Dear Sir/Madam,

Those complaining about the increasing price of petrol should consider that it is derived from oil, which, seen objectively, or from the prospective of future generations (including today's children), is "stolen goods" (Petrol prices to rise after Brown's tax increase, 26 September, 2003).

We should be utterly ashamed of ourselves for the criminally irresponsible way in which we, and our parents before us, are squandering this invaluable natural resource, the German name for which, very appropriately,  is "natural treasure" (Naturschatz).

It is not just oil, of course, but oil is the most important example of the natural treasures we are squandering in pursuit of our grossly materialistic and completely non-sustainable lifestyles.

Looked at objectively, we are literally plundering our planet.

What started out on a small, harmless scale, has developed exponentially over the past century or so and taken on gigantic proportions.

The trouble is, because we have all grown up with it, it seems perfectly normal. Which is why we fail to recognise it for the monstrous crime that it has now become; a crime against our own children and future generations; a crime in which we are all participating, and on which we all depend: oil and gas - two main examples of the booty - are the life blood of our economy.

Because of the vast differences in scale, what took just seconds to become apparent when Apollo 13's life-support systems were damaged on its way to the Moon, is taking years (decades) aboard Spaceship Earth. For those with eyes to see, the signs are clear enough (e.g. global warming), but most do not want to see. Instead we are behaving as some people do when confronted with the symptoms of a life-threatening disease: either denying them completely or playing down their significance, which is what most of us are doing.

We are fast approaching catastrophe on an unimaginable scale, but no one, it seems, it prepared to face up to it. Even those who realise that we have a serious problem regarding sustainability are sticking their heads in the sand. Perhaps because they genuinely believe that the hopelessly inadequate steps being taken to achieve it (e.g. the Kyoto protocol) are really enough, or because they think there is no longer any way to prevent the tidal wave from hitting us. They may be right in the latter case, but I wouldn't want the tidal wave to catch me with my head in the sand. And besides, there is a lot of work to be done to mitigate its effects and to ensure that at least some of our children survive - and don't make the same mistakes that we did.