[Young Werther]

Several years ago I went to a lecture at University of Texas Dallas, UTD The speaker was an alumnus who was an astronaut with an undergrad degree in geology. His masters thesis was written after he had dived to one of those volcanic vents in the deep ocean where those blood worms live and flourish in the darkness. He was a Naval officer at the time. His Doctorate was garnered when he traveled to Antarctica to study the field where those Martian meteors were strewn.

He was quite the speaker and I remember his thrill when he described his window time on his shuttle mission, (he was one of the astronauts who installed the air lock on the Destiny Module). He said we was saddened when he flew over Madagascar and saw the mud which surrounded the island. Clear cutting the lumber for furniture showed that poor land management was devastating the country and the fires shown on this display is every bit as tragic.

The envirowackos point at our SUVs and ignore the fact that South America, Africa,and Asia will soon be Dune, (hopefully without the Worms although you can pass me the melange por favor!)

[CFC__VRWC]

One of my instructors at UF when I was getting my environmental engineering degree summed this phenomenon up neatly - conservation of natural resources is a luxury, and therefore only wealthy nations can afford it. In places like Haiti and Africa, the people are too busy scratching out a minimum subsistence lifestyle to even give protecting the environment a second's thought. And the leadership of these countries is too corrupt to care.