To the editor: In her op-ed about the glories of travel, author Lisa Niver laments misplaced baggage, missed flights and LAX. She neglects to say the environmental value of leisure air journey.
She notes the joys of swimming with jellyfish, seeing a large Buddha statue and the fun of straightforward worldwide, intercultural human interactions. Whereas cross-cultural communication is a constructive concept, it’s not dependent upon repeated world flights.
Our fragile planet is so compromised by human-caused local weather chaos that we will not afford to gallivant world wide on airplanes with out additional dire penalties.
Do you wish to commune with different cultures over a meal in L.A.? Take a look at eating places in Little Bangladesh or Koreatown. Somewhat worldwide music maybe? Strive the Ukrainian Competition or Mariachi Plaza. Little Armenia, Thai City, Pico-Robertson and Little Tokyo are just some of the culture-rich neighborhoods close by.
The type of air journey Niver suggests is energy-intensive and depending on fossil fuels, and is the whimsy of a privileged class. It’s merely not sustainable.
Margaret Baker Davis, Claremont
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To the editor: I used to be studying Niver’s article extolling the virtues of her globetrotting way of life with rising bemusement, nevertheless it was her next-to-last paragraph that moved me to write down.
In it she associated how the Palau authorities requires its guests to make an environmental pledge. Does she not notice that by flying everywhere in the world, she is doing one of many extra environmentally harmful acts a person can do?
Gordon Anderson, West Hollywood
