My response to The Independent's call for readers' suggestions on climate change

I remember becoming aware that we had a PROBLEM more than 30 years ago, when books like The Limits to Growth by Dennis Meadows et al. were newly published and still being debated. I don't remember any mention of global warming back then; the PROBLEM, as I perceived it, was the impossibility of our finite and vulnerable planet, Spaceship Earth, being able to support an ever increasing number of technologically empowered, but essentially insatiable human beings.

I was relatively young in those days and naively assumed that those in power and authority would steer us away from the calamity towards which we were obviously heading - but I was wrong. It took me a long time to understand that these - so intelligent and self-confident people, who insisted on leading us - could be so blind and stupid. Instead of leading us towards safety, they led us into collective denial - which is where, very largely, we still are, although struggling now both to remain in and to come out of it.

The Independent's campaign to help us face up to the challenge is admirable, but reading those who have so far written in suggests that most still fail to recognise the true magnitude and urgency of the PROBLEM, or, most importantly of all, its root cause, which lies deep within our own human (or rather, animal) nature, on which our entire socio-economic order is very largely based. This is hardly surprisingly in view of what Darwin taught us about human origins, but Christian fundamentalists are not the only ones who have difficulty accepting it.

That's it, in a nutshell, although it may take a while to sink in and for its profound implications to be recognised. This is what we must face up to, if we are to have any hope of success and if our children are to have any hope of a future.

You'll find more details on my website at www.spaceship-earth.org.

To: letters@independent.co.uk Re: The Independent's campaign to raise awareness of global warming Date: Thursday, 30 March 06


In response to The Independent's call for readers' thoughts and suggestions on climate change: I remember becoming aware that we had a PROBLEM more than 30 years ago, when books like The Limits to Growth by Dennis Meadows et al. were newly published and still being debated. I don't remember any mention of global warming back then; the PROBLEM, as I perceived it, was the impossibility of our finite and vulnerable planet, Spaceship Earth, being able to support an ever increasing number of technologically empowered, but essentially insatiable human beings. I was relatively young in those days and naively assumed that those in power and authority would steer us away from the calamity towards which we were obviously heading - but I was wrong. It took me a long time to understand that these - so intelligent and self-confident people, who insisted on leading us - could be so blind and stupid. Instead of leading us towards safety, they led us into collective denial - which is where, very largely, we still are, although struggling now both to remain in and to come out of it. The Independent's campaign to help us face up to the challenge is admirable, but reading those who have so far written in suggests that most still fail to recognise the true magnitude and urgency of the PROBLEM, or, most importantly of all, its root cause, which lies deep within our own human (or rather, animal) nature, on which our entire socio-economic order is very largely based. This is hardly surprisingly in view of what Darwin taught us about human origins, but Christian fundamentalists are not the only ones who have difficulty accepting it. That's it, in a nutshell, although it may take a while to sink in and for its profound implications to be recognised. This is what we must face up to, if we are to have any hope of success and if our children are to have any hope of a future. You'll find more details on my website at www.spaceship-earth.org.