When will we learn that industries - and the national and international economies they constitute - are only sustainable in so far as they operate within (for safety's sake, well within) the carrying capacity of our planet's (Spaceship Earth's) life-supporting ecosystems ('No more cod' if North Sea grounds are not closed, 11 November 2000).

British fishermen, along with their European counterparts, are in the process of destroying the very basis of their livelihood, just as the fishermen of Newfoundland, and the whalers before them, did.

The fishing industry is in a dilemma which can only be resolved by reducing their catch to the point where it becomes sustainable. Their industry must shrink or disappear altogether. There is no alternative.

What is happening to the fishing industry should be seen as a model and dire warning of what in coming decades will happen on a far greater scale with the entire world economy, as it seeks to take from our planet more than it has to offer - just as today's fishermen are seeking to take more from the North Sea than it has to offer.