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To: letters@nytimes.com |
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Dear Editors,
Today's editorial ("How
dare they use our oil!") illustrates our struggle
to confront the problem of climate change and
achieving sustainability, before a ruthless mother nature (who
is already "warming up" for the job) does it for us.
The details are complicated, of course, but the problem
boils down to a very simple, but entirely overlooked, case
of misplaced priorities.
"Economy" and "ecology" both derive from the Greek word for
"household", economy relating to the household of mankind,
ecology to the household of our planet. For reasons deeply
rooted in our human (or rather, animal) nature, we give
economy priority over ecology, when in fact it has
to be the other way around.
This entails radical changes, not just to our economy and
way of life, but also to many of the values, attitudes and
(material) aspirations which underlie them. It is the
biggest challenge mankind has ever faced, and high time we
faced up to it.
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