I'm writing to you from a small city in the coffee-growers zone of Colombia where rain and water are more than abundant. And for this reason, I write to congratulate you on your story and the steps you've taken to address the water problem. If people who have the privilege and fortune of reaching millions don't question the millions who for so long did such harm to our beautiful Earth, who will? And please, do not stop; there's lots of work to be done!
JAIRO DANILO PARRA
Armenia, Colombia
Your enlightening cover story on water, one of the world's diminishing resources, leads me to question the environmentalists' enthusiasm for ethanol. Its production depends on diverting large amounts of water to grow corn. When 1.1 billion people worldwide lack water and more than twice that number have improper sanitation, how can we perceive ethanol as a viable alternative to fossil fuels? Even if scarcity of water were not an issue, with millions of people on Earth starving or malnourished, can anyone in conscience justify growing food to feed cars?
DORIS O'BRIEN
Lompoc, Calif.
My family moved to Boulder City, Nev., in 1941. My father was the fleet mechanic for the Los Angeles Department of Water and a fleet mechanic during the construction of Hoover Dam. Lake Mead provides some of the water for the Las Vegas Valley, and it is down dramatically ["Sin City's Continuous Flow," June 4]. I found it scary to see compared with past years. Putting in a 285-mile pipeline to satisfy the craving for more water is going to cost a great deal of money, and residents are going to have to pay the bill. They already have many water restrictions and high bills. Rock yards and palm trees don't do much for the air quality. And how about what this will do to the state's east-central ranch lands? I worked for the Department of the Interior in Boulder City and have knowledge of dams and water and desalting. I'm appalled by the cavalier attitude of the powers that be.
JANE A. TANKSLEY
Port Ludlow, Wash.
Paper Chase
Congratulations on your move to using 85 percent to 100 percent recycled paper ["From the Editor," June 4]. At the same time, however, you could have reminded readers that U.S.News & World Report can be subscribed to in electronic format, thus eliminating the need for any paper at all.
WILLIAM GRAFF
Paris
Offshore and Off Limits
In "Driving Prices Higher" [June 4], you make the easy point of blaming the consumer and make only brief mention of the absence of any new U.S. refineries in the last 30 years. Yet you say nothing of the government impediments to building new refineries, and you make no mention at all of other solutions to the energy shortage: building new nuclear power plants and drilling for oil in Alaska and the waters off California and in the Caribbean. As long as those options remain off limits, we have no hope of dealing effectively with the energy shortage.
TERRY M. VALENTINE
Phoenix
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