Letter: Sad state of Athens is a lesson to the world

Sir: As a committed city dweller I must take issue with Herbert Girardet's analysis. I am not aware that I create more rubbish or burn more energy than my country cousins. As a city dweller I do not need a car and can make a positive contribution to the environmental well-being of the country.

Of course our society has to clean itself up but the onus is upon all citizens everywhere. The alternative to city living, quite apart from cultural impoverishment, is too awful to contemplate; a semi-

rural half-life that cannot even boast the advantages of our more compact suburbs.

Pointing the finger at the concentrated consumption of the cities is missing the bigger target: the over-consumption of all Western societies.

Yours faithfully,

GEOFFREY THOMPSON

London, SE4

19 May