From: "Emmanuel Gustin"

As for the loss of forested area, this trend is currently being
reversed, with a programme to buy back land and convert it
back into forest; something not wholly liked by farmers who
regard it as a waste of good arable land. The big problem is
to create an ecological system of some reasonable size out
of patches of scattered woodland

Wonderful. So we cut Belgium some slack on that. But why won't you cut the US
any slack? We have made huge strides in correcting environmental damage and
are continuing to do so, the huge project to restore wetlands in the San
Francisco Bay area and the massive Buffalo Commons plan on the Great Plains
being only two examples of this. Protecting and preserving the environment is
a very old American concern, dating back at least to John Muir, John
Burroughs, Ernest Thompson Seton, and Teddy Roosevelt. Europeans have nothing
to lord over Americans when it comes to nature conservation.

It damages the credibility of your arguments when you relentlessly assume the
worst about America and attribute to us only the basest motives in everything
we do.


Chris Mark