Bethell on Earth Summit

Tom Bethell’s Column Right, “Earth Summit Is Just a Ruse to Rob the Rich” (April 19), is a particularly odious example of his “art.” If we are to believe this ink-stained hypocrite for the far right, “Some environmentalists really do want a cleaner environment.”

In other words, according to Bethell, we (at least those of us who are “respectable”) are fighting only to tidy up the neighborhood. Would that he were right! Unfortunately, Bethell’s friends make it clear that their intentions go far beyond a bit of garbage on the front lawn. They want to take the world apart and put the profitable pieces in their portfolio.

He cites Fred Singer of the misnamed Science and Environmental Policy Project and Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Both organizations, as well as Bethell, carry water for American industry.

The irony is that industry is its own worst enemy. Environmental abuse is always associated with economic waste.

The financial waste (defended vigorously by the oil and the auto industries) incorporated in our transportation system (and elsewhere) robs the American people of their savings, deprives American industry of indispensable investment capital and destroys American competitiveness. It is, I am convinced, the foundation of our present malaise, our so-called “recession.”

STANLEY HART

Altadena