LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

• Position: Letter to the Editor

The environment cannot win without economic justice

The spring issue of Conservation Matters speaks to democracy and environmentalism together, to people working on local issues, working to save and/or restore their own environment. It is another interesting and important read.

However, too little addresses environmental democracy and the increasing income gap, so clear in the brownfields article. Trendy shops and beautifully renewed factory buildings turn the brownfields into gold. But what about the people who used to live in the polluted areas of town, the once inexpensive spaces being renewed; the people who cannot afford the trendy, who cannot pay the rent or the condo prices once the cleanup and renovation are finished; the people who now work the underpaid service and temp jobs and get no benefits package and haven't time for their kids, to say nothing about their environment? How can these people contribute their potential to the environment, to the nation?

James Hamilton's piece speaks of claiming an open space in return for facilitating large-scale brownfield transactions. That sounds like a very good and workable approach to saving green space. However, it might be better if it included economic justice in the mix. Would not many more people embrace environmental goals and uphold them in the long run if these goals included affordable housing and a living wage protecting those of us who are not and never will be at the top of the economic ladder?

As with campaign finance, unless we are happy with the plutocracy we now have, capitalism must be regulated to reflect values other than wealth; environmentalists must play a part.

Vera S. Cohen Cambridge, Massachusetts

Tell us what to do!

It is the environment, stupid, and why did you miss the ability to make this most critical point? Rather than call for all persons interested in the environment or any aspect of our planet to make their issue a political issue "on the stump," Brian Keane rails against the two...