The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 15

Comment FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1995 THE NEWS JOURNAL A15 They won't admit f.aLi:aC American I hi mi mmmmb i it, but environnientalism has helped any form cf environmental opti- i tion is exceptionally eood. Refor- Whv dot nuhlir- iIhI.hIk ntorin' any form of environmental opti tion is exceptionally good. Refor Why does public debate entertain COMMENT Gregg Easterbrook middle path to understanding the ecology a point of view acknowledging that society must have strict environmental regulation but also aware that nature is resilient and will, in the long run, benefit from the arrival of genus Homo. I call this new middle view "ecorealism." Ecorealism would acknowledge that conservation problems are genuine and must be addressed, yet hold as well that nature is robust and around for the long haul. Myopic anti-environmental initiatives, such as those currently being pushed in Congress by doctrinaire conservatives, would not be possible if it were commonly understood that most environmental trends are now positive.

But a weird intellectual inversion has occurred among liberals good news about the environment is treated as some sort of unfair trick, or at least as inappropriate information to be hushed up. Not only is this wrong analytically; it now boomerangs politically, by giving ammunition to forces eager to turn back the clock. If it were commonly understood that U.S. ecological initiatives are making air and water cleaner at a spectacular pace, GOP plans to undo those initiatives would lose their appeal. Many environmentalists dismiss public debate is that only the dubious claims get heard today.

In is-JLjLsue after issue, discussion is dominated by extreme statements disjunct from the middle ground where truth usually resides. Nowhere is this worse than in environmental affairs. A law of motion now seems to control environmental thinking: For every improbable claim from the left of doomsday for nature, there must be an opposite, equally improbable claim from the right of regulatory doomsday. As we approach the 25th anniversary of Earth Day, on April 22, dubious claims about the environment have become so widespread they now cause us to miss the leading ecological truth of our age. That truth: In the nations of the West, nearly all environmental indicators are now positive air and water are getting cleaner because most anti-pollution initiatives are working very well.

Institutional environmentalism resists this good news because belief in an instant doomsday is what powers fund-raising appeals. Business lobbies and the Newt Gingrich faction resist the same good news because it shows that sometimes government regulations are good for you. There's no room in contemporary environmental debate for an inconvenient notion like environmental optimism. The time has come for a new Gregg Easterbrook is a contributing editor to the Atlantic Monthly. As it turns For most of this century, those who regarded communism as a threat to America and the world and were courageous enough to say so publicly suffered slights and open condemnation.

But the redemption of those once viewed as conspiratorial buffoons from political, social and intellectual ostracism has arrived in the thousands of files from the old Soviet archives that are now being made public. Proof has been discovered that Cal Thomas is a columnist with the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053. mism because they assume such forces will breed complacency. But the reverse is true. An important message of ecorealism is that the first round of conservation initiatives worked so let's have more! One example is the phenomenal progress against ozone-layer depletion.

Ozone depletion, widely depicted less than a decade ago as a doomsday threat that could "never" be stopped, is nearly solved. U.S. and Western European emissions of the chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons, which deplete stratospheric ozone, peaked in 1988 and have declined rapidly since. At the end of this year, CFCs will go out of production in the United States and most other countries. Studies already suggest ozone-layer replenishment may begin within a decade with the complete rebound of the stratosphere possible by the early 21st century.

Nonetheless, the left downplays the successful phase-out of CFCs, because this positive development suggests that nature and the industrial lifestyle can find ways to coexist. The right downplays the same success story, because it shows rational regulation can protect public health and safety. A smaller example of the same ideological blind spots on ecological progress concerns the new low-pollution "reformulated" gasoline that recently went on sale in many large cities. Right-wing activists have been all over refor- American Communists was as signed to steal secrets from the Manhattan Project, the code name for development of the atomic bomb. Researchers also report discovering documents that support the late Whittaker Chambers, the Time magazine correspondent who first blew the whistle on the network of Communist spies in America in 1948 and fingered his accomplice, Alger Hiss, as the Soviet spy chief in New York.

The subsequent controversy over Chambers' revelations made some careers, like Richard Nixon's, and destroyed others, like Sen. Joseph McCarthy's. Anyone who wanted to know more about the Soviet spy network in America was branded a Red baiter or worse. The elites focused on the tactics of the McCarthyites so they could divert attention from the real issue: the Communist only complaints? Because the reality is inconveniently optimistic. The left doesn't want it known that such advances as reformulated gas suggest the private car and otber manifestations of industrial life will eventually be made benign toward nature.

