There is a very (and I mean VERY) important lesson to be learned from Exxon's attitude to global warming (Exxon Backs Groups That Question Global Warming, May 28, 2003).

NO ONE wants their business, their means of making a living (money) - whether through their own work (from shop floor to top management) or investments - spoiled. Every individual, company and industry vigorously defends their freedom to conduct the business they make their money from. It's the most natural and accepted thing in the world and a basic assumption underlying our economy and way of life, yet it has resulted in the tobacco, pharmaceutical and oil industries, for example, being accused of putting their business interests before the vital interests of present and future generations of human beings.

We struggle to understand how dealers in hard drugs have the heart to give their pernicious and illegal business interests priority over the immense human suffering they cause, and fail to see the common values and attitudes underlying all business (money making) activity, whether legal or not.

We have known for decades about the terrible harm cigarettes do to human health and life expectancy, yet the tobacco industry continues to spend billions of dollars promoting its products and resisting all efforts to restrict its business. Because to them, as with everyone, their business interests take priority over everything else. In the same way, the oil industry, and Exxon in particular, is far more interested in conducting its business (selling oil and its products) than in the consequences of consuming limited natural resources so quickly or of global warming. And the same applies across the board to every individual, company and industry. 

Despite differences in the way individual people and companies (never or rarely whole industries) respond to criticism of the consequences of their business activities, they invariably continue to put these interests FIRST. They have to. Other people (who depend on them) and "The System" demand it !!

There is no denying it (although that is what everyone, including YOU at the NYT, are doing): the American way of life and doing business (i.e. all western civilisation) is under dire threat - from ITSELF!!

I've already well overstepped the maximum of 150 words you stipulate for letters to the editor, so I'll write just a few concluding words. Ideally I'd like to write a full article for you on the subject.

What were James Lovell's immortal words after an explosion seriously damaged Apollo 13's  life-support systems? "Houston, we have a problem . . . ".  We also have a problem on our very large but nevertheless finite and vulnerable planet, Spaceship Earth. If we don't start facing up to it very soon (and here the NYT has an extremely important role to play) we are going to be in more than just serious trouble; the horrors of the 20th Century will pale in comparison. Because of differences in scale, what took just seconds to become apparent on board Apollo 13 is taking years on Spaceship Earth, but the signs, such as global warming, are clear enough, for those with eyes to see.