19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER
ACID PRECIPITATION
Sir:
When I was a little younger, I looked to SHORTS ILLUSTRATED for its glossy photographs of my athletic idols. Today I'm glad you concentrate on more than games. Robert H. Boyle's article (An American Tragedy, Sept. 21) is another in a long line of cogent SI reports concerning environmental issues that affect us all—athletes, laborers, artists and, though they may not realize it, businessmen and politicians. Boyle's essay, though environmentally biased, is thorough and fair in stressing the serious problems associated with acid precipitation. Thank you for having more substance than mere sports statistics.
MARK C. AUSTIN
Draper, Utah
Sir:
Robert H. Boyle's article was a masterpiece. It's a shame the large utilities and manufacturers don't take the money they spend on propaganda arguing that acid precipitation is little or no problem and use it instead to devise ways to reduce the amount of sulfur dioxide they're spewing into our environment.
The present Administration seems downright indifferent to the acid-rain calamity. With James F. McAvoy nominated to the Council on Environmental Quality (SCORECARD, Aug. 10) and with Budget Director David A. Stockman's apparent lack of concern for the problem, the Federal Government will be contributing nothing to solving it. I hope this article stirs people into action and prevents this worldwide problem from being put on the back burner. Keep these informative, hard-hitting articles coming.
TOM GRISWOLD
Madison, Wis.
Sir:
As one who teaches economics, I was especially interested in David Stockman's use of marginal analysis to justify a policy that would continue to allow firms to pump pollutants into the atmosphere. Such an approach implies that all the social costs associated with acid precipitation are known and measurable, which they are not. His analysis also ignores a more fundamental economic principle: Users of resources, such as industrial firms, should pay all costs associated with their actions, including non-market social costs. The use of selected economic principles to justify the status quo is indeed sloppy economics. I give Stockman a D.
DAVID S. MOEWES
Assistant Professor of Economics
Concordia College
Moorhead, Minn.
Sir:
I'd like to compliment SPORTS ILLUSTRATED and Robert H. Boyle for the fine article on acid precipitation, or acid rain, as it's more popularly known. At a time when Congress faces a protracted battle over the reauthorization of the Clean Air Act, a well-reasoned study such as Boyle's is a welcome addition to the public dialogue.
An enormous gap exists between the rhetoric and the reality of the Administration's environmental policies, particularly regarding the acid-rain issue. In August, the Environmental Protection Agency released a broad set of "principles" on the Act, purporting to be a continuation of the progression toward cleaner air. However, the latest indications are that the Administration is intent on providing no resolution to the acid-rain problem. The Administration's most recent draft proposal, in fact, actually calls for easing the emission standards on new coal-fired power plants. This would further exacerbate the acid-rain dilemma.
Hearings arc scheduled in Congress on the acid-rain issue in early October. Public opinion polls continue to show overwhelming support for the government's role as protector of the environment. Clearly, Congress' role is to keep this issue in the public eye and ensure that acid rain is not ignored in the coming Clean Air Act debate. There is no mandate for the Adminstration's retreat from safeguarding air quality.
EDWARD J. MARKEY [D-Mass.]
Member of Congress
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
While your effort to keep the public informed about acid rain is commendable, your call to strengthen the Clean Air Act is likely to fall on deaf ears in the Reagan Administration. As an attorney at EPA, I have found that the agency's new leadership isn't even interested in the recommendations of its own staff regarding legislation to amend the act. That should tell you how much they will heed the editorial position of a sports magazine, no matter how influential it may be. One can only hope that certain key members of Congress, such as Senator Robert T. Stafford (R-Vt., Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee) and Representative Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif., Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health and Environment), will have sufficient backbone and wherewithal to improve the Clean Air Act, rather than relax it.
ELLIOTT J. GILBERG
Washington, D.C.
Sir:
Robert H. Boyle makes a rather compelling argument for action to curtail acid precipitation. However, it seems to me that environmentalists have hurt themselves in two respects. First, by demanding too much too quick. They have documented adverse trends that have taken years to build, but instead of recommending long-range programs to reverse those trends, they agitate to have everything corrected—in fact, overcorrected—immediately, regardless of the cost to the already overburdened public or of the loss of production or jobs.
Second, there are too many groups, each of which is dedicated to a particular portion of the environment, that present the situation in their area of interest as a "life or death" emergency. They have cried "Wolf! Wolf!" so many times with minimum cause that when Boyle really sees the wolf, many people do not pay attention.
HARRY CANTEY
Kingston, Tenn.
Sir:
What the hell is going on with your magazine? I spend my hard-earned bucks on SI in the hope of getting some interesting sports articles, but no, you put in a 14-page article on some damn lake that's polluted! The cover of your Sept. 21 issue says SPORTS ILLUSTRATED not Field & Stream. I'm getting sick and tired of your putting sportless articles in the magazine. I mean, who reads that? Who? Tell me.
BARRY BROCK
Maricopa, Ariz.
MAC
Sir:
Thank you for giving John McEnroe the credit he has always deserved (Another Big Mac Attack, Sept. 21). By beating Bjorn Borg in three major-championship finals in a row—in the last two U.S. Opens and the 1981 Wimbledon championship—he has shown who is the superior player.
The behavior of the fans at Flushing Meadow, however, was far more disgraceful than any McEnroe outburst I've ever seen. I was at the Open final last year and heard the rude New York crowd cheer when McEnroe double-faulted and remain silent when he made an incredible shot. These boorish New York fans who consider themselves tennis experts are the same ones who applaud Borg for his gentlemanly conduct and mild manner.
I strongly suggest that the Flushing crowd get its act together or the Open be moved to a more deserving city next year. We in New York should be proud that the world's greatest tennis player comes from nearby Douglaston. Surely a champion deserves better treatment than this.
SCOTT COLESANTI
New Hyde Park, N.Y.
Sir:
I agree that Bjorn Borg doesn't seem to have the total game necessary to beat McBrat on a hard court, but such an exemplary player and sportsman as Borg deserves to be written about with more respect. Frank Deford also failed to mention a factor that may have hindered Borg's play against McEnroe and prevented him from appearing at the awards ceremony—namely, the threats that were made on his life.
PIERR JOHNSON JR.
Iowa City, Iowa
Sir:
John McEnroe is good at the net, but in my opinion Bjorn Borg has the game's best passing shots. And anyone who has a match with the still great Jimmy Connors has to come down some the next day. To me and many others, Borg is still No. 1.
KARL MCDONNELL
Hampton, Va.
Sir:
As much as it pains me to write this, I must respectfully submit that Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion John McEnroe is the best candidate for SI's 1981 Sportsman of the Year award.
JOHN NAGLE
Gaithersburg, Md.
LEONARD-HEARNS
Sir:
SI's prefight insights into the Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns showdown (Sugar Should Frost Him, Sept. 14) are evidence that you truly do publish the best magazine in any land. The drawings that accompanied your preview of the fight are almost identical to the AP Laserphotos of the bout that appeared in my local newspaper. In fact, one picture of Leonard slipping a Hearns jab is astonishingly close to artist Bart Forbes' depiction in your magazine. Also, it's great that you could show me a picture of my favorite boxer jubilant in victory even before the fight took place. You've done it again, SI.
ED CURTIN
Meadville, Pa.
Sir:
Your cover did it again! It proved to be a jinx to one of the best boxers to come along. Thomas (Hit Man) Hearns. Would you please do me and thousands of other Hearns fans a favor? Keep him off the cover when he gets a rematch with Ray Leonard.
MARK DIMINUCO
Fayetteville, Ark.
Letters should include the name, address and home telephone number of the writer and be addressed to The Editor, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020.
