The most arrogant species
Oliver Burkeman’s column regarding the tendency for human beings not to think of ourselves as subject to the normal cycles of life and death (12 June) made a lot of good observations on how we construct our lives so as to feel that we won’t have to die. But there was one flaw.
Climate change denial is an example of wanting to disconnect from the natural order, but so is the idea that if we eliminated harmful emissions tomorrow, everything would somehow be OK. As a species we are not in control of our planet’s evolution. We may influence the pace of change of our global environment, but it isn’t a case of if our planet warms, but of when.
Locking all our fossil fuels in the ground won’t save us; something will happen to us in a similar vein to what proved an endgame for the dinosaurs, and the planet will provide an environment for another evolution of life. What gives our species the arrogance to assume that we are the most significant thing to happen in this planet’s lifetime, when in the history of time we have been here for such a fleeting moment?
If we want to do something constructive with whatever time the planet gives us, it should be spent on adapting to the changes that will happen despite our best efforts, rather than waste further time and effort on the two hypotheses “It’s not happening” or “We can fix it if we try hard enough.”
Gary Laidlaw
Norwich, UK
US also had cruel schools
Your 12 June article about Canada’s dark history of abuse in residential schools fails to mention that the US had the same kinds of schools, called “boarding schools”, into which tens of thousands of Native-American children were forced. As in Canada, the idea was to totally prevent the transmission of First Nations cultures, religions and languages to new generations of native youth, to destroy their identities and essentially to force them into the Christian American society of the European colonists who founded the United States.
Much can be seen about the boarding schools on the internet. Their stark presence in US history should be part of the discussion about the Canadian residential schools, since the terrible oppression suffered by native children did not end at the southern border of Canada. The US government has yet to apologise and to set up a truth and reconciliation commission, although a little-known statement by Congress, part of the 2009 defence spending bill, does discuss some of the historical wrongs to Native Americans while rejecting any possible compensation or use of the statement for court challenges.
And tragically, the abduction and exploitation of the most vulnerable age groups of our society is still ongoing, with slavery, child soldiers and sex trafficking very much part of the world of today.
Shloime Perel
Montreal, Canada
Farmers face huge challenge
The dearth of young people willing to become agave harvesters for the Mexican tequila industry (12 June) is symptomatic of a much wider challenge facing the world’s agriculture. The world’s population, currently at 7.3 billion, will increase to over 9 billion by 2050 before stabilising at around 12 billion by the end of the century. At the same time there is a steady migration from country to city, so that, by 2050, we expect just 30% of the population to be in the rural sector, compared with 50% now.
This means that the pressure on the planet’s 500 million smallholder farms to produce 60% more food to feed the increased population will be an increasingly challenging task as the workforce diminishes and as climate change and degraded natural resources threaten traditional crop production practices.
The answer to this conundrum is to produce more with less. And the way to achieve this is via climate-smart conservation agriculture, which entails equipping farmers with the right levels of technical knowledge, appropriate farm power and mechanisation.
The alternative will be to continue to degrade our planet’s precious natural resources and add to the 1 billion hungry among us today: an unsustainable road to perdition.
Brian Sims
Bedford, UK
Britain’s alcohol problem
Well done, Hadley Freeman, for defining alcoholism as a mental illness rather than “a bit of a larky joke” (12 June). Not only is it a “pastime for thirtysomethings”, it has become a common expectation in British culture. Pick up a copy of Time Out and the lifestyle of prospective readers boils down to drink, sex, property and a bit of food and culture being no more than a frilly side-dish to complement the “bar of the week”.
Sad but stereotypically true, Brits use food as an accompaniment to drink and drink takes primacy over a whole host of things: the word itself amounts to a euphemism for alcoholic beverage, so you have to specify that you would like a coffee or a tea.
Whereas drugs are illegal, alcohol is perfectly legal and easily available. Since the government has gone to great lengths to curb smoking habits in the UK’s population, it seems about time that it tackled the problem of alcohol.
Cleo Cantone
London, UK
• After reading Hadley Freeman’s story about Charles Kennedy’s drinking problem, I applaud her for talking about the elephant in the living room of Britain.
Alcoholism does not discriminate and can be found in politicians, clergy, teachers, the young and old alike ... this list can just go on and on. It is a disease that can be arrested but not cured, and for so many people that face the junction of the road not taken versus the one so well trodden, it can make all the difference to have people in one’s life who can see that elephant and talk about it and support the alcoholic in an endeavour to make an enormous change.
Jokes and laughter are not helpful; honesty is. Life can be fun without a drink, or in this case too many, and how nice the next day to remember the fun.
Doreen Forney
Pownal, Vermont, US
• Congratulations to Hadley Freeman on a sober analysis of drink. With familiarity of diverse nations’ experience of alcoholism we try to analyse the reasons and consequences. Traditionally, northern Europe will binge drink, maybe to confront a harsh climate that limits social interaction. However, drink in southern Europe is acceptable as part of diet and availability. The social consequences of excessive drinking are regrettably minimised. In all cases, the syndrome passes from generation to generation. Case open.
E Slack
L’Isle Jourdain, France
Briefly
• Your Reply section (12 June) abhors the consequences of globalisation. My recent attempt to eat a closer-to-home supper is a case in point. I bought a package of Alaskan cod. Stunningly, the package said it was a product of China. Enquiries with the local head office revealed that their fish are caught in Alaskan waters, shipped to China for processing, then transported back to my local fish shop.
It will take enormous global governmental effort and cooperation to reduce the energy wastage displayed by such unnecessary journeys, which evidently reduce company overheads.
Anthony Walter
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
• Reading Henry Turner’s article on his life in Siberia (29 May), I couldn’t help blinking again and again. Here was an article about Russia that portrayed its people as credible and thoughtful human beings getting on with their lives rather than, as is so often the case in western news media, consigned to sloughs of darkness, despondency and fear.
Finishing the article, I couldn’t help hoping (against hope, perhaps) that we might see more such pieces shedding light on other aspects of Russian culture and society and avoiding, as Turner admirably does, the stale and one-sided politicised images of the country so common in the current cold war.
Gordon Sites
Fujisawa, Japan
• I differ with Elizabeth Quance’s remarks (Reply, 1 May) on the misuse of the mythic word America only to add that Canadians are indeed Americans, as are Venezuelans and Patagonians. One must blame Europeans and especially Brits for continuing perversely to mislabel the US as America, thus endorsing recent Yankee administrations’ megalomanic fantasy that they “own the world” (as Noam Chomsky observed), and so can dispose of it as they see fit.
Rob MacLeod
Sirdar, British Columbia, Canada
Email letters for publication to weekly.letters@theguardian.com including a full postal address and a reference to the article. Submissions may be edited for publication
