To the editor:

I ran across an amazing book, "The Ultimate Resource 2." The author, Julian L. Simon, skewers the sacred cows of environmentalism, population control and Paul Ehrilich, famed environmental wacko. Simon bets the farm on the ability of intelligent people to overcome their problems.

The book lays out convincing evidence of a prosperous future. The key to progress is not state-run conservation programs, but economic and political freedom. Only then can talented minds properly apply themselves to earthly dilemmas. Simon argues that the ultimate resource is the human imagination coupled to the human spirit.

To all Earth Firsters, Sierra Clubbers and Audubon Society members, reading this book is detrimental to your blissful ignorance about the economic and scientific realities of resource use by human beings.

ED STEWART

Middlebrook