WHEN we are constantly bombarded with bad news it can make us miserable, and reliant on alcohol and drugs.

Also, much like children bombarded with bombs suffer from shell shock, too much bad news can cause mental illness. And in some cases, mental illness can lead to suicide and murder.

Good news, then, that the world's first malaria vaccine is being rolled out in parts of Kenya. Malaria kills more than 400,000 people globally each year.

But as a killer, motor vehicles are far worse. In crashes/collisions (maybe motor vehicle manslaughter) they kill more than 1.5 million people globally each year. And, in burning fossil fuel, they play a significant role in killing more than 4 million people each year from ambient (outdoor) air pollution.

Also, by burning fossil fuel we are driving up global temperatures: published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a study shows that all the ice that’s been melting in Greenland and Antarctica may cause sea level rise to be way worse than we expect - like 6.5 feet by 2100.

In a worst-case scenario (which feels like the right way to go these days) where the world warms by five degrees Celsius this century, the study’s authors found that rising waters may displace up to 187 million people and inundate nearly 700,000 square miles, “including critical regions of food production".

Accordingly, if using vaccines to combat malaria and smart meters to reduce our energy consumption are good moves, then to combat the extinction of life on Earth how can we not make it compulsory for speed limiters to be fitted to all bar emergency vehicles? Speed limiters should be seen as the best thing since sliced bread, and a defence against floods and mental illness!

Allan Ramsay

Radcliffe