Editor,Refer to Catherine Kampire’s article, “A sense of helplessness or lack of will?” (The New Times, November 14).I thank the author, as well as The New Times, so much for the article. This issue needs much more attention than it has been receiving. Although so many people talk about solutions like alternative energy, balancing our concern for nature without desire for power and greed; if only we would stop cutting down trees and drilling for oil, everything would be better.But it seems that if we are asking for the world to stop burning oil, we are asking the world to stop the development of modern civilisation.All these superpower post-industrial countries, like my own, have gotten where we are by burning, burning, burning so much oil. There used to be so many trees in the US that a monkey could swing from the east coast to the west coast without touching the ground. Now we have vast deserts and empty fields with dry soil and no pasture for cattle.It takes the continual destruction of nature to achieve the middle-class, modern, high-luxury kind of place that so many developing countries seek to be.In some places in the US, we are seeking to abandon this destruction, and more and more people are farming for themselves instead of buying food – which has to be shipped by so many cars to reach us.The only way to survive global warming is to leave the supermarkets, to ride bicycles not drive in cars, to light our nights with candles not lights. We need a “new lifestyle”.Jesse Barlow, New York******************************Editor,This is a great article, indeed, and quite riveting too. It actually goes beyond the scope of environmental challenges, to analyse the human psyche in relation to problems we create: most difficulties we face as humankind are caused by ourselves, and solutions to deal with them effectively, will only come from our own resolve.Of course, the sooner, the better... I am of the optimistic kind, impending doom has always been around the corner, but in the course of human history, we have always managed to avoid it. Let’s continue to hope (and act!) that this time around, we shall do the same.Diyana, Kigali
