Planet under pressure: Your stories

As part of the BBC News Online Planet Under Pressure series looking at the biggest problems facing our Earth today, we want to hear about environmental issues where you are.

Whether you're an organic-buying energy saver or a self-confessed uber-consumer, write to us or send photos, sketches or video to tell us about the pressures on the planet's resources in your area.

During the series we will be looking at six themes:

Biodiversity: What's living in your backyard? Is your area home to a threatened species? Are key habitats disappearing in your country?

Water: Are you concerned about your water supply? Do you live in a country where some people don't have access to clean water?

Food: Where does your food come from? Maybe the soil in your country is eroded and degraded - or perhaps you're a farmer trying make the most out of your own land.

Energy: Are you trying to cut down your energy use? Do you have a power station - or wind farm - on your doorstep?

Pollution: Perhaps you suspect pollution to be behind health problems in your family - or maybe your company is trying to clean up its act.

Climate: How is climate change expected to affect your area? Are you are concerned that floods and rising sea levels will affect your home or have noticed changes in the seasons, plants and animals around you?

Write to us using the form on the right or email us your pictures.

Find out how to send your pictures

The best photos sent to us will be put into a photo gallery, so please send us your name, where you live and some brief details about the picture you have sent.

E-mail them to [e-mail]

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Your comments:

15,000 species facing extinction, if only one of them was mankind then earth might have a chance.
Reid Sommerville, Newbury Berkshire

As a corgi registered engineer/installer, I consider the change to be down to condensing boilers. A good environmental move but at the same time there has been a dramatic rise in the number of coal effect gas fires fitted which are highly inefficient and produce a cocktail of undesirable greenhouse gases.
Mark Terry, Rochester Kent

There is unchecked rural development across the eastern US. Where before there were cornfields and forests, now there are homes built in no-time that sell for $400,000 plus. Everyone owns a car, drives far distances to work, and uses up tons of resources. We are not living sustainably.
Mike Alessi, Philadelphia, USA

We will eventually be controlled, probably severely, by the force of nature Paul Robinson, Aberdeen Scotland

Most of the world's problems can, in the final analysis, be attributed to the level of human activity, which in turn must be in direct proportion to the global human population. Consumption of resources, pollution, and displacement of other species are the direct consequence of the size of the human population. But like all other plagues and despite our arrogant assumption that the reverse is true, we will eventually be controlled, probably severely, by the force of nature.
Paul Robinson, Aberdeen Scotland

You can't separate the environment from the economic system which we live under. Capitalism will only produce food when there is a profit to be made, and will sell food resources to whoever can pay. Many farmers are paid to set their land aside and not produce crops while people starve. You can't have a serious analysis of the planet without first looking at the profit system.
Alan Hendrie, Edinburgh Scotland

People pollution is the root cause of all pollution. Fossil fuel is running out. It fuels the world economy. Unless humans reproduce less and consume less, the world economy and ecology will collapse. We will all then be living in an eleventh century economy. "We have met the enemy and he is us" - Pogo.
Carl M Bennett, Panama City, Florida, USA

But many, many people who live here think it will be ugly and will ruin their view Devin, Cape Cod, USA

I live on Cape Cod and there are talks of building a wind farm in Nantucket Sound right off the coast where I live. I think it's a great idea, because eventually we will have to come up with alternative energy sources. But many, many people who live here think it will be ugly and will ruin their view and their area to go boating. People in the US where I live need to fully understand the energy crisis that will soon be upon us.
Devin, Cape Cod, USA

The sooner people realise that we need to build nuclear power stations the sooner we can start to reduce consumption of fossil fuels. The use of gas in power stations is an almost criminal use of such a valuable resource just to achieve reduced CO2 emissions.
Graham, Welwyn, England

I have a simple solution to all the problems raised in the Planet under Pressure dossier. It's called: micro-algae production. There are several species of micro-algae which are super nutritious (solves the food problem); they have yields up to 40 times higher than most staple foods (solves the water and energy consumption problem); they grow in arid, sunny environments, like deserts (saves the land problem); and they only need salt water. Besides providing food, these same algae can easily be turned into bio-diesel (solves the energy and global warming problem; they have yields of up to 30 times those for canola or mustard seed). Moreover, they can be used to store and suck up air pollutants, like CO2, which in turn will help combat global warming. In short, the world's oldest micro-organisms are the most energy efficient biological machines. They convert solar power into energy and food. Algae are just begging to be used. They solve all the world's problems at once.
Lawrence, Brussels, Belgium

For every MNC there are a hundred other smaller abusers, stealing and misusing water, across the globe Al Moya, London, England

Industry as a whole is simply not taking the water issue seriously enough. A few global brands attract news coverage for poor environmental practices and decisions, and yes it is outrageous that soft drinks companies, for instance, use anywhere from 2 to 10 litres of water in different plants to produce 1 of finished product, but for every MNC there are a hundred other smaller abusers, stealing and misusing water, across the globe.
Al Moya, London, England

I am currently in Texas and I have noticed they live by the rule, "Everything is bigger". It's late October 2004 and yet again this week more weather records are being broken. There is very little concern about Climate Change or Global warming here. I am still amazed at how energy inefficient the US is, in industry, and domestic products. A typical washing machine here consumes more than twice the European equivalent.
Anon, Bridge of Weir, Scotland (currently in Houston, Texas)

I live in Calgary, AB, Canada, and over the last 10 - 15 years have seen how global warming (whatever its cause) is happening here. First, creeks in the front ranges of the Rockies that use to flow full time, then only in spring, do not even flow in the spring anymore. There is so little runoff from the small snow pack that it just dissipates into the rocks. Our reservoirs around here and in the Kananaskis are never full to capacity anymore because of limited snowpack. I see a guy downtown who washes the sidewalk every day, that water could fulfil the needs of an African village for a day or two.
Kevin, Canada

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