IN reply to A. W. Hanlon, (Letters, January 5), he states that he is worried about earthquakes, caused by large scale drilling.

I am interested but I am 75 years old, and on the law of averages I can not have too much longer to go, so worried, no.

The size of the world population is in my opinion the biggest problem to be confronted. Give it some thought. The old adage comes to mind: clothes on your back, roof over your head, food in your belly. That is what all human beings in the main must have. They are the important things.

The second in size of the problems facing the world is the actual destruction of the planet, cutting down the forests, the ever increasing pursuit of oil and minerals in general. All apparently without a great deal of thought for the long-term damage it causes.

A W Hanlon asks “What will our children have in another 60 years or so?”

Well, in my considered opinion, if things continue as they are, certainly not the kind of life we have now.

Climate change is of course already with us, just look about. There will be civil unrest on a scale not seen before, Look around, it is already beginning with the poor and dispossessed, and our planet, the pool old earth? Again, in my opinion, it will be in a terrible state.

Can the situation be changed? There is that possibility if we accept a more tranquil lifestyle, to be less selfish, to pass the old class system to history. I for one cannot see that happening but we can hope.

C E WATTS, Southampton.