Mike Ruskovich makes some excellent points in his "My Turn" article published on Nov. 6. None of us can survive without air and water, and we all crave clean air and water. That is the reason many of us have moved to Idaho. I have walked the trails that John Muir walked and drank from the same springs. I have stood on top of Mount Whitney and breathed the same air that he breathed.

I have also lived several years among a people who made very few economic demands of their environment. They lived in mud huts and ate what they grew on their own poor soils. I crave the simple life, but know it is not realistic for most of us in this 21st century.

Sure, we can all go back to simply walking to save gasoline. Even riding a bicycle can impact our environment as it takes material and energy to build and maintain them.

The difficulty that I see between where Mike is and where many of us are is that we are not reasoning from the same data sets. Mike mentions nuclear waste. Good point. But, how dangerous is nuclear waste? Nuclear waste can be remanufactured to produce more nuclear power, but it is not done simply because it is cheaper to use new nuclear material mined from the earth. So nuclear waste is probably less dangerous than the material already in the ground. Often disasters are made disasters because we overreact to them.

Nuclear power is still the cheapest power that can be produced on earth. There has never been a death in the United States in a nuclear power plant. So, it is also the safest. Why are we so determined to keep this source of power from the American people?

Wind and solar: There would never be another one built without support from the taxpayer. They are not practical. The only place they are practical is in locations where it would cost many thousands of dollars to run in power lines. We installed solar when we lived in Mexico and were thankful to have it. But, it was not much help during the rainy season and we were also thankful to have a backup generator. Wind and solar are not practical because we must have on standby another power source powered by coal, gas, nuclear etc when there is no sun or wind. So, wind and solar are very expensive and not very practical.

How about the connection between rising carbon dioxide levels and rising temperatures? For one thing there has been very little rise in temperatures over the past several years (in the statistical range of .01 degrees), and recently the Hadley Center in England concluded that there has actually been no statistically global average rise in temperature over the past several decades. And scientists are still arguing over which rose first, temperatures or carbon dioxide levels. Is it not possible that the sun is warming the seas which are releasing carbon dioxide to the environment?

The development and use of cheap energy is what distinguishes modern man from the primitive. I doubt that any of us are really ready or even willing to give up all the things that require energy.

I think you really have to ask yourself the key question: Am I really concerned about the environment, or am I simply determined to use environmental concerns as one more way to shut down American industry and to enslave the American people.

I have noticed that my friends in the environmental movement are unwilling to talk about anything which could change their minds on environmental issues. And today scientists are working hard to understand many issues from the melting of ice in the arctic (and growing ice in the Antarctic), to rising sea levels, to the effects of increased carbon dioxide on sea shells. (Remember that sea shells are calcium carbonate and carbonate comes from dissolved carbon dioxide in the sea.)

It would be really nice to be able to discuss these things rationally even if it sent us to do more research, but most of them have their minds closed. I think that even if the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change were to have to admit that they had been wrong they still would not believe it.

We are all concerned about our environment: We have to be. But, can we not work to be sure we are all working from the same set of data?

James H. Hollingsworth is a Coeur d'Alene resident.