• picture
  • picture
  • picture
  • picture
Public Radio's Environmental News Magazine (follow us on Google News)

Listener Letters

Air Date: Week of

Living on Earth dips into the mailbag to hear what listeners have to say.



Transcript

[THEME MIX UP AND UNDER]

GELLERMAN: Time now to hear from you, our listeners.

[THEME UP AND FADES UNDER AND OUT]

GELLERMAN: We got an earful about our recent commentary from Gernot Wagner who made the case that energy independence for the United States is not only unachievable, but undesirable.

Wes Tator, who listens to LOE on New Hampshire Public Radio, emailed to say, ‘I thought your speaker was right on.’

But Cat Givens from Portage Lakes, Ohio sent us ‘a resounding yes’ to energy independence. She tunes in to WKSU and writes: ‘The war on terror would be a thing of the past if we close down our dependence on oil and use the energy resources already available to us—like…ethanol, solar, wind, and battery-powered cars. There are green alternatives we can utilize right now.’

Then we got this phone call:

CRANE: What about the long forgotten word ‘conservation’?

GELLERMAN: Diane Crane listens to us in Western Massachusetts.

CRANE: This country is very spoiled and very wasteful. I mean, you know, I see it on the road with gasoline, for instance. People aren’t going 65 miles an hour down the highway. They’re going 75, 85, and, I wager, some are even going 90 miles an hour. Why aren’t they going 55?

GELLERMAN: Maybe people in a hurry just don’t give a hoot. Our story about barn owls as road kill prompted Leslie from Hatboro, PA to write that she’s noticed something odd lately: ‘Hawks sit in trees near the highways,’ she says, ‘It dawned on me these birds are waiting to grab fresh road kill. How ingenious. Did individual birds invent a new way of hunting, all on their own or is this a species wide change in behavior?’

We got another question, this one from Julie Marie Ford in response to our story by our Washington correspondent, Jeff Young, in which he compared his use of water to that of a woman in rural India.

Ms. Ford asks, ‘Has anyone thought to market a bottled water where all of the proceeds go directly to programs to fund water stations in third world countries? This would have a direct effect on helping other people and change the world.’

What do you think? Let us know your thoughts about what you hear on Living on Earth. Our email address is comments@loe.org. Once again that’s comments at L-O-E dot O-R-G. Or put a stamp on it and send it to 20 Holland Street, Somerville, Massachusetts, 02144. And there’s always our listener line at 800-2-1-8-9-9-8-8. That's 800-2-1-8-99-88.

[THEME MUSIC UP AND OUT]

 

 

Living on Earth wants to hear from you!

Living on Earth
62 Calef Highway, Suite 212
Lee, NH 03861
Telephone: 617-287-4121
E-mail: comments@loe.org

Newsletter [Click here]

Donate to Living on Earth!
Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. Please donate now to preserve an independent environmental voice.

Newsletter
Living on Earth offers a weekly delivery of the show's rundown to your mailbox. Sign up for our newsletter today!

Sailors For The Sea: Be the change you want to sea.

Creating positive outcomes for future generations.

Innovating to make the world a better, more sustainable place to live. Listen to the race to 9 billion

The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment: Committed to protecting and improving the health of the global environment.

Contribute to Living on Earth and receive, as our gift to you, an archival print of one of Mark Seth Lender's extraordinary wildlife photographs. Follow the link to see Mark's current collection of photographs.

Buy a signed copy of Mark Seth Lender's book Smeagull the Seagull & support Living on Earth