TEN years ago, the 'Earth Summit' was held in Brazil. Governments from around the world met to try to reach agreement on action needed to save the planet.

Since that meeting, many of the world's environmental problems have got worse. More of the world's wild places have been destroyed and millions of people have suffered from extreme weather events.

In August, the governments are meeting again at 'Rio + 10' in Johannesburg, South Africa. This may well be the last chance that governments have to agree to take the action needed to stop irreversible environmental degradation and to take sustainable development seriously.

York & Ryedale Friends of the Earth has arranged a public meeting on 'Rio + 10' at the Friends Meeting House, Friargate, York tonight at 7.30pm.

Hugh Bayley, MP for York, and Mike Childs, senior campaigner, will be discussing the action that governments need to take at this next important meeting.

If you are concerned about the future of our planet come along to the meeting and make your views known.

Guy Wallbanks,

Co-ordinator, York & Ryedale Friends of the Earth,

Kingsway West,

York.

...I MUST take issue with Mr Chris Clayton whose alarmist and ill-informed statements suggest that York "will be a distant memory" due to the current activity in Antarctica (Letters, April 2).

He cites the Larsen B ice shelf as a signal of the earth's demise. Yes, this ice shelf has broken up into a mosaic of smaller icebergs.

Only the two per cent of the Antarctic poking out into the Southern Ocean warmed (the part where this ice shelf is located). The other 98 per cent has actually been cooling and accumulating ice.

A floating ice shelf is like the crust of the earth floating on the earth's plastic mantle. Stresses build up, cracks open, and all of a sudden out of the blue - earthquake! When the quake happens, it is sudden and catastrophic.

No one should find it hard to believe that an ice shelf would behave any differently given the similar dynamics involved. The Larsen break-up has been coming for years, and its demise has long been expected.

But that does not stop the media and others from attaching this event to "global warming", even though the Antarctic Survey says it is "premature to attribute warming in the peninsula to an enhanced greenhouse effect".

R J McBroom,

Strensall Park,

York.

Updated: 11:04 Friday, April 12, 2002