A stake has to be driven through the heart of an incomprehensible rationalization advanced by President Bush and others for not taking decisive action against global warming: It must not hurt the American economy.

Do Bush and his advisers really think that global warming is not going to hurt the economy worse if they don't act? Do they think that permanent drought in western agricultural areas is not going to hurt the economy? That flooding of our coastal cities and relocation of millions of citizens is not going to hurt? Does it bother them at all that up to 1.7 billion people worldwide will not have enough water?

Do they actually believe that a mass refugee movement into the Pacific Northwest will not tax its resources? Do they not care about the flooding of coasts and islands where hundreds of millions people live?

Do more hurricanes worry them? Do they remember Katrina? Are they concerned about the dangers to the world's vulnerable poor? About mass extinctions of species?

Apparently, not much. Is it that they care most about preserving the finances of the richest Americans, of Bush's friends, relatives and associates in the oil industry, and about continuing to put maximum free market profits above any other public consideration? Are they out to make as much they can before a Democratic president gets in? Is this the economy they mean? That at least would make sense.

Otherwise, pardon the language, this business about not hurting the economy amounts to pure bovine scat.

Larry Spears

Eugene, Ore.

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