ENVIRONMENT AT RISK

Editor:

Did you vote last November to overturn a major portion of the environmental

protections that have been put in place in this country? I doubt if you did

but that is just what the Republican leadership is trying to do.

Under the guise of ''economic reform'' the Republicans are dismantling

environmental, consumer and social policy in this country.

In the House, they just passed legislation postponing all new regulations

(that means environmental and consumer protection laws). Then they passed a

law requiring government reimbursement to private property owners if an

environmental protection is put in place which restricts their future ability

to log, mine, build, plow under or otherwise alter the ecosystem or habitat on

that land.

We all know that the federal government is strapped for money so the real

agenda here is to stop all such environmental protections from being enacted

or carried out.

They also plan on gutting the Endangered Species Act and opening the Arctic

National Wildlife Refuge to massive oil drilling. All this while three species

are going extinct every hour, all major fisheries are in trouble, bird and

frog populations are plummeting worldwide, etc., etc. The fact is that these

ecosystems sustain us and we are destroying them quicker than ever.

If you did not vote to do this to our environment, then call or write your

senators and tell them to hold the line on this madness.

MICHAEL KRIKORIAN

Santa Rosa