The right doesn't want it known that for every regulatory horror story, there is a success story. This is the classic context where only the dubious claims are heard. We need no longer view ecological debates as pitting factions "for" and "against" the environment. The conventional "for" faction has found itself compelled to argue that anti-pollution crackdowns must be imposed in all circumstances, regardless of cost or need. This discredits environmentalism, making it seem detached from fiscal and scientific reality.

The conventional "against" faction has found itself forced to argue that no genuine environmental problems exist a position too absurd to require further comment. The conventional "for" and "against" environmental positions have outlived their intellectual probity and political usefulness. Ecorealism should arise to supplant both. Once there exists a middle path to understanding the environment, we can celebrate the many achievements since the first Earth Day and set rational, scientifically sound plans for the next round of conservation improvements. The Los Angeles Times were right book in May 1994.

Klehr writes that, according to Kovel, "the political views of each and every one of these (anti-Communists) were almost wholly irrational, stemming from deep psychological flaws and weakness." Kovel also savagely attacks the diplomat George Kennan, former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, J. Edgar Hoover, novelist Arthur Koestler and numerous others for their opposition to communism. Communism was and remains a disease that leads to political, economic and spiritual death for all who embrace it. Those in the political, academic and entertainment elites who helped sustain communism owe the world an apology. Those like Whittaker Chambers, who knew the truth and put their reputations on the line to tell it, deserve the thanks of a not always grateful nation.

out, those who fought the Communist menace mulated gasoline is a reason Los Angeles smog has declined by more than half since the first Earth Day even as the car population of Los Angeles nearly doubled. Moreover, reformulated gasoline is a low-cost means of pollution control. Widely expected to add 20 cents to the price of a gallon, in Los Angeles it only costs an extra five cents an added $25 annually for the typical driver. Already, the price premium is declining toward five cents in the rest of the country. Reformulated gasoline is also attractive because the national program for this fuel was put together in 1991 using a non-bureaucratic "regulatory negotiation" environmentalists and petroleum lobbyists hammered out a deal acceptable to both sides, then promised not to sue one another.

No top-heavy federal edicts were required: It was just the sort of deal regulatory reformers should love. Finally, the idea that reformulated gas is a toxic threat because it contains an anti-pollution additive called MTBE is a puzzling example of chemophobia originating on the right wing, rather than its usual point of origin on the left. Reformulation makes gasoline safer by removing nearly all benzene. Benzene is a potent carcinogen, far worse than any possible threat from MTBE. In sum, reformulated gasoline is practical, innovative and a cost-effective tool for reducing smog.

side track to the Soviet mind Klehr writes they were "an official part of the Comintern's (Communist International) covert financial network." Unfortunately, too many modern liberals continue to blindly attack anti-Communists as the greater threat. In the 1993 book "Red Hunting in the Promised Land: Anticommunism and the Making of America," author Joel Kovel claims that anti-communism became a "civil religion" steeped in xenophobia and ideological intolerance. He compares opposition to communism to the Salem witch trials in 1692. And he concludes that capitalism has not succeeded, "it has only won," implying there may be a new day for communism in which its supporters will finally get it right. Kovel was attacked more vigorously by Harvey Klehr in a Commentary magazine review of his pentlum nTF Any mulated gas, calling it a costly regulatory excess.

A common claim is that the new gas contains dangerous chemicals that "smell funny" and cause toxic headaches. Conservative reaction has induced some cities and counties to withdraw from the reformulat-ed-fuel program, with local officials theatrically lambasting "the feds" who imposed this nightmare. Totally overlooked is that reformulated gasoline is a leading environmental success story. Invented in Southern California by Arco, this fuel has been on sale in the Los Angeles Basin since 1990. Its track record at reducing pollu conspiracy to undermine the U.S.

government and freedom throughout the world. The CPUSA portrayed itself as a home-grown political organization, but the Moscow documents prove otherwise. In "The Secret World of American Communism," one of two new books that reveal the contents of the Soviet files, author Harvey Klehr, professor of politics at Emory University, says, "It is no longer possible to maintain that the Soviet Union did not fund the American party." Klehr says the CPUSA was heavily subsidized by the Soviet government, that American journalist John Reed (who was glamorized in Warren Beatty's film got $1 million from Moscow, and that Armand and Julius Hammer laundered money from Moscow and funneled it to the CPUSA. Of the Hammers so idolized by the elites for their in Any Packard Bell listed below! pentlum O.J. not guilty? So what! OLFLF Packard Bell listed belowl OLFLF i Any Packard Bell listed belowl CAL THOMAS the Communist Party, USA followed orders from Moscow during and after World War II and that a previously unknown network of MIKE ROYKO he'll have on some real mean-talking women from New York and some lawyers and some black guys, and they'll all yell at each other.

