We have a choice on climate emergency – we must take it soon
IN THE MAY 21 issue of the ‘MEN’ R. Slater and J. Jesson voice concerns about different aspects of the effects of climate change.
One emphasises the necessity of finding substitutes for fossil fuels and the other deplores the amount of packaging made necessary by the length and complexity of the journey from the production of the items to their reception by the customers.
Unfortunately some short-term solutions to our problems make the long-term situation worse.
In recent weeks we have had several warnings.
India has endured heatwaves of extreme severity and has had to increase its coal output to fuel airconditioning, fridges etc. This makes the problem worse in the long run.
In Iran there are demonstrations against overloaded rubbish dumps.
Discarded clothes from the First World have been dumped in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
In America communities are resisting having rubbish transported from other states to their rubbish dumps.
Closer to home, in Staffordshire some council candidates stood on a ‘Stop The Stink’ platform, demanding an end to the pollution produced by Walley’s Quarry near Newcastle-under-Lyme.
It has achieved a grisly type of national fame. It is of massive size. People on it look like little dots. At the present rate it will tower like Ben Nevis above the surrounding countryside.
But, as a manager at a rubbish dump near Middleport a few miles away pointed out, people make waste and waste has to go somewhere. Dumps, rivers and incineration are all being used – and overused.
What can be dome to avoid mountain ranges of rubbish rivalling the Himalayas, with consequent wrecking of the environment? It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.
The coming economic crisis will drastically reduce production and consumption. Packaging, which J. Jesson rightly says is excessive, should be sharply reduced and shifted to the biodegradable.
Perhaps the production of goods that cannot be recycled could be subjected to prohibitive taxation. If we manage to establish an equilibrium between current production and disposal of goods, we would have to reduce the rubbish mountains and landfills already with us.
We have a choice. Do we follow Bolsonaro of Brazil, who refuses to take climate change seriously and continues destroying the Amazon forests, or the incoming Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, whose announcement that he wanted to make Australia the greenest power was greeted with loud applause?
There is not much time to decide and make the choice effective.
Margaret Brown