RICH AND GREEN
I take offense when writers reinforce the stereotype that rich folks don't care about the environment ("If you can afford the $150,000 Aston Martin DB9 Coupe, you're probably not bothered by its 10-mpg-city, 16-mpg-highway rating," "Green My Ride," March/April).

The hottest, highest-performing car to be developed in years is the all-electric Tesla. Its 135-mpg equivalence blows away even the beloved Prius. This revolutionary car, and other quantum-leap environmental products, would not come to market if it weren't for environmentalists who are rich enough to support these nascent products.
Nick Wilder
Boulder, Colorado

Editor's note: Sierra readers nearly spilled their travel mugs in their eagerness to comment on our "Green My Ride" car ratings. For more, visit sierraclub.org/sierra/greenride.

GREEN POORHOUSE
Oh please, not another green home ("Comfort Zone," March/April)! I recently built a home in Connecticut and found that "green" means dollars. The majority of people cannot afford such greenery. Some green techniques cost almost nothing (proper house orientation, shading roof overhangs) while others are very expensive (solar panels).
Steve Sands
San Diego, California

NO BIKES ALLOWED
I was surprised and disappointed to read about Jim Malusa's bike trek across the salt flats of Death Valley National Park and his subsequent bedding down for the night ("As Low As You Can Go," March/April).

Park regulations state: "Bikes are not allowed off roads, on trails, on closed roads, or in the wilderness areas of the park." Furthermore, camping is prohibited on the floor of Death Valley, except in designated campgrounds.
Michael J. Painter
Sierra Club National Utah Wilderness Task Force
San Francisco, California

Editor's note: Sierra Club policy opposes the use of bicycles in wilderness and protected areas, and all Club outings adhere strictly to agency regulations in the areas visited.

HORNY TOADS VERSUS McMANSIONS
The March/April issue features a photograph of a horned lizard ("As Low As You Can Go"). When we first moved to our isolated acre, the area was magically populated by the fascinating horned lizard. Now the surrounding land has been McMansioned; the ground sprayed with insecticides; the black ants, part of the horned lizard's diet, vanquished. Am I responsible? I too moved to this once beautiful area, now just a crowded, monochromatic metropolis.
Annette S. Prioste
Scottsdale, Arizona

CHINA'S STUCK IN THE '60S
Carl Pope's "The China Syndrome" ("Ways & Means," March/April) exposes a fascinating angle on the shift toward manufacturing just about everything in China. Corporations move their manufacturing to China for one simple reason: to bypass all the environmental, labor, wage, and health standards many of us fought for decades to establish here in the United States (and Europe). It's telling that the corporations making this end run around U.S. regulations choose an undemocratic, corrupt command economy in which to make their messes, a country where the public is beginning to rise up against pollution and labor problems just as we did in the 1960s.
Tom Ribe
Santa Fe, New Mexico

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