THERE were a number of articles, (August 20), which had something in common and that is fossil fuel. Some of them are to do with road traffic congestion, including James Styring’s column On Yer Bike, while others are about the prime minister’s views on fracking.

I’ve no particular opinion about fracking, other than it is a further attempt to find more fossil fuel. To me this is a serious worry and, far from praising this practice, the prime minister should do his utmost to find more sustainable forms of energy. Fossil fuel burning has caused serious and, what seems, irreparable damage to the environment and, if we continue on the present course I fear for the future of this planet.

If free rein is given to the fuel companies they will keep searching until every form of fossil fuel is exhausted from the earth and, it’s no good appealing to them to slow down because their only interest is their shareholders. When the prime minister states that fracking might give us gas for, was it, 50 or 100 years, how long is that?

Some say that there could always be a need for some fossil fuels but, at the rate we are using our resources, the end of that future can’t be far away. When oil and gas was discovered in the North Sea some were saying that we should, for the time being, leave it there, buy cheap oil from elsewhere and keep ours in reserve.

But one prime minister decided that the oil companies should be allowed to exploit it. Was this a cynical way of saying I’m hoping for more tax?

There was a forecast that North Sea gas would last well into the foreseeable future but, it wasn’t long before the gas and electricity companies decided that, by using it, it would save them from having to find other cleaner fuels. Now, we have reached the point where almost all our own fuels are exhausted.

One of the major users of fossil fuels is the motor car and, as James Styring points out, the motor car has become a serious pest. Surely we can’t, as some predict will happen, tolerate more on the roads.

The private motor car really must be considered a luxury so, perhaps, a greatly increased road tax might encourage some to give it up but this would only make a difference to the world if an international agreement could be reached.

DERRICK HOLT, Fortnam Close, Headington, Oxford