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\F0\CSTANFORD ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY
\CDEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
\CSTANFORD UNIVERSITY
\CSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305
\F1





							March 14, 1974
Dear Mr. Considine:

\J	Thank you for your letter of 8 March.  I agree on the need to
understand the motivations of the people who want to enforce changes
in our life style, and I am still puzzled about it.

	Let me add several categories to your classification of enviromentalists:

	1. Those who are simply mistaken.  The environmentalist authors such
as Ehrlich, Commoner, and Meadows have received much publicity, and few people
are equipped to analyze their arguments without help.  The distinguishing
characteristic of these people is that they are genuinely relieved when solutions
to environmental problems are proposed.

	An important subcategory of this group was recruited to the environmental
movement when its attitudes were reasonable.  An example of a reasonable attitude
is the reaction of California to the smog problem in the 1950s and early 1960s.
The problem was studied scientifically starting with Haagen-Smit's work, and
a law was past requiring that once reasonably priced smog devices were available,
they should be installed in new cars.  The most successful scientist to work on
the problem, namely Haagen-Smit, was made chairman of the Air Resources Board.

	At first, the Sierra Club's attitude was reasonable, with the possible
exception that they placed a higher value on having a large quantity of wilderness
than might have been reasonable.  However, they pushed their reasonable proposals
with unreasonable arguments and attracted fanatics as members and now have
adopted quite unreasonable policies.  I include for your information their latest
position on power.

	2. Snobs.  A common pathological reaction to the size and complexity of
our society is to place oneself in a subgroup that can look down on the others.
Anyone who wishes to consider himself an intellectual can adopt a ready made
set of attitudes for looking down on the middle American.

	3. Exacerbating the above is what seems to me to be a decline in the
standards of intellectual honesty.  If you look at Luther Carter's article
in \F2Science\F1 of 28 December you will see what I mean.  It seems to me that
ten years ago, \F2Science\F1 would not have printed an article that mixes
reporting with advocacy in that way.  More generally, someone who favors some
of the goals of the environmentalists often goes along with arguments he knows
to be wrong, because he has chosen his side.  Many will indulge in rabble
rousing and fear mongering because it advances the cause.

	Signatures are now being collected for an initiative which I regard as
quite harmful, and I am enclosing a copy.  It is far from certain that it
will qualify in July for the November ballot.  However, if it does, I think
it should be opposed by an \F2ad hoc\F1 organization that cannot be accused
of being a creation of the power companies that have a financial interest in
the matter.  If you agree and are willing to help, I'll let you know if action
becomes necessary.

	Thank you again for your kind letter.\.


							Sincerely,


							John McCarthy
							Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
							Professor of Computer Science