Must be wary of ignoring canary

Your newspaper has had some interesting debates in recent weeks and I am grateful that there is an opportunity to see both sides of some of the arguments.

Although these have been largely local issues, I believe they are important nationally as well.

I make this observation as it appears our representative in Parliament, Mr Quin, has very little concern about local issues as he makes no mention of them despite writing an article for the newspaper every week.

In days gone by, it was commonplace for canaries to be be taken down coal mines. This was because they are more sensitive to pollution such as carbon monoxide than the miners were and would keel over before the miners if there were high levels of such gases present.

In this way, hundreds of miners’ lives were saved and coal production levels were maintained. However, this had the knock-on effect that people could continue to burn coal in power stations, factories and homes and smog levels could be maintained for the general public.

This resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, 12,000 alone in London in 1952 and countless more lives were foreshortened as a result of breathing in the fumes over their lifetimes.

Eventually, people worked out the relationship between airborne pollution and mortality and so they turned to so-called cleaner fuels such as oil, gas and wood. These only produced invisible gases such as carbon dioxide which people couldn’t detect and seemed to do no harm, although unbeknown to them, the canaries, their animal friends and planet Earth did continue to choke.

Maybe, like the canaries and Mr Bishop, who has written many times about local airborne pollution, I am more sensitive to these things than many other people, but I live in the same area and can confirm that it can be unpleasant when chimneys and bonfires are lit and the wind is in the wrong direction as it frequently is.

But as I alluded to, I do not see this as just a local issue but more a national and global issue that is driven by the modern society.

I seriously have great sympathy for the people who consider it their given right to have a decent home with all the modern conveniences, filled with food and artifacts manufactured in all corners of the globe.

Why shouldn’t we have the latest gas guzzling car to drive a few hundred yards to nearest out of town shopping arcade to add to our hoards of other trophies? Why shouldn’t we have at least one and preferably two holidays in the med each year? After all, it is drummed into us relentlessly that those things will improve our lives from the 50 inch Oracles we sit and watch each evening warmed by the glow of our wood burners. Why shouldn’t we have noisy leaf blowers to save our delicate bodies from over-exertion? Why shouldn’t all 60 million of us in this country cut down the trees in our garden to get rid of the leaves altogether and get extra sunlight to top up our tan when we return from said holidays?

I sympathize too with the council who have a duty to provide these homes and may have to renege on their promises to keep a running track.

Who needs golf courses and open air when you can sit indoors in your pyjamas obtained from the new retail outlet that now stands in its place, and watch the golf on TV whilst you stuff yourself with tasty morsels obtained from the new supermarket needed to service the exponentially rising local population?

So what if we get obese and die young, it helps keep numbers down and keeps the NHS busy as they have nothing much to do at the moment, do they?

We don’t need to worry about our backyard when we can do our bit and shout in horror at the Oracle when it shows us pictures of the Amazon being burned and slashed.

The problem is elsewhere on the planet, we don’t get water shortages, hurricanes and floods here do we? It would be awful if the Amazon disappeared altogether though wouldn’t it? Where would we buy everything from?

You might spot a touch of cynicism in the above, and I actually think the people working for the NHS all deserve a big pay bonus in the current climate, but be wary of ignoring the canary. ALAN PETTITT Broomfield Drive,

Billingshurst