Overkill on climate change
I expected the Guardian Weekly to deal at length with president Trump’s move on climate change, but six pages seem like overkill (26 May). This is not the first time that the US has refused to ratify important international agreements. The US has not signed the mine ban treaty, designed to reduce the killing of people, especially children. The protests, then, were very muted; obviously the safety of kids is less important than climate change.
In reality, Trump’s decision will have little impact. Leaving his views aside, his style of management will likely ensure that he will not be re-elected and his opponent will likely oppose his views, especially his stand on climate change. Business in natural resources, especially coal and oil, will be unlikely to invest in new ventures whose future may be in doubt in four years’ time. Other US businesses will continue the trend toward greater energy efficiency and the development of wind and sun power because they know that this is a growing market.
In fact this overkill, in addition to giving a new meaning to the term “rogue state”, reduces the credibility of the supporters of the Paris treaty. The majority of people are certainly concerned by climate change, but their views are not that strong – as can be seen, for example, by the very low sales of electric cars.
The scientists who do not seek media attention but improve our car engines, batteries, our wind turbines and solar panels are the ones who should be celebrated and their successes publicised. Less talk and indignation but more technical progress is what is needed now to deal with climate change, with or without Trump.
Francois P Jeanjean
Ottawa, Canada
Jefferson was no hero
John B Boles is reinterpreting history in a manner the facts simply don’t support (2 June). Explaining Thomas Jefferson’s slave holdings, Boles says “we must view him holistically and within the rich context of his time and place.” Let’s do that. Remember that other, greater, genius and signee of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin? He discontinued owning slaves in the 1850s and became an abolitionist. Then there’s that other signee, John Adams, who worked harder for American independence than most anyone and lived very modestly, never owning a slave because he and his wife Abigail abhorred the practice.
Jefferson was a wordsmith, which is why Adams asked him to write the Declaration on behalf of the Constitutional Congress. The ideas weren’t his but those of the Congress. He is not the “Architect of American Liberty”. In fact, his whole legacy needs to be re-examined. He was able to be an inventor, architect, musician, gourmand, etc because he owned slaves. Slaves made his lifestyle possible. He was a materialist and a patrician.
Jefferson represents that part of America that worships wealth and consumption and has no scruples about exploiting labour. They’re still with us.
Janice Gendreau
Sebastopol, California, US
Indigenous wisdom
I was delighted to read Julian Brave NoiseCat’s article (9 June). It confirmed a feeling I’ve had for some years: when our western culture is within sight of exhausting the Earth’s resources and has run out of ideas as to what to do next (apart, that is, from lunatic schemes to colonise Mars) then we will have to go cap in hand and on bended knee to our ancestor culture. Indigenous peoples, who against all odds still survive, will then advise us how we should live respectfully of our Mother Earth, as we become aware that she might well decide that we have become a curse rather than a blessing.
Bill Craster
Bridport, UK
Briefly
• By wrecking the global economic architecture, as Joseph Stiglitz comments (9 June), president Donald Trump may well be doing the world a service. That growth-based system has led humankind down a perilous path towards a world that could be uninhabitable by the end of the century. It’s time we reassessed the whole economic enterprise and replaced GDP with a measurement of human wellbeing that ensures a flourishing web of life. This will inevitably involve a carbon tax, not just as a sanction on US exports, but on much of what we all consume.
Pat Baskett
Auckland, New Zealand
• I thought I was getting used to the revealing exposes in the Guardian Weekly. But Carole Cadwalladr’s article truly stunned me.
There will always be leaders and followers (just look at Twitter and Facebook), but we should know why we are following a particular path and whether this has been predetermined by others for us to follow.
I am fearful of climate change for my children’s and grandchildren’s sakes. I am terrified of the alleged activities of companies such as Cambridge Analytica and AggregateIQ. I hope the Weekly will follow up on this incredible report.
George Hanna
Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
• Something truly monstrous emerged from the sea close to Cairns in 2000 (Do sea monsters exist? 26 May). It was not the unfortunate creature – a Bryde’s whale – but its contents. Twisted through its stomach was six square metres of plastic – supermarket and garbage bags, food packaging and three two-metre long sheets of polythene.
Stella Martin
Cairns, Queensland, Australia
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