Dear Sir/Madam,

BP is caught between the horns of a dilemma, but I take my hat off to its chief executive, John Browne, for setting such a brave example (How Green Is BP? December 8, 2002)

For BP the dilemma is glaringly obvious, but if we open our eyes we all face the same dilemma: our dependence on an economy and lifestyles that are fundamentally non-sustainable.

Of course, it is not you or I who are the problem, but the 6 billion odd other people who live, or are striving to live, as we do . . . .

Because of the differences in scale, what took just seconds to become apparent on board Apollo 13 is taking years on board Spaceship Earth. But the signs are clear enough . . .