COP26 is fuelling my climate cynicism
WHAT are we supposed to make of the climate warming dire predictions? The grim messages from the huge COP26 gathering are of an impending apocalypse.
As a UK citizen, I haven’t noticed much change over the years as we have weather and not a climate which is controlled by the jet stream. If it drifts north it increases the temperature, when it heads south it decreases it. Having been around a long time, I remember the long glorious summer of 1976 where if it happened this year there would be a wailing and a gnashing of the teeth at the imminent Armageddon.
It’s not the message of doom from the Glasgow gathering that’s the source of my scepticism, it’s the messengers. The Queen is irritated by those who “talk and don’t do”. However, she has no intention of changing her opulent energy-guzzling lifestyle, living in her 775-room palace and her castle of more than 1,000 rooms. Couldn’t she downsize to about 250 rooms as an example to the rest of us? The heir apparent who’s spent his life pontificating about green issues could relinquish one of his many large luxury homes around the globe and downsize from Clarence House where he and Camilla share dozens of rooms.
Apparently more than 400 private jets arrived in Glasgow so that this wealthy elite could lecture us plebs on our avarice and excesses. Leonardo DiCaprio’s PR advice was to leave his behind, but as a former child actor and long-time movie star he was so crucial to the cause that he left his pampered bubble to attend this gathering to have one-to-one meetings with Biden and Prince Charles. This ostentatious gathering of rich and powerful hypocrites has undermined any concern I have about the future of our planet.
Thirty years ago, national treasure David Bellamy claimed global warming was “poppycock” and was never seen again. The fact that anyone, including eminent scientists, who do not share the establishment’s apocalyptic view will be ostracised, cancelled and lose funding if they dare to raise a dissenting voice adds to my cynicism.
Dennis Coughlin Llandaff, Cardiff