Fairtrade can lead push against climate injustice
ROD Slater (Viewpoints, February 25) writes about speed and safety required to deal with both the coronavirus pandemic and carbon emissions and points out the worldwide effort that has gone into producing vaccines with unprecedented speed.
That is indeed a blessing which we need to emulate to no lesser degree in terms of climate change if the baby in the pram outside his window is to have any sort of reasonable future.
For us the climate crisis may be manifested in erratic weather, for others it is already causing crop failures, destitution, and the end of life chances for children denied school by destitution.
This is Fairtrade Fortnight and at the #ChooseTheWorldYouWant online conference producers’ experiences have been shared telling us how genuine Fairtrade Foundation standards help protect people, letting them earn a premium to fall back on in emergencies or invest for the future.
The partnerships also encourage genuinely sustainable agriculture, promoting organics and protection of forests, soil and ecology together with reforesting. Alien high-tech agriculture has been pushed in the past leading to dependency; now user-led approaches are developed and shared.
Fairtrade is a practical way we can all push back against climate injustice as well as promoting a living income. It’s not charity, it’s partnership.
The free conference is continuing and being recorded with craft sessions for families with children, cookery demonstrations, and even advice on UK allotment growing in the face of climate change - heaven knows we need that!
For the sake of Rod Slater’s neighbour, our future, and that of people suffering disproportionately, shop Fairtrade, and come to the conference.
Fairtrade supporter
We can’t keep burning
THANK you for article “Forest
blazes destroy balance” (M.E.N., 26 February) which clearly explained another major threat to everyone’s future. At the moment forests turn the carbon we humans are putting into the atmosphere when we burn oil, coal and gas into wood. They can’t keep doing that indefinitely, and when they burn down, they release the carbon.
It’s a bit like having someone you thought was a rich friend paying for your mortgage, food and clothing but then when they die you discover that they were actually passing on your debts to a loan shark. Suddenly, what you thought was okay is not at all.
We are heading for disaster. We know it. While it seems overwhelming, there are still things we can do. Manchester council could start to behave like a real leader, displaying honesty and the ability to listen rather than spin. It could start to convene citizens, businesses and organisations.
Dr Marc Hudson, Moss Side