High-Energy Dispute

In the spirit of their 19th-Century predecessors, today’s neo-Luddites such as Jeremy Rifkin and his ilk are not out to protect nature or the environment; they are out to destroy science and technology (“Fear of Fusion” by Paul Ciotti, April 19).

For decades they have called for sacrificing the quality of human life made possible by the abundance of natural energy sources for the sake of fish, trees and inanimate nature. If the preservation of nature were their concern, one would think that they would enthusiastically welcome the discovery of the process of cold fusion, which could provide a source of clean, pollution-free energy.

In reality, they react quite differently: An inexhaustible energy source would give man the ability to destroy the planet’s “fragile balance,” Rifkin argues.

In the pre-industrial age to which Rifkin wishes to return us, the average life expectancy was 30 years, and the “excess” population was wiped out by periodic famines and plagues. This is still the case in the non-industrialized parts of the world, such as Ethiopia. Rifkin’s argument bespeaks not of a love of nature, but of a profound hatred for man and for any human progress that has been made beyond that sorry state.

RON M. KAGAN

Long Beach