LIVING GREEN

The environmental issue hits a high note; the global-warming dilemma; and Massey Energy's C.E.O. addresses world suffering

LETTERS

From the outstanding Editor's Letter and Green Portfolio to the brief profile of James Hansen and the articles on coal mining and global warming, the May Green Issue is a knockout! So many people are working hard on behalf of the wilderness and the ecological state of the planet and have often found it dispiriting to sense general ambivalence, to feel ignored and marginalized. But this issue offers real hope that word will reach exactly those citizens who most need to hear these stories. Thank you for having the courage to step out of the shadows and take on a governmental machine that has truly failed us.

ALISAN PETERS

Jackson, Wyoming

I WAS IMPRESSED with your first-ever Green Issue, especially the pieces by A1 Gore and Mark Hertsgaard. But of all the ways to save the planet, how could you leave out food? Unless we care about what we eat, environmentalism will always be something outside ourselves.

Eating is something we all have to do every day, and eating can open up our senses— and our consciences—in a way nothing else can. It interconnects us, locally and globally: Understand where your food comes from and you have mastered the lessons of ecology. Choose to eat only good, healthy food, locally and sustainably produced, and you have learned environmental responsibility. What curriculum in the public schools could be more relevant to the crisis we now face than teaching our children how to grow food, how to cook, and how to eat together around the table? Invite children to learn where good food comes from, what it's for, and how it's shared, and you instill the very values that can prevent global disaster.

ALICE WATERS

Berkeley, California

YOUR GREEN ISSUE WAS SUPERB, but it did contain one misattribution. William McDonough did not design the Aeron chair; that honor goes to Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf. McDonough and his firm, MBDC, however, did "deconstruct" the chair and analyze its materials to figure out how to manufacture it in a more sustainable way.

DAVID BROWN

Brooklyn, New York

YOUR GREEN ISSUE perpetuated the stereotype that "environmentalism" is something only the affluent and the overwhelmingly white can do. You did include Wangari Muta Maathai, but after leafing through the rest of the issue, I wondered if her incredible achievements would have warranted her inclusion if she hadn't won a Nobel Prize.

"Environmental justice" means: no community should be saddled with more environmental burdens and fewer environmental benefits than any other. Unfortunately, race and class are reliable indicators as to where one might find the good stuff (such as parks) and the bad stuff (such as power plants and waste facilities). Environmentaljustice communities are like the canaries in the coal mine. We feel the problems right now, and have for some time.

Grassroots activists have been born of desperation in communities such as mine in the South Bronx; we are striving for solutions that won't compromise communities of color in the short term and won't destroy us all in the long term. We are not problems to be solved by empty campaign promises of presidents come and gone—or by movie stars buying Priuses.

Vanity Fair lost an opportunity to support comprehensive sustainable change everywhere. Help make "green the new black" and make sustainability sexy by helping us fight for environmental justice.

MAJORA J. CARTER

Executive director, Sustainable South Bronx

Bronx, New York

YOUR GREEN ISSUE was a revelation! What touched me most was your recognition of the environment and of those who are devoting their lives to its preservation. It was a humbling read, and I know that I am not the only one whose environmental awareness has been heightened by your efforts.

CLAIRE SCOVILLE

Portland, Oregon

I WAS HAPPY to be included in your Green Issue. Unfortunately, there were two incorrect pieces of information in the write-up. The location for the photograph was not the Newman's Own Organics Farm in Aptos, California. We don't own any farms; however, we do source our new line of bagged salad greens, fruits, vegetables, and herbs from some outstanding organic ones. The shoot took place at the U.C. Santa Cruz Farm and Garden Project, a program that my father has helped fund for more than a decade. I like to do shoots there to highlight the good work the program does in training students from all over the world in organicfarming techniques.

In addition, the Fig Newman is one of our most popular cookies, but it does not gross $20 million a year, as stated. That figure is the estimated total company gross for 2003. In any event, we are delighted that you chose to focus your May issue on the environment.

NELL NEWMAN

Co-founder and president

Newman's Own Organics

Aptos, California

DROWNING IN DENIAL

I APPLAUD THE ARTICLE "While Washington Slept" [by Mark Hertsgaard, May]. It is extremely disheartening to live in America and see the science of climate change be denied time and time again. The article mentions the "cherry-picking" of science when it comes to this administration's stance, but what's more, it points to an attitude not only prevalent in our current government but indicative of American culture itself. We live in a society that never acts until it is too late, a complete disaster strikes, or the financial bottom line is affected enough. Until the United States adopts a culture of prevention and accepts science for science and not politics, it will lag farther and farther behind the rest of the world in changing things for the greater good. We are at a turning point where the science is clear and sound, and I hope as more light is brought to the effects of global warming more Americans will take a stand.

