To:    The New York Times <letters@nytimes.com>
Re:    Not just America is addicted (and not just) to oil
Date:  Thursday 2 February 06

 
Dear Sir/Madam,
 
The President has admitted that we are addicted to oil. But how many alcoholics have admitted their addiction to friends and family, sincerely assuring them that they will now get on top of it, but failed to do so?
 
The way things stand at the moment, we will not get on top of our addiction either, the consequences of which - quite literally, if we love our children and grandchildren - do not bear thinking about.

The reason is that we have yet to recognise the seriousness - the depth, extent and urgency - of our addiction, which is not just to oil, but to a fundamentally unsustainable economy and way of life, which, along with many of the values, attitudes and (material) aspirations which underlie them (unsurprisingly, in view of what Charles Darwin is supposed to have taught us about human origins) are rooted in our "more animal than human " nature.

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