Dear Sir/Madam,

The Guardian takes environmental concerns and sustainability more seriously than most, but is nevertheless still a long way from appreciating just how serious the situation aboard Spaceship Earth actually is (today's leader: "The ends of the Earth")

We are quite literally addicted to our growth-dependent economy and the criminally wasteful, grossly materialistic lifestyles it engenders. And to satisfy our cravings we are - again, quite literally - plundering the planet (which is a crime of inexpressible magnitude, because we only have it on loan from our children, and makes a mockery of the name we gave ourselves - Homo sapiens, indeed!).

The consequences of what we are doing (for our children and those who come after them) do not bear thinking about - so we don't, not properly.

Effectively, we are in a state of collective denial (ever since the Club of Rome published The Limits to Growth in 1972). Some are more in denial than others, of course. President Bush, for example, is in complete denial, but even someone like Jonathan Porritt is in denial about how utterly and hopelessly inadequate current efforts to achieve sustainability (for 7 - 9 billion! people on our finite and vulnerable planet) are. 

Excuse me for sounding "alarmist", but we should be - we need to feel "alarmed"! To jolt us out of denial and into facing up to the dire situation we are in.

So long as we remain in denial our situation is hopeless.

Come out of denial, and there is hope. 

But how? 

By questioning the values, attitudes and aspirations upon which our economy and lifestyles are based, and realising that they are rooted in our "more animal than human " nature. 

It is not just Christian fundamentalists who are refusing to face up to the reality of evolution and man's animal origins.