Readers Write

ENVIRONMENT

Save Georgia forests first

Shelly Lakly's "Saving our forests will reduce global warming" (Opinion, June 24) was right about the need to protect forests as they work to reduce greenhouse gases and protect the environment. While a project in Bolivia or outside the United States may be scientifically based and environmentally valuable, we need to conserve Georgia's forests first. Georgia has about 24 million acres of forests that are providing great environmental benefits to our state. However, we are losing forests at an alarming rate. According to the Georgia Forestry Commission, increased population and loss of traditional markets for wood products is causing at least 106 acres of Georgia's forests to disappear daily.

J. Blake Sullivan, Carbon TreeBank

Clean up coal emissions

In "U.S. technology key to China and climate" (ajc online, June 19), the importance of capturing carbon dioxide from coal-burning power plants in the U.S. is stressed. I agree that by harnessing this major contributing factor to global warming, the U.S. can and should spread this knowledge to China and other countries. More research should be funded into carbon capture, and that it should be mandatory for all coal plants over the next few years to have this technology or new efficiency standards. This would diminish the need for building any new plants. The report quoted from MIT said, "Together, the U.S. and China account for 20 percent of the world's carbon dioxide from coal-burning power plants." These emissions can be greatly lessened by stronger legislation, and help from the EPA.

Christina Mosley, Acworth

ECONOMY

The heart of foreclosure

I agree with Thomas Oliver that unemployment is one of the primary factors driving Georgia's foreclosure rate ("New rules frustrate recovery," Business, June 28). However, he goes too far in his assertion that "Unemployment, not predatory lending, is at the heart of our foreclosure crisis." If this were true, counties with high unemployment would also have high foreclosure rates. But this is generally not the case. When you look at a county map of the state's unemployment and compare that to foreclosure rates, you see very different pictures. The foreclosure crisis is primarily in central and north Georgia, whereas the unemployment hot spots are mainly rural.

Don McAdam, Atlanta

MEDIA

Celebrities are not news

America is lulled into passivity by a media that simply won't report the news. The media dwells on philandering politicians, and dead rock stars, rather than writing about a cap and trade bill that will cause every household substantially increased energy costs to dissuade the use of traditional forms of energy — when in fact, there is no viable alternative to that energy. Our values stink if we are more interested in celeb news than real news.

Joan L. Dillon, Atlanta