IN response to Brian Derbyshire’s letter of August 20, my opposition to fracking came about particularly because I learnt about the alternative ways our nation needs to provide its energy and manage its use of energy in the future.

One of the best things I did in the last ten years was attend an event in Manchester and listen to the Stop Global Warming academic Jonathan Neale.

He was honest, clever and trustworthy and slayed any myth that such campaigners are a bit wacky. He is speaking in Wigan (free event) at the 2014 System Change Not Climate Change event on Sunday September 14.

I believe in a new model of energy management and my opposition to fracking is that it is a heavy price to pay for a continuation of an old energy model no longer fit for the 21st century and beyond.

I also believe it perpetuates an industrial system of excessive profiteering for a group of international billionaires and I am not a keen supporter of such an international economic model.

I believe this country can do better.

I do support the promotion of and investments in renewable energy forms and pay particular attention to the economists in this field like Professor Nicholas Stern who make sense of what national and local government can achieve.

Not far away from us is just one of two northern sites pioneering the carbon challenge. An eco village of 650 homes with leisure facilities is being built at Plank Lane where the Bickershaw Colliery was in Leigh.

People who live in the homes will have lower water and energy bills because of the design of the homes. This is a zero carbon village and the homes are made from materials from sustainable sources.

Homes will stay cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter on reduced energy use.

Wigan Council is supporting many greener lifestyle initiatives for the area as it is developed. This work has created employment.

The renewable energy model and the jobs that can be created in Britain is summed up in one of the most important publications — I would urge you to read ‘One Million Climate Jobs’ published by Bookmarks. Susan Haworth Tonge Moor