AT last, people across the world are waking up to the realisation that we need to do something and, indeed, do it very, very quickly, if we are to save this beautiful planet of ours from becoming devoid of life and just another barren globe spinning in a seemingly lifeless universe.

If our Earth should, by chance, happen to be the only planet upon which life exists in all its splendour and variety, shouldn’t it be our duty to cherish it? We hold this planet’s future, and that of all its wonderful animals and plants, in our hands. It’s a valuable future. It’s also our future. It’s our children’s and grandchildren’s future. We need to embrace it, to protect it.

Whilst protests from environmental activists such as the eco-warriors and Extinction Rebellion, for example, are to be admired and applauded in bringing our concerns and our fears to the attention of the media and therefore to those in positions of power, we all need to do something and we need to do it now, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem.

Dealing with litter is just one example in which each and every one of us can play a part. We are never going to begin to save the planet if we can’t clean up our own backyard. At the moment we step over litter, pretend not to notice it, walk around it, kick it to one side, even when a waste bin might be just a few metres away. Litter on a street, in a park or garden, on a shopping precinct or wherever, might seem unimportant. After all, someone will sweep it up eventually....won’t they? But, left, it will probably find itself washed down the drain or blown into our rivers and eventually the sea.

If each and every one of us were to pick up just one piece of litter a day and deposit it in a waste receptacle, we would be making a start in turning our planet – our home, back into a cleaner and healthier one.

DAVID WAREHAM

Christchurch Road, Bournemouth