We need to look at the crisis on our own doorstep

I expect Russian people not wanting to hear that their country is at war (Big story, 5 August) are not all that different from others around the world in their capacity for denial.

The people in Trafalgar Square and in Times Square, as much if not more than in Red Square, have been told many times for many years: we are heading for, and are now in, an environmental crisis. Only one aspect of this is the climate crisis. Yet we appear to be no more concerned than the people you show relaxing by the Moskva River. Even those of us who are aware – myself included – by and large act as if nothing can be done. Russians have the excuse that the war is not on their doorstep: when Britain’s summer temperature exceeds 40C, a plea of ignorance sounds implausible to say the least. Perhaps the only real difference between us is that in the west talking about an environmental crisis is not, yet, criminal.

AG Rivett

Llandysul, Wales, UK