Our childrens’ fate is in the hands of these people
Dear Jake thank you for your reply to my letter which has left me feeling desperate, gibbering alternately between rage and grief. Yes, the list of actions that the government is taking on climate, pathetic as they are, is doubtless true. But as you know, politicians are masters of the evasive half-truth. You were not telling me that permissions are still being given for fracking which is even worse than coal because of the methane emissions. Methane is 72 times worse than CO2 over a twenty year period. Nor that permission has been given for millions of barrels of oil to be drilled in Poole harbour. Nor that the figures for carbon emissions by the UK are completely misleading since, although we are the end users and therefore ultimately responsible, we import so much from the Far East and emissions are calculated at source. Although the solar industry is booming, support for Renewable Obligations and the Feed in Tariff have been scrapped, and grants for solar power in homes withdrawn. Yet the UK is giving the highest amount in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry in Europe.
The measures the Government are taking are, in any case, irrelevant and beside the point, because the big economies are even more profligate than we are. What is needed is for one country to go all out to get rid of fossil fuels and set an example. The UK is well fitted to be that country. Yet when last week Parliament debated climate for the first time in two years only forty MPs turned up, and of these hardly any on the Government benches at all. The scientists are now saying we have only twelve years to avoid the onset of irreversible runaway climate change. Could I remind you of the solemn warnings they are giving us if this happens? Whole countries will go under water. Millions of hectares of fertile land will be lost, including Norfolk and the Fens (Cambridge could be a seaside town by 2070 according to Met Office but doubtless the Government is taking measures to provide enough deck chairs), millions will starve, category 5 if not 6 hurricanes will destroy whole cities, the I.P.C.C. is warning there could be hundreds of millions of refugees fleeing drought and sea level rise, it is not hard to imagine in so desperate a world savage resource wars.
Yet in the face of all this only 40 MPs (I hope you were one of them) turned up to a debate on climate. Can you understand how desperate I feel when the fate of our children is in the hands of people so irresponsible and uncaring, and perhaps even ignorant, as this? It’s the complacency of your letter that drives me so wild. Please, please Jake, think again before it is finally too late. Don’t feel you have to reply to this, just do something.
Yours sincerely Thomas Jackson
