Dear Sir/Madam,

It is not just the President who "needs to look a painful reality squarely in the face" (Today's editorial: "A Foreboding Thaw").

Achieving "sustainability" (including a stable climate) on a planet with a population set to exceed 7 billion, limited natural resources and a finite carrying capacity, is fundamentally incompatible with the extravagantly wasteful and materialistic American Way of Life (along with many of the values, attitudes and aspirations which underlie it) - and all the more so, because so many others are seeking to emulate it.

Asking an American to question the American Way of Life, I know, is like asking a Muslim to question Islam, but it is something you HAVE to do, for your own sakes (or your children's) and for everyone else's. Otherwise we're extinct!

Where to start?

You might like to try my homepage at www.spaceship-earth.org