And I'll say, 'So But you can't simply say, "So what?" Have you no social conscience? "I used to have one, but then I found out that I slept better and didn't get heartburn if I just said, 'So You ought to try it." No, I can't. If the jury rejects compelling evidence, it will be an outrage and every self-respecting pundit and editorialist will be obliged to seek meaning and significance in the case. "Oh, sure, there will be more than enough meaning and significance to go around. Like how is O.J. going to lead the good life in California after he goes broke paying off the lawyers?" How he will again live the good life? You consider that significant? "Sure.

Just watch, that'll be the big story." Nonsense. Who would pay him to do anything? "That shows how much you know. If he can come out with a best-selling book while sitting in the jug, imagine how many new books he could peddle if he goes on 'Larry King' and the 'Today Show' and talks about how he's still in love with Nicole and is looking forward to seeing her in heaven. Hey, and what about movies?" Movies? What decent movie studio would have anything to do with him? "Why does he need a few decent movie studios when all the rest will be trying to buy his story? Remember, to a lot of people he'll be a bum. But there's a lot of people in this country who think that it's no big deal if a superstar football player gets a little ticked off at his wife." People are not that insensitive.

"Just watch. He'll be able to sell his autographs for 100 bucks a scribble." Preposterous. Would you pay $100 for his autograph? "Nah." See? You do have a conscience. "Sure. I'd offer him $50 and resell it fojr $100." "I was talking to my bookie," Slats Grobnik said, "and the odds are getting real big that O.J.

will beat the rap." That's what most legal experts say that there will be a mistrial or a not-guilty verdict. Either way, Simpson will wind up a free man. "Well, if that happens, this country is gonna have to deal with one big question." Yes, whether the legal system really works. "Nah, that ain't the big question." Of course it is. Even now, serious doubts are being raised about the jury system and the way selection can be manipulated by sharp lawyers and And the concept of equal justice for all, when the accused is rich, is also under fire.

"Sure, but if O.J. walks, that's not the big question." It isn't? Then what is? "So what?" What do you mean, so what? "I mean, that's the big question." The big question will be, "So what?" "You got it." That's ridiculous. If there is convincing evidence that Simpson is guilty but he goes free, you can't just shrug and say: "So what?" "Sure I can. Look, I'm even practicing. So what, so what, so what? How's that?" That is not an intelligent response.

"Why not? Would he be the first guilty guy to get away with murder?" No, I suppose not. "What about those two California brothers who bumped off their rich ma and pa. I guess the jury felt sorry for them because now they are orphans?" An unfortunate case. "So, why is the O.J. case any different? What do you think will happen if he walks maybe thousands of blond white women in L.A.

will go out on the streets and riot?" No, that's unlikely. But there could be sufficient public outrage to bring about a reform of the jury system. "Oh, sure. Like the politicians who'd have to change the laws ain't mostly lawyers, they're all banged-up blond wives and bad-luck waiters." But the spotlight of public opinion would be turned on flaws in the criminal justice system with an intensity never seen before. "Right.

So that means Ted Kop-pel will stay on the air for an hour instead of 30 minutes, and Mike Royko is a columnist with Tribune Media Services, 435 N. Michigan Chicago, IL 60611. Packard Bell Force 448CDT- $2249.99 reg. $2349 99 16MB RAM (upgradeable to 128) 1.275 GB HD Quad speed CD-ROM 14.4 Voice speaker phone modem HiorcemCDT Packard Bell Force S48CDT- $2699.99 reg. $2799 99 16MB RAM (upgradeable to 128) 1.275 GB HD Pentium 100 processor 14,400 FAXModem tttorce848CDT Monitors nol included Packard Bell Force 447CD- $1 924.99 reg.

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