CAN anybody who has witnessed the recent weather doubt it is a result of accelerated climate change?

Yet despite the role vehicle emissions play in this, people complain about taxes designed to reduce them. Someone has to lead the way and it makes a change for that to be Britain. However, the issue is more than reducing car use.

Everyone needs to examine their lifestyle. Exotic foods and ingredients for instant meals may travel thousands of miles before being prepared and then hundreds of miles to the supermarket. Those who eat these are abusing their world as much as those who commute vast distances to work by car.

Lorries carry tons of packaging and water around Britain. Factories were closed because it was cheaper for operators to run a few large factories, then transport goods using cheap diesel.

"Just in time" deliveries rely on cheap road transport. Local production is more expensive per item, but cheaper environmentally; it reduces emission, creates local jobs, and is more sustainable. If the fuel crisis had gone on longer the precarious nature of our current society would have been exposed.

People who eat foods they prepare and cook themselves, from seasonal ingredients, use a box system for fruit and vegetables, make jam, or grow their own food are minimising their carbon dioxide emissions, but cookery has been removed from the school curriculum.

Non-recognition of the value of work in the home and the soaring rate of marriage breakdown, means women return to work, increasing car use further.

Our whole society is based on over consumption. "Free" items, and "two for the price of one" deals are only savings if you would have bought them anyway. If not, it is a waste of fuel delivering them. The "more is better" culture has to go. Many "designer" label goods are made in the Third World, so that cheap labour can be used. Fuel use is not considered.

Fewer and shorter lorry trips must be made. Farmers already have tax reduced fuel. Foreign lorries cannot travel far in this country without filling their tanks at British prices, thus the lorry drivers' arguments are weak. We have shown resistance to reducing car use and the only method of changing behaviour is to hit hard in the pocket.

We are not responding to requests to use less fossil fuel, so we must be forced. Many in rural areas do not have a choice. This Government must invest heavily in buses, trains and alternative fuels to provide that choice.

Who will benefit most from reduced fuel duties? Those with gas-guzzling four-by-fours, who waste our children's heritage to satisfy their image problems. Most people I met during the fuel blockade were enjoying an increased quality of life, with less pollution.

C G CARVER

Friends of the Earth

Addington Close, Devizes