental, moral, social, and economic benefits of the requested action. For example, getting cities or states to adopt goals of 20 percent renewable energy by the year 2010 is a specific objective that would move us toward a sustainable world, and the case for this could be made on all the grounds cited above.

FoE U.S. and FoE International have pointed out the huge range of disastrous impacts of war on the planet and opposed the war in the first place. You point out one of the most serious consequences of war. The issue of radioactive contamination must be raised vigorously, but I do not foresee the Bush administration taking remedial action on these matters.

Ask this question: If Iraq's major export were green beans instead of oil, would the United States care any more about it than it does about the islands of Mauritius or the Seychelles? The war in Iraq is costing more than $100 billion, and perhaps a lot more. By comparison, the annual budget for the U.S. EPA, which enforces most of our pollution control laws, is around $8 billion.

Enforcement of laws under the Bush EPA has declined, as have the regulations implementing environmental statutes. Furthermore, in his budget this year Bush proposed for EPA the second biggest cut for any agency.

Some things can be done rapidly, such as issuing new executive orders, while others will take much longer. Some outstanding people in key agencies have already left government service, and re-staffing agencies will take years.

It is in Maida Heatter's Book of Great Chocolate Desserts under the heading Countess Toulouse-Lautrec's French Chocolate Cake. [Editor's note: See the recipe here.]

We urgently need to have a measure of economic well-being other the GDP, which basically measures how rapidly we convert natural resources into waste and counts as economic benefits what most people would consider costs. In the late 1980s, Friends of the Earth actually got Congress to pass a law requiring the Commerce Department to prepare an index of gross sustainable productivity along with the usual GDP. Unfortunately, in the mid-1990s the energy industry got this requirement repealed. Hazel Henderson has some good information on this subject on her website.

We need to move forward with clean-energy strategies; otherwise, global climate change will exacerbate water shortages. More efficient use of water in every sector will help reduce the wastage of water. Greater local food self-sufficiency is crucial; otherwise, transnational agribusiness with its irrigated agriculture can consume vast quantities of water for export crops. During the height of the drought in Ethiopia in the 1980s, carnations and strawberries were being grown for export to Europe.

I would write several letters to the editor for key papers in his congressional district, quoting from his letter and then contrasting it with several statements from the overwhelming majority of climate scientists.

Some adults may be pretty hopeless and that is why deposit laws are needed. For kids, the more environmental education in the schools, the better they will understand the energy and pollution costs of our throw-away society.

Two key items are green buildings and dramatically increased public transportation. Cities and the surrounding suburbs could require buildings that are essentially energy self-sufficient. The key challenge is to transform transportation spending so that the majority of the funding goes into providing a variety of public transportation services. The current unfortunate practice exemplified by transportation spending is that highways are the answer. Well, if highways were the answer, Los Angeles would be paradise.

The lower we eat on the food chain, the less the environmental impact. Those who are not vegetarians can try to reduce meat consumption and buy only organic free-range meat.

I commend you for your commitment to protect the earth. In terms of snail mail or email, sending this to the White House doesn't hurt, but unless it is part of a massive mobilization, it will not have an effect. Specific mobilizations can have a decisive effect, as they did when several hundred thousand communications of protest were sent to the Agriculture Department about its proposed definition of organic food. The most important action of all is mobilizing people to vote their environmental concerns in every election at every level.

You should contact the Conservation Council of North Carolina at 919.839.0006 and the Wilderness Society at 202.833.2300 to determine first whether there are any state or local groups already working on this objective. If so, they probably would be delighted to get your help. If no one is focused on this protection, you need to meet with some wilderness experts to formulate a strategy, and again these two organizations can advise you.

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