I WAS glad to see the full page coverage of the Earth Summit (August 30).

This summit is one of the most important ever to be held, because of the urgency of the problems facing us and the potential of achieving active solutions.

However, your articles missed the vital lesson which has been learned by the Bolton Group of the World Development Movement and Oxfam Campaigns over the past 30 years -- that people and planet are inextricably linked. What affects one always affects the other.

For example, environmental damage in the form of global warming -- melting the icecaps and raising the sea levels -- threatens the very existence of many low lying islands such as Tuvalu in the Pacific. It is expected to disappear beneath the waves within 50 years, displacing the entire population.

On the other hand, the extreme poverty of many people causes them to damage their environment in order to survive, the most obvious case being people needing to cut trees for firewood, leading to a barren landscape and the spread of deserts.

Tony Blair is right to press the huge urgency of tackling world poverty and environmental degradation, not only to benefit the poor, but for the whole world. However, conflict as a major destroyer of human and animal life and the environment must not be left out of the debate. Another Gulf War would not only cause the loss of much innocent life, but also create devastation over huge areas, as well as causing immense political consequences.

Whatever the outcome of the summit, efforts are needed from people of goodwill throughout the world in a strenuous search for peace, social justice, and a clean and safe environment.

Chris Cresswell

Brookside Close

Bolton