NICOLE EDMONDS

Seattle, Washington

I WAS QUITE AMAZED at your article "While Washington Slept," not for its veracity but quite the opposite. It appears you have become a modern-day Chicken Little, albeit with a new twist: "The caps are melting, the caps are melting," you cry.

Any scientist worth his or her degree would agree that you absolutely cannot take the small sliver of 50 years' time, or even 150 years' time, out of the vast millions of years of earth time, and make any reliable prediction whatsoever. It's as if you were looking at a single frame from a 12-hour movie and predicting the plot and outcome. That is not science; it's pure conjecture, guesswork.

Scientists do agree that there once was an ice age here on earth, and then a great thaw that created the oceans as we know them today. And there was not one single human here to burn fossil fuels to cause that thaw. This whole global-warming argument reminds me of my grade-school years, in the late 60s, and of those Weekly Reader articles that claimed we would suffer overpopulation and massive starvation at the turn of the millennium as farmers' production could not keep up with the demand for food. How foolish those predictions look today when juxtaposed with the frequent articles about an "overweight America."

MICHAEL S. HERMAN SR.

Baldwin, Maryland

WHERE COAL IS KING

I FINISHED Michael Shnayerson's article in an unusual way: with tears streaming down my cheeks ["The Rape of Appalachia," May]. At first I was appalled, then I felt ashamed for not being aware that this was happening in my country. Now I am angry and trying to figure out how I can help. Shnayerson has galvanized me into action and, one hopes, millions and millions of others.

KATHRYN NUNN Palm Coast, Florida

MICHAEL SHNAYERSON should consider the damage his untruths can cause. People can only be helped by truth, AIDS, starvation, war, and lack of clean water are just some of the real issues facing the world today. Wasting billions of dollars on a climate-change theory won't help people in their lifetime (even if it were true). It only serves to deprive them of resources that could make their lives better. Shnayerson's emotional attachment to the climate issue prevents him from seeing the truth. The current world suffering demands realism. Inexpensive energy and electrification of homes around the world will help far more people than scaring them with non-scientific theories.

Massey Energy has endured decades of criticism and untruths in order to provide jobs for those who want to work in Appalachia. The coal industry provides low-cost electricity to 150 million Americans. The mining and burning of coal are done continually with less pollution and even fewer accidents. Additionally, coal does not lead to war. The same cannot be said for oil. Today, war over oil—along with the issues of poverty, cholera, and malaria, among others—outranks global climate change. Worry about global-climate-change theory after people have the necessities of life, including peace.

DON L. BLANKENSHIP Chairman and C.E.O., Massey Energy Richmond, Virginia

EDITOR'S NOTE: In "Talk of the Town," by Bryan Burrough and John Connolly, in the June issue, a small amount of text was dropped between pages 90 and 93. The sentence that begins at the bottom of page 90 should have read: "After months of anticipation, the tip of this very dirty iceberg finally hove into view in February, when Pellicano and six of his flunkies, including two policemen, were indicted on various charges, including illegally accessing law-enforcement databases."

CORRECTION: The April 2006 "Dominick Dunne's Diary" contained some inaccuracies in its account concerning Helen Fioratti and her art-and-antiques gallery, LAntiquaire & the Connoisseur ("LATC"). Sotheby's erred in describing as a 19th-century copy an antique desk previously sold by Fioratti and LATC to the interior decorator retained by Dennis Kozlowski. After confirming that the desk was an authentic 18th-century antique, Sotheby's withdrew the desk from its arcade sale andplaced it in its prestigious French and Continental Furniture auction, where it sold last year for $90,000. Vanity Fair and Dominick Dunne have no basis to believe that any of the antiques that Fioratti and LATC sold to Kozlowski's interior decorator were fakes or were anything other than authentic antiques. The article incorrectly reported that Fioratti had initiated a criminal investigation of her former employee James Sansum without telling the district attorney that Sansum had previously brought a lawsuit against her. In fact, Fioratti reported her allegations concerning Sansum to law enforcement in August 2001, two months before Sansum filed his lawsuit against her While the article reported that none of Fioratti s charges ofSansum's alleged corporate theft was pursued by the district attorney, Sansum was indicted for allegedly stealing more than half a million dollars in money, art, and antiques from LATC, but those charges were later dismissed. Sansum pleaded guilty, as part of a plea-and-cooperation agreement, to separate charges of petit larceny, for stealing pieces of artwork painted by Fioratti's daughter, and of falsifying business records. The article overstated the number of allegedly stolen itemsfound in LA TC's inventory after Sansum s indictment and did not mention that during searches of Sansum's premises the police recovered 26 pieces of artwork and scores of research books, of which both LATC and Sansum claim sole ownership and which are the subject of an ongoing lawsuit between LATC and Sansum.

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