JOHN Swinney must ensure that the current environmental emergency detailed in an important article by Mike Small is at the top of the curriculum when full-time teaching resumes (It will take more than a return to business as usual to save the planet, June 28).

Thirty years hence, only by young minds altering their priorities will they have any chance of living on a sustainable planet. Changing the mindset of present world leaders, tax evaders, economists, bankers, land users and the general public may depend on their receiving a dose of the danger first hand. What form it will take may well be dramatic.

READ MORE: It'll take more than return to business as usual to save planet

Collapsing ice sheets will impact on the two vital factors for survival: global climate and food production. Getting air miles going again is not the answer. The UK is run by grossly ignorant, right-wing politicians, and Scotland is not without its share. Left-leaning politicians don’t appear to understand the danger. The green lobby should become a great deal more vociferous. Time is short. Scotland must gain independence by legal means, and play its part on a world stage much in need of environmental enlightenment.

Iain R Thomson
Strathglass