Dear Jake

If your MP is a Conservative send this letter or something like it to him or her with suitable adjustments.  A bland and complacent reply from Jake of course.

Dear Jake,

 

As you will know, the IPCC has recently issued an utterly terrifying document telling us that we only have twelve years to halt the rise in the carbon emissions that will trigger runaway unstoppable and escalating climate change, inevitably resulting in an increasingly uninhabitable world.

 

Fortunately, the coalition Government that was elected in 2010 and then the Conservative Government elected in 2015 and 2017 have already taken decisive measures to deal with global warming that are a glowing example to the rest of the world.

 

They have invested heavily in carbon capture and gasification of coal, thus enabling the UK to be self-sufficient in carbon free gas.   Their decisive actions on carbon emissions has assured investors, who are keen on investing in renewables because the rapidly falling costs are ensuring huge markets, that the UK is a safe place in which to invest, with the result that our country is now able to take maximum advantage of our abundant resources of tide and wind, and already the UK is well on the way to getting rid altogether of fossil fuels that have not been decarbonized.  Investment in the manufacture of solar panels and wind turbines in the North of England has put the unemployed to work, with the result that the Government’s tax take has soared, the national debt is diminishing and the Conservative Government has become so popular it looks as if the Labour Party will be out of power for decades.  The Government’s aim of providing every south facing roof in Britain with UK manufactured solar panels and lining motorways for hundreds of miles with them is well on the way to fulfilment.  Perhaps even more important are the intangible benefits of all this. Britain is now the most respected country in the world.

 

I need hardly tell you, Jake, that your wretched government has done none of this.  Instead it has awarded increased tax cuts to the oil and gas industries.  Would I be right in assuming that neither you nor any of your backbench colleagues have read the major academic papers on fracking – Cornell in 2009, Harvard 2012 and Tyndall – all of which tell us that fracked gas is even worse than coal because of the increased methane emissions (over 20 years methane is 72 times worse a greenhouse gas than CO2)? Yet your government has given permission for fracking.  Could I remind you of the unanimity of the scientists in solemnly warning us of the horrific world we are handing on to our children and grandchildren?  They are talking of an increasingly uninhabitable earth, whole countries going under water (as well as large parts of Norfolk, the fens and much of our most fertile land),  category 5 and even 6 hurricanes that will destroy whole cities, widespread  desertification and starvation,  millions (even hundreds of millions) of homeless refugees fleeing rising sea levels and ferocious droughts, and, it is not hard to imagine in so desperate a world,  vicious resource wars that might well go nuclear.  You would have thought that these warnings are so severe dealing with climate would be at the top of any government’s agenda.  But your government doesn’t seem bothered by any of this.  You know as well as I do that climate change is nowhere near the top of the Government’s priorities.  Even so far as the Paris agreement in concerned which, even if the politicians keep their promises will not be nearly enough the scientists say, the UK, like most countries though better than many, is well behind on meeting its targets.  Do you really think that if the UK keeps on the track it is on we are going to rein in our carbon emissions in twelve years?  In practice, although you don’t mean to, your Government is helping prepare a hell on earth for our children and future generations.

 

Jake, and I mean this really sincerely, you’ve shown yourself to be a truly wonderful constituency M.P. and it’s hardly surprising you keep getting re-elected.  So can I and my friend Nuala come to see you about all this? Not to upbraid you (this letter has had my say on that) but on the contrary to inspire you.  We don’t have to just lie down and let global warming destroy the world.  Even at this late hour, if we act with resolve, enthusiasm and determination we can still set about creating a better, greener, more prosperous and more peaceful post-fossil fuel world for our children.  We have wonderful technology and still better in the pipeline.  There could in the not too distant future be nuclear fusion,  if there were enough commercial pressure on the airlines they could without doubt solve the many problems preventing the development of hydrogen planes,  Israel has already developed a type of desalination plant that could provide all the fresh water the world needs,  tomatoes are already being grown in the Australian desert using piped water desalinated by solar power,  once we stop pumping yet more carbon into the atmosphere artificial bacteria will clean up the carbon that is already there,  in Milan trees are being grown on the sides of tower blocks in cities,  hydroponic vegetables could also be grown on a vast scale in such high risers,  there will be lab cultured meat and fish,  off shore windfarms and solar panels can provide all the electricity we need, and as already stated, decarbonised liquefied coal will make us self-sustaining in gas for centuries.

 

But none of this will happen if we allow runaway climate change to get away in the next twelve years. The responsibility on your shoulders is awesome, greater than that that any politicians have had to bear during the whole of human history.  You don’t strike me as a guy who realises that.   This is not only a huge crisis, it is a great opportunity.  What could be more exciting and fulfilling than saving the earth for our children?  We need to put all else aside to concentrate on this one great task, just as in WW II. Forget about Brexit.  Brexit in a scorched earth will benefit nobody.  We need enthusiasm, resolve, determination to save the earth.    Above all we need leadership.  What you need to do is to get the public really excited about saving the earth.  Are you going to give it to us that leadership?   Come on Jake.

 

Yours very sincerely   Thomas Jackson

 

 

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