Furthermore, a show of force can never create anything other than an opposing show of force. The road to diplomacy must be carefully paved with a desire to implement free trade for needed resources, a common agreement on monetary policy and well-monitored negotiations among companies that agree to that policy.

Ray D. Close
Scottville, Ill.

Population Pollution
One can only wonder whether the politicians who will be participating in the new international agreement on greenhouse gas reduction, referred to by Jeffrey D. Sachs in “Climate Change and the Law” [Sustainable Developments], do any arithmetic. World population is still growing, and energy demand is growing even more rapidly. Every year more fossil fuel is burned. Large new coal mines are being opened to exploit lower-quality coal deposits, and the capacity of new fossil-fuel plants swamps that of new wind and solar installations. Furthermore, millions of cars per year are being built in or shipped to countries with huge populations that until now have had few private vehicles. Without drastic population reduction, all our other efforts are fatuous.

Don Hirschberg
Horseshoe Bend, Ark.

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