Mr. Coelho's position

With the most recent installment of his letters, Mr. Osvaldo Coelho's position has become clear.

Mr. Coelho is of the opinion that environmentalism is unscientific, religious and Western. While the daily facts of environmental destruction defeat the first two claims, the third would need a more rational explanation.

Environmentalism is not a uniquely Western phenomenon. From Brazilian protectors of the Amazon to Cook Islanders who challenge French nuclear tests, the Earth knows a multitude of non-Western environmentalists. One needs only to have a word with local factory workers to know that they have long objected to air, water, field pollution and forest destruction.

What these non-Western environmentalists often have in common is opposition to Western sponsored destruction of their habitats. Asia should have no qualms about a multinational as Greenpeace. It should watch multinationals opposed to Greenpeace. They are the ones who extract Asia's ore, exploit its forests and its people. The true environmentalists might well be the local people who bitterly ask why it is only the West and the rich who benefit when ecosystems are destroyed.

DYLAN M. CLARK

Bandung, West Java