Sir, - In the brief second of nature's time which was out last century, mankind wiped thousands of species from existence, burned finite resources with little care for the future and even managed to change the course of the climate upon which our very existence depends.
Only last year the European Union rather undiplomatically came out and confirmed that we were overseeing a dramatic reduction in the quality of the environment in this supposed green isle. Our rivers and lakes are increasingly in algal bloom, the city air we breathe is thick with diesel particles and our soil is awash with artificial fertilisers recklessly applied.
If the 20th century was characterised by formidable technological advances then the new century will surely be dominated by our efforts to undo some of the damage that we only so recently had the power to do. It was surprising that the precarious ecological balance of the planet and our own land featured so little in the numerous reviews of the last century in the media over the New Year period. In a hundred year's time our great-grandchildren may well look back at the archives and wonder at how we failed to see the real damage we were doing. - Yours, etc.,
Cllr Eamonn Ryan, Ashfield Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.