WITH the continual and unabated growth in human populations due to a desire in each individual to have access to a self-chosen lifestyle to enable it to reach its full potential and the habitat directives and habitats conservation becomes increasingly a conflict of interest and a contradiction in terms.

This was recently seen in our own 'neck of the woods' when Poole was the fastest growing conurbation in Europe which also went hand in hand with the fastest destruction of rare habitats and protected species seen since the 50s.

For such is the dismal outcome stemming inevitably from the growth of human populations and the preservation of a living planet that some are ready to abandon the earth all together as a lost cause and seek refuge elsewhere which in conservation terms is yet more 'pie in the sky'.

Does it really seem that it is impossible to put a brake on every family on the planet to restrict themselves to no more then two offspring. I suspect it is.

That being so the current efforts and endless talk - talks about conservation of species habitats, their numbers, our own road congestion, air quality, and all the other politicking that is so in vogue at the moment is no more than tinkering at a the edge of a raging forest fire with a flask of water.

The choice it seems is stark. Self control or vanish, buried, beneath one's own detritus. So how do we as a species promote self-control?

DOUGLAS MILLS

Fraser Road, Poole