I agree with the author’s pessimism (“The Rocky Mountain Front blues,” HCN, 6/24/13). Improvements in energy efficiency alone aren’t enough. What can help is to leave the oil, gas and coal in the ground and to permanently protect the associated lands from development. However, I wonder if any form of “permanent protection” will be able to survive the political and economic pressures of our non-stop human population growth. I will remain a conservation activist until I die, but I am glad that I won’t be here to see what human exploitation eventually does to our world.
Ted Harris
Lafayette, Indiana
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A half-empty future.
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