From: "下地良男" <yshimoji@ll.u-ryukyu.ac.jp>
To: <tsuchida@okinawa-u.ac.jp>
Subject: フォーリー駐日大使へのメール（コピー）
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 16:50:01 +0900
X-Priority: 3

Dear Ambassador Foley:

"Scuttle the Everglades Airport"
So goes the title of The New York Times' December 22, 2000 editorial.
They argue that the airport could bring about an environmental disaster to
Florida's pristine everglades. A very reasonable argument and opinion. I
wonder why in the same vein they shouldn't extend their argument to the
effect: "Scuttle the U.S. Marine Corps Futenma Air Station together with its
Relocation Plan."
You know that the planned relocation site for the Futenma Air Station
is the precious habitat of dugong that are on the list of most endangered
species.

Sincerely yours,
Yoshio Shimoji

Department of Languages and Cultures
College of Law and Letters
University of the Ryukyus
1 Senbaru, Nishihara-Cho, Okinawa-Ken
Japan 903-0213

E-mail: yshimoji@ll.u-ryukyu.ac.jp

The New York Times
December 22, 2000, Friday
Editorial Desk

Scuttle the Everglades Airport

President Clinton's efforts to rescue Florida's Everglades will rank among his finest accomplishments in the field of conservation. But there is one more gift he can make to the troubled South Florida ecosystem before he leaves office, and that is to kill a misguided, seven-year-old plan to allow Miami-Dade County to build a major commercial airport on the site of the old Homestead Air Force Base. Such an airport is not only unnecessary but would pose an unacceptable ecological threat to two national parks -- the Everglades, which is a few miles from the base's western edge, and Biscayne National Park, only two miles to the east.

The airport project began with the best of intentions. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew left Miami-Dade County's economy in ruins. The next year, with encouragement from the White House, the Air Force offered to turn Homestead over to the county in order to promote development. Local leaders settled on a development group dominated by influential Cuban-Americans with close ties to the Democratic Party. The developers, in turn, proposed an international airport with office buildings, warehouses and hotels. But subsequent studies showed that the project would be an environmental disaster. Among other dangers, runoff would threaten the waters and fish of Biscayne Bay, and large-scale development would deplete the aquifers on which the Everglades depends for fresh water.

The project is opposed by Carol Browner, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Bruce Babbitt, the interior secretary. Polls show that local residents oppose it as well. There are alternative plans on Mr. Clinton's desk for modest, mixed-use development at the site. He should transfer the base to the Interior Department, with instructions that it not be released for development until everyone agrees on a plan that is fully compatible with the needs of an ecosystem that is under enough stress as it is.