Sir – In your photo from 1984 of the Upper Heyford peace camp (History Man, October 3), I recognise myself. As a young mother, I was determined to join in the fight to protect our children from the Cold War policy of increasing the capacity of nuclear weapons to the point of ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ were they ever to be used.

Now a grandmother, I am involved in another struggle against a threat which could also go under the acronym of ‘MAD’; that of the potentially catastrophic effects of man-made climate change.

Here the enemy is not as easily identifiable as ‘the other’ as were those accelerating the nuclear arms race.Of course, we should be opposing the fossil fuel companies and their apologists who strive to find and extract fossil fuels in even more extreme ways, when we already have more than can ever be safely burned.

For example, the Greenpeace activists facing prison sentences in Russia for opposing the dangerous practice of searching for oil in the Arctic, are acting on the behalf of all humanity; we should do all we can to help bring about their release. But the other half of the equation lies with ourselves.

Every time we buy unnecessary consumer goods or fly on holiday, we are increasing the demand for the oil which will degrade our world even for the generation which has just been born.

A better world is still possible; one where we value time with our friends and loved ones over material possessions and enjoy the relative tranquility of a world with less polluting forms of transport.

Sian Charnley, Oxford