I AM sick to death of hearing so called green politicians spouting the same old tired ideas on how to save the planet.

Well, the planet does not need saving. It is the human race that is facing catastrophe.

We are steadily running out of resources and, yet, all we hear about is charging motorists, for example, road charging, congestion charging, parking charges, pollution tax, higher fuel tax.

These policies fall down on several counts in so much as motorists do not generally manufacture their own vehicles. I don't care if my vehicle runs on blue cheese, as long as it runs. Successive governments have never seriously challenged the manufacturers. Why, for instance, does an electric vehicle cost £5,000 more than a petrol vehicle? None of the money collected from motorists ever goes back into renewable energy projects. Why are low-energy light bulbs five times the price of conventional ones? Apart from insulation, why is new build housing devoid of renewable energy systems? Because the building regulations do not require these systems.

Time and time again we come back to one common feature surrounding our current circumstances, the fact that there are just too many of us. I am yet to hear any politician have the courage to bring this issue to public debate.

Overpopulation is an international problem, not just ours. We are proposing to build 500,000 houses in the south-east, an area already facing serious drought restrictions, our own green belt around York appears to have been abandoned. Hello! Wake up out there! It may already be too late.

Charlie Stone,

Millfield Road,

York.

Updated: 09:54 Friday, May 05, 2006