Clinton's environmental legacy

The author of the opinion-page article ``Clinton and the Environment,'' Jan. 19, states that President Clinton's most far-reaching environmental legacy will be the change in the management of the public lands of the American West. Not so.

Mr. Clinton's greatest environmental legacy will be his reversal of the Reagan-Bush administrations' destructive policy of opposing responsible funding of family-planning services in America and throughout the world. In addition, Clinton is encouraging establishing population policies and programs worldwide. By such actions, Clinton will hasten the day when the world's population will be stabilized and then reduced to a size compatible with the carrying capacity of the world's natural resources. Such actions will be Clinton's ``most far-reaching environmental legacy.''

I am surprised that the author never refers to Clinton's family planning programs in discussing the president's environmental protection efforts. The rapid increase in population is at the root of environmental deterioration. G. B. Lloyd, Southwest Harbor, Maine

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