Dear Editor,

"Who wants to be a millionaire . . . ?"

In the light of an article in yesterday's Guardian ("Boom wipes the shine off being a millionaire"), it is obvious that the words of the song need to be changed to "Who wants to be a multimillionaire?", "billionaire?" or "multibillionaire?"

And the honest (rather than romantic) answer, of course, is that we all do - all 6-7 billion of us!

But does anyone ever pause to ask themselves just how many millionaires, let alone multimillionaires or billionaires, our planet, Spaceship Earth, with its limited natural resources, delicately balanced climate, vulnerable life-supporting ecosystems, and finite carrying capacity, can support?

I do not know what the exact answer to the question is, but I do know it is just a tiny, tiny fraction of 6 billion.

It seems to me that contrary to popular (and most expert) opinion, it is not the poor, after all, who are the world's biggest problem, but the rich. Not simply because they place a much greater per capita drain and strain on our planet’s limited natural resources and carrying capacity than the poor (as your article makes clear when it points out what millionaires most like to spend their money on), but more importantly, because they act as role models, whose "success" and lifestyles the rest of us tend to want, and are encouraged by multibillion dollar advertising and credit industries, to emulate. 

If the world's role models and trendsetters are constantly held up, admired and envied for their material "success" and extravagant, non-sustainable lifestyles, as they generally are in the media, what hope is there of us ever establishing a sustainable economy and ways of life for what will soon be a global population of 7-9 billion people?

The answer, of course, is none whatsoever.

To quote the immortal words of Commander James Lovell, when his spacecraft's, Apollo 13's, life-support systems were damaged on its way to the Moon in 1970: "Houston, we have a problem".

On Spaceship Earth we too have a problem, which because of the vast differences in scale is taking years rather than seconds to become apparent, although the signs should be clear enough by now (global warming etc). 

Addicts that we are to our growth-dependent economy and materialistic lifestyles, we must end the state of denial we are in and wake up to reality pretty soon, because, unlike for Commander Lovell and his crew, there is nowhere for us to get back to after looping around the Moon. Either we solve our problem by creating a sustainable economy and lifestyles for 7-9 billion people) on board ship, or we will perish.

It is as simple as that. But as experience shows, the simplest, most obvious things are sometimes the most difficult to recognise - particularly when doing so will force us to question (and then change) the very foundations of our economy and way of life, along with the values, attitudes and aspirations on which they are based.