There were two things that struck me listening to the radio last week.

One was hearing John Humphrys extolling the virtues of giving up mowing the lawn and returning his garden to nature – enabling him to watch dragonflies chasing butterflies, and the other was the man who had gone to the Amazon rainforest and likened it to standing in front of the gates of hell.

He said his experience led him to believe that anyone who decried warnings of climate and ecological breakdown as alarmist was absolutely ill informed.

Then I picked up the Hereford Times and I can only concur with Jeffrey Hancorn (Letters, September 12) about the emotional blackmail adopted by the Herefordshire Business Board regarding the decision to pause and review the bypass.

If we are seriously talking about the future then we all have to seriously look at how we live, and question it. Not easy, I know!

Suggesting this to business appears to be the equivalent of modern-day heresy, but surely if business is not able to adapt to the changing environment then it needs to seriously question its model?

Where is the response from the Herefordshire Business Board regarding climate and ecological breakdown?

And critics may decry me as a tree hugger (which I proudly confess I am) but when I read reports on what is happening in the Amazon and see Cargill’s grain operations implicated as one of the main driving forces of deforestation it sets my alarm bells ringing because it makes me wonder just what it is that we are moving across the county that requires us to have big new roads at any cost, and what is the real cost of cheap food?

Change is coming, of that there is no doubt, surely it is prudent to take a minute and reflect on how we live and how we can adapt?

To that end I would like to extoll the virtues of cycling.

I was lucky enough to buy an electric bike from a friend earlier this year and it has revolutionised my life.

I have rediscovered the joys of cycling now that my puny lungs can conquer Herefordshire’s beautiful hills.

I have also discovered that if I put cycling in the search bar of Herefordshire Council’s website there is plenty to chew on.

I never knew there are 17 miles of off-road cycle track around the city, or that you can loan a bike, get personal one-to-one bicycle training from your doorstep, borrow an adaptive bike, and join a led ride – and failing all that, simply hire a Beryl bike to cycle around our wonderful city.

I would recommend that anyone who feels they share some small part of responsibility for the situation we are in, or anyone who simply doesn’t like sitting in traffic, try a bike.

Toni Fagan
Hereford