Letter to the editor: Middle-class families in wealthy nations are often criticized for the ecological damage resulting from their lifestyles. This criticism should not be taken too seriously, however, since its source is often a movie star or celebrity whose own lifestyle would, if widely adopted, destroy the environment and deplete our resources in a short time. The reasoning in the letter to the editor is vulnerable to criticism in that it ['criticizes a characteristic of the people giving an argument rather than criticizing the argument itself', 'takes failure to act consistently with a belief as an indication of the sincerity with which that belief is held', 'fails to recognize that evidence advanced in support of a conclusion actually undermines that conclusion', 'presumes that a viewpoint must be unreasonable to accept simply because some of the grounds advanced to support it do not adequately do so']