Activists must put their best foot forward

From: David Craggs, Shafton Gate, Rotherham.

AFTER listening to teenage activist Greta Thunberg’s speech where she blamed world leaders for the destruction of her planet – her words being ‘‘You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words’’ – I got thinking.

Those young people who support her, and live in those countries with a high standard of living, owe that standard to ‘‘energy’’, much of it having been produced from the combustion of oil and gas.

I live near two schools – one primary, one secondary – where the scale of the ‘‘school run’’ has to be seen to be believed. I wonder how the children would respond if they were told ‘‘by the way, your journey by car to and from school will come to an end tomorrow. It will be our contribution to saving the planet”. I suspect that the message would not go down too well with many of them. Perhaps those young people should be reminded that the ones who are really helping to save the planet are those children who live in parts of Africa where walking to school, sometimes several miles, is an every day event.

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

I AM very glad that I do not have to travel to London while these idiot professional protesters are clogging up the centre of our capital. How do they find the time to protest?

Clearly they are either on the dole or some other benefit – or very rich. Ordinary workers are the losers, not the real polluters. Perhaps they should try demonstrating in Moscow or Beijing and see what the outcome there would be. They will, of course, make not one iota of difference to climate change.