To the Editor:

Alas! Poor Sustainable Princeton does not seem to be able to do anything right [“Efforts by Sustainable Princeton to Address Problems May Be Inadequate, Misdirected,” Mailbox Feb. 12]. Rain barrels to provide water for lawns (invented in England: Full Stop, my wife is English) are promoting an anachronistic display of wealth. Collecting and hauling away organic materials for composting makes people feel good but “does not address the need to relocalize critical future resources.” Giving awards is obviously of dubious value since it “may give recipients a false sense of achievement.” Using meetings to allow “peddlers” to promote their wares opens the way for the hucksters among them to deceive naïve, emotionally vulnerable Princeton residents (of which there are multitudes, as we know). Promoting “environmental” books and films seems also suspect since they might not, after all, inspire us to act intelligently. And all of this does not really matter since runaway global warming may be inevitable, leading to the extinction of the human race.

I hope Sustainable Princeton recognizes all of these criticisms as a manifestation of the adage: “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished,” and continue to expand its efforts to promote a better environment.

As for us, we will continue to use our green dumpster to compost everything organic in our waste, eliminating visits to our compost heap by raccoons, rats, and other undesirables, and hope the program will expand to include apartment buildings and businesses. We will also continue to buy wind energy off the grid to run our heat pump to heat and cool our home and charge our battery-powered Leaf. This will not only virtually eliminate our local carbon emissions but also will opt us out of supporting mountaintop removal, hydraulic fracturing, nuclear power and nuclear waste and war and terrorism in the Middle East.

It is critical that we not fall for the despair, fatalism, and depression promoted by the climate doomsters and eager catastrophists. There is much everyone can do to be part of the solution to the extremely serious issues of climate change and empire. We need organizations like Sustainable Princeton to provide information and encouragement and to recognize local leadership so that each of us understands what our own contributions might be.

Alfred Cavallo

Western Way