Ministers must bring in unpopular laws

YES there is a global crisis happening, and yes it needs to be recognised and tackled. If you look at groups like XR, and arguments from politicians and the usual celebrity luvvie activists then you can get bogged down and totally confused by the many arguments about the many causes of the global crisis. Everything from the internal combustion engine to cows passing wind is blamed for global warming.

Yes, there are many factors to look at, but surely even the dimmest of people can see the two main causes of our impending doom: 1) Overpopulation

2) Lifestyle.

This world is grossly over populated. The UK alone is overpopulated by about 15 million. Keeping the world’s population fed and watered, which is a basic requirement, is a big enough task on its own, and regularly sees us falling short with famine, drought etc.

Despite this, people are still selfishly having large families because ‘it’s their right to do so’. We don’t even get a good example set by our ‘leaders’. Our Prime Minister is about to have his seventh child, and the leader of the House of Commons is a father of six. Until something is done on a global basis, and let’s not mince words here, we are talking about a China-like system where two is your lot... by law.

The other main problem (in most of the developed nations) is that we have got used to the good life, where things that were previously luxuries, or out of our reach, are now considered the norm.

Previously, in my lifetime certainly, a car was a luxury and if you could afford one it became the family car. Now you find one household may well have three cars as the norm.

Foreign holidays were a luxury that might happen once every couple of years, or be unaffordable to a lot of people. Now it is not unusual for people to take three foreign holidays a year, with the cost of many tonnes of carbon in the atmosphere.

I could go on for pages about our reliance on the good life which we now consider to be our essential right. Everything from processed food to throwaway electronic and consumer goods, it all takes its toll on the planet. As a planet we need to see the causes of the problem and act.

This means politicians need to get their act together, bring in unpopular legislation and laws which we all need to adhere to for however many years it will take to restabilize the planet so mankind can continue to have a home for many more millennia.

It has to be done by law because I am a realist who accepts that this can’t be left to people’s own conscience and actions, because for every person who will do their bit for the planet, there is at least another one who will selfishly carry on regardless because its their ‘right to do so, and nobody tells me what to do’.

Alan Howlett Banwell, Somerset