CHRISTMAS and New Year are traditionally a time for personal reflection and looking ahead.

This year those of us from Warwickshire and Coventry have a special opportunity to widen our perspective, and to take both a broader world outlook and a more long-term view.

In September 2002 the United Nations will hold its third Earth Summit (UNES3), and at the end of January the United Nations Environment and Development Forum will be holding a national conference that will form a key UK input into global UNES3 processes.

It was at the first Earth Summit in 1992 that world leaders acknowledged that not only is the way we are now living unsustainable, but also that our life style is causing irreversible destruction to the eco-systems upon which all life on earth depends.

So - have we risen to the necessary challenges? Are we now living more sustainably than we were in 1992, or are we still making things worse for our children and grandchildren? Do you think that the longer we leave remedial action, the more drastic, heavy and unpopular it will have to be? Have our local response initiatives been adequate?

If you have any ideas on environmental and poverty issues and would like to have them conveyed to the UK conference and beyond, please send them to: Sustainability Links, 3, Park Road, Bedworth, CV12 8LH. Perhaps a couple of brief lists will help to define the sort of problems and solutions that are to be addressed in the Warwickshire and Coventry submission:

The Problems? Flooding and climate change; transport; food - growing, production, distribution, GM, foot and mouth, diet; land development; nuclear power; waste, recycling; widening domestic poverty gap; third world debt, arms sales, patents; globalisation; deforestation, desertification; population; pollution.

What about other concerns, such as loss of community or spirituality? Or the way we regard other species?

The solutions? Community economics; fair trade; re-education - schools, adults; councils and Local Agenda 21; voluntary and community groups; resources use/distribution campaigning; improved public transport; dietary reform; living more simply; community strategies and local strategic partnerships; democratic renewal.

Your letters can be as short or as long as you wish, but please let us have them before January 1. They will all be taken to January's UK Conference. Any contributions from schools, young people or those who have experienced less greedy, more caring, times or ways of living will be particularly welcome.

PAUL GALLEY, Sustainability Links, Park Road, Bedworth.