We need clear thinking to solve climate problem
I understand where you and they are coming from, but angry and panicky school kids (or adults, for that matter) are no match for climate change, the insect decline or the other drivers and symptoms of our ecological crisis (15 February). Much better to keep calm, clarify thinking and focus your action.
The needed clarity can start by rejecting the framing of climate change as the deadly legacy of baby boomer, as argued by John Lanchester and some of the young activists.
It is the investment, exploitation and production decisions and actions of the global 1% of all ages rather than the consumption decisions of the baby boomer cohort that bear the prime responsibility for our ecological crisis.
We need young people and baby boomers with clarity about this reality and united in opposition to more exploitation of nature as usual, business as usual from the 1%, government as usual from our political parties, ideas as usual from the thinktanks and media as usual from the tabloids and talk-backs.
Stewart Sweeney
Adelaide, South Australia
• I appreciate David Wallace-Wells saying, “And yet I am optimistic” (8 February). We need both climate action and preservation of mental health. That means not only cutting carbon but actively seeking reasons to be hopeful. Personally, I find climate optimism in the growth of cycling. A number of Toronto streets now host 6,000 bike riders a day; that’s more folks than those using some subway stations. This has many benefits, including GHG reduction. But just knowing it’s happening lifts my mood.
Gideon Forman
Toronto, Canada
Political leaders must consult with electorate
While clearly the legacy of the Soviet era is still working its way through the system I was struck by Christian Davies story about grassroots democracy in Poland and the parallels with the gilets jaunes movement here in France (8 February). When your reporter wrote “poor decisions, leading to disillusionment, leading to lack of engagement in the decision-making process” she could almost be writing the manifesto of the gilets jaunes.
It is possible that the same feelings could have influenced the Brexit referendum result and the Trump election. It is time for the political elite in all democracies to take steps to consult more with the electorate and not just leave it to election campaigns. I understand that this is already happening in the Netherlands and although it is by no means perfect, the Dutch electorate does seem to be more aware of the consequences of political decision making.
Val Wake
Lodeve, France
Was humankind really meant to be here?
Physicist Paul Davies’s latest book, The Demon in the Machine (1 February), says that “the emergence of life, and perhaps mind, are etched into the underlying lawfulness of nature”. This statement echoes philosopher Thomas Nagel who, in his book Mind and Cosmos, says that of three possibilities, “conscious organisms arose in the universe” as a result of “law-governed efficient causation”.
These overlapping, and rational, suppositions both underscore what Davies wrote on the last page of an earlier book, The Mind of God, that having “cracked part of the cosmic code”, we have proved ourselves to be “no minor byproduct of mindless, purposeless forces” but “truly meant to be here”.
Richard Orlando
Westmount, Quebec, Canada
Why aren’t there more letters from the US?
I’m puzzled by the absence of letters or Notes & Queries from readers in the United States. Since in both spaces, two-thirds of the contributions are from Australia and a third from Canada, I wonder why none of my compatriots ever shows up. Can we read? Can we write?
Jim Armstrong
Placentia, California, US
Since when has Glasgow been in England?
The article A Tory MP confronts the UK’s poverty frontline (1 February) refers to a nationwide tour by two MPs “in search of the other England”. Since when has Glasgow been in England? With attitudes like this, Scottish independence cannot come soon enough.
JH Soja
Porirua, New Zealand
Venezuela is Trump’s distraction from the wall
While I entirely agree that Donald Trump’s attitude to the catastrophe in Venezuela is both uncharacteristic and cynical, perhaps his sudden altruism could be seen as a welcome distraction on the domestic front from his defeat at the hands of Congress over his border wall (1 February).
Kitty Monk
Auckland, New Zealand
