To the Editor:
      Re ``Steep Rise Is Forecast for Winter Heating Bills'' (front page, July 5):    I get the impression that someone has forgotten to tell America that natural gas and oil are nonrenewable resources. Prices are not only bound to continue to rise;  eventually, these resources are going to run out! Instead of complaining, perhaps Americans could spare a thought for the rest of humanity and for coming generations, including their own children and grandchildren.
   Unlike the Apollo astronauts, we have nowhere to get back to. We have to sort the problem out while still on board, changing from a nonsustainable to a sustainable economy and to lifestyles that do not threaten our
planet's life-supporting ecosystems.
   At the moment things are not looking good. Most people do not even seem to realize that we have a problem, or have deluded themselves by believing that it is being addressed.  From  ROGER HICKS,  Braunschweig, Germany, July 6, 2000. Please let me know by email if this is ok.

This is the reply that I sent back to her:

Betreff: Plundering Planet Earth
Datum: Fri, 07 Jul 2000 10:48:39 +0200
Von: Roger Hicks <Roger.Hicks@spaceship-earth.de>
An: Mary Drohan <drohan@nytimes.com>

Dear Mary,

I was hoping to make what I believe are some very important and urgent points with my letter:

1) If we did but realise it, we really are behaving like a "bunch of ruthless and stupid bandits" the way we are plundering the Earth's natural resources. In German they are called "Naturschätze", which literally means "natural
treasure".

What started out in the 19th Century on a small, harmless scale, has developed exponentially over the past few generations and taken on gigantic proportions. Having grown up with it, it seems quite normal to us, which is why we fail to
recognise it for the monstrous crime that it has now become, towards our children and future generations; a crime in which we are all participating, and on which we all depend: oil and gas (two prime examples of the booty) are the life blood of our economies.

2) We are behaving the way we do because it is in accordance with accepted values and attitudes, and because received economic wisdom and economic necessity demand it of us. These are further reasons why it is so difficult for us to recognise and address the problem.

3)  If America were the only nation on Earth, you could probably continue as you are doing for many generations to come. But you are not. You constitute no more than 5% of the world's population. There are billions of others on the planet, most of them developing similarly non-sustainable economies and life styles, which can only lead to us exceeding our planet's carrying capacity and damaging its life-supporting ecosystems.

4) Since the incident with Apollo 13 in 1970, everyone should understand the vital importance of a spacecraft's life-support systems. The Earth is very much like a spaceship, with finite resources, a limited carrying capacity, and life-supporting ecosystems on which we depend absolutely.

My letter was an attempt to point out the terrible, but still largely unrecognised danger we are in.

You are welcome to publish your edited version if you wish, although unfortunately it no longer brings home the essential points I wanted to make.

If possible, please replace "Unlike the Apollo astronauts, we have nowhere to get back to" with "Unlike the astronauts on board Apollo 13, when Spaceship Earth's life-support systems break down, we have nowhere to get back to".

Braunschweig, by the way, is the modern German name for "Brunswick".