Scouts, good luck on journey of a lifetime

In just a few days’ time Scouts from Bath will be travelling 3,800 miles to wild and wonderful West Virginia, USA, for the 24th World Scout Jamboree.

Every one of them will be an ambassador for the Scouts, the UK’S largest mixed movement, helping prepare girls and boys with skills for life.

World Jamborees only happen every four years and tens of thousands of Scouts attend each one. They are incredible festivals of peace, friendship and adventure.

Young people will make friends for life with people from over 150 countries, experience different food, language and culture while learning new skills. It will be the journey of a lifetime.

The 2019 Jamboree, jointly hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico, has the theme ‘Unlock a new world’ – focusing on creating a sustainable world together.

I want to wish every one of the Bath Scouts good luck and safe travels. We’re so proud of you and I’ll see you out there!

I feel compelled to respond to the two particularly negative and aggressive letters about Extinction Rebellion in last week’s paper.

Extinction Rebellion are NOT a terrorist group and to use that terminology is absurd.

Their actions are peaceful protests designed to bring attention and action to the Climate Crisis that is already happening, (and if you are in denial about this, you need to do your research).

Of course they cause disruption – that’s what protests do. That’s how the suffragettes changed the world, and how the Civil Rights Movement changed history.

If Mr Burns and the anonymous writer had actually witnessed any of the protests in person, they would have seen the huge variety of peaceful protestors, from mildmannered retirees, to concerned parents of young children, to teenagers worried about the state of the world our generations are leaving them.

I attended the recent London protests and anyone who knows me would laugh at the idea that I am a ‘thug.’ I am simply a concerned citizen who feels compelled to act.

Non-violent direct action is a last resort. Conventional methods of protest have failed. Those of us who are concerned about the environment have spent decades writing letters, signing petitions, going to public enquiries and trying to be more environmental in our personal lives.

But it is simply not enough. Change has to come from the government, and the government is not interested. It is preoccupied with the chaos of Brexit. It declares a ‘climate emergency,’ but makes a nonsense of it by approving a third runway at Heathrow and subsidising fracking.

Mr Burns – it is simplistic and patronising to blame India and China for the world’s pollution problems, and therefore absolve us of our responsibilities.

Half the goods these countries produce, are transported to the rich West for our endless consumption. The clothes we wear are made with cotton produced at great environmental and social cost in these countries that you blame.

We led the Industrial Revolution, and we must lead the Environmental Revolution.

History will be on the side of these protestors, and the many others that will follow. Change has to come, and history has shown that peaceful protest is often the only way of making that happen. K. Ward By email ■ I am glad that your correspondent Mr Peter Burns was impressed with the young people of Bath’s protest against climate change.

However I am rather puzzled by his assertion that “I have no hesitation in calling Extinction Rebellion thugs”.

Might I suggest that some hesitation may have been prudent in this instance as my Oxford English Dictionary defines “thug” as “a vicious or brutal ruffian” whereas Extinction Rebellion are an entirely peaceful protest group committed to non-violent direct action?

I would be more than happy to lend Mr Burns a copy of my dictionary if he would find it helpful in his future correspondence with the Chronicle. Daniel Lyons Bath