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People vs. the Planet
Your article "India, Enlightened," by George Black (Summer 2009), on how to save India's poor without environmental collapse, ignored the obvious solution: limit population growth. China's one-child policy has received condemnation from the United States and other democratic countries, but China may prove to be the only large, populous country to achieve sustainability. The same objective can be reached by democratic means. An average family size below replacement level (two children or fewer) could be achieved by promoting public awareness via advertising and by tax incentives or monetary rewards. The offer of a retirement income to those with two or fewer children could reduce or eliminate the perceived need to bear many children as a means of retirement security.
posted online by Don Gentry
The Indian authorities should focus on the immense potential of the commercial exploitation of cow dung. India has the world's largest population of cattle. If utilized intelligently, it can provide gobar gas to substantially reduce the shortage of electricity and also provide sufficient biofertilizer to avoid the use of soil-destroying chemical fertilizers that use up fresh water resources and result in deforestation and siltation of rivers, leading to annual floods.
posted online by Purnima L. Toolsidass
Life with Parkinson's
My wife has suffered from Parkinson's disease for 31 years. As her primary caregiver, I was surprised and pleased to see Robin Marantz Henig's article, "Parkinson's: The Pesticide Link" (Summer 2009), on the possible connection between the disease and chemicals in the environment. I was not so pleased to find that the article presents what appears to be some misinformation. The author states, "Cognitive skills usually are not affected." However, there is a growing consensus that cognitive impairment does take place more often than not, typically from the time of initial diagnosis and eventually evolving into what is known as Parkinson's dementia, characterized by such psychotic symptoms as paranoid delusions. But thanks to Henig for throwing a necessary spotlight on this terrible affliction.
posted online by Kenneth Goodrich
In her article on the link between Parkinson's disease and pesticides, Robin Marantz Henig states that the Chamorro people of the Pacific island of Guam developed Parkinson's-like symptoms after consuming rodents known as fruit bats that had bioaccumulated the neurotoxin BMAA from cycads. While fruit bats are indeed consumed by some Pacific islanders, they are not rodents. All bats belong to the order Chiroptera (Latin for "hand wing"), the second-most speciose order of mammals, with more than 1,100 currently recognized species. They are the only mammals capable of true flight and are phylogenetically more related to humans than to rodents. For those interested, Oliver Sacks, in his 1996 book, The Island of the Color Blind, recounts the fascinating tale of the Chamorros and their mysterious suite of neurological symptoms.
Lizabeth Southworth; Newburyport, Massachusetts
The editors respond: We regret the error, which was noted by many of our astute readers.
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