Alok Sharma is one of the few in our parliament who is aware that global ecological collapse is already underway (“As Europe burns, climate chief warns: I may resign if new PM abandons net zero plan”, News). Showing his excitement at Cop26 revealed that his motivations run deeper than the usual desire for profit and personal status.
A recent UN Commons Cluster document urges that we must overcome petty party political differences to fully address escalating climate and ecological collapse. These existential crises are a global threat: if we cannot cooperate within our own borders, how can we provide worthy leadership to the rest of the world? I would like to see an emergency multi-party government set up in the UK to start tackling the reality of ecological collapse. Tragically, our pursuit of GDP growth encourages us to increase the three key drivers of environmental damage: population, wealth, and technology. We urgently need a new address.Barbara WilliamsLong Hanborough, Oxfordshire
Covid risks were all too real
As a former NHS Covid response team doctor and father of teenagers, I must take issue with Dr Breathnach (“Paying the Price of Lockdown”, Letters). The risks of Covid were not “vague”. We had real life evidence from Italy of how a healthcare system could be overwhelmed. Our response was time sensitive and ultimately late, with over 180,000 deaths. A time-consuming series of intergenerational debates was not feasible.
The mental health of young people is extremely important, and cutbacks in mental health services for children and adolescents further belie the conservative boast that they “got the big decisions right.” Few families have emerged unscathed. However, when your house is on fire, you can’t commission a study on the downsides of water damage from fire hoses. This may interest you : Cupra could point to a potential expansion in the United States. While many aspects of the pandemic were not handled well, treating the pandemic as a public health emergency was not a mistake. Denis JacksonGlasgow
Needless deaths of chickens
Jon Ungoed-Thomas’ article makes for sobering reading (“Every week, a million chickens ‘die unnecessarily to keep prices down,'” News). To put the figures in perspective, in the 2001 slaughter to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, some 6.5 million animals were killed. This number will be surpassed on UK poultry farms when a new Prime Minister takes office and will quadruple by Christmas. Regardless of one’s position on raising animals for meat, the scale of this needless death seems unjustifiable. That such deaths can be greatly reduced through initiatives like the Better Chicken Commitment, and that many of our largest retailers refuse to make such a commitment, seems like a damning indictment of our society’s relationship with the animals we eat. Jack Slater Bristol
Tell us what can be recycled
Thank you for an illuminating report on the sorry state of recycling in the UK (“We’re Rubbish at Recycling”, Special Report). However, I think the biggest problem is that the public is being set up to fail, due to the lack of clear instructions given to households on what is recyclable and what is not. Read also : China’s real estate crisis is deepening as a major Shanghai developer has predefined.
My council, Manchester City, provides three separate recycling collections, but only provides very basic information to residents about what is accepted. Nothing about the “tennis ball rule” or whether “compostable items” can be included with food waste; there are no instructions for washing items or information on what would contaminate the recycling process. Also, there is a coding system for plastics to be recycled, but that is also not explained to the residents.
The comment in the article by an overzealous recycler, James Piper, resonated with me: “It is better for people to recycle cautiously than to recycle excessively.” If councils can provide households with more comprehensive information on how to better prepare their waste, the system could have a better chance of success.Rachel GutteridgeManchester
Disturbing call for war
Simon Tisdall’s call for war by NATO against Russia is deeply disturbing (“Putin is already at war with Europe. There is only one way to stop him,” Foreign Affairs comment). NATO would undoubtedly win a conventional war against Russia and there is little doubt that, pushed to the brink of imminent defeat, Russia would revert to the means by which it could even the conflict, using nuclear weapons, probably on the battlefield at beginning. Tisdall’s call for NATO to defend Ukraine, therefore, is a clear willingness to allow a nuclear holocaust, since it would not be possible to contain a nuclear conflict once it started. Read also : China Is Changing Law So It Can Turn Back To Sports Incidents. However, he does not even make a passing reference to this, the greatest danger of the crisis. Stephen SmithGlasgow
China on the wane
If China’s loss of the world’s No. 1 position in terms of population leads to a lower “soft power” ranking, think of the psychological effect a population collapse will have in the coming decades on the Chinese Communist Party (” It is no longer the most populous, but still China wants to be number one in the world”, comment).
The UN World Population Project predicts a drop in China’s population to 1.3 billion by 2050, but this estimate may be too conservative. In May 2022, China’s own government statistics showed that the country’s fertility rate is already as low as 1.3 (lower than Japan and Europe) and in Empty Planet, authors Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson suggest that the country’s population “could decrease by almost half in this century”.
The CCP may have been right to invest heavily in soft power for the sake of international prestige, but it will soon have to scale back its sympathy offensives to focus on maintaining its economic influence. Eurof Thomas Cardiff
Keeping cool? It’s child’s play
After reading “Body shock: the dangers of overheating” (News) by Katherine Latham, I found the best way to cool off in the “red alert” heat wave. I give myself to the daily cooling of hot and tired feet in the granddaughter’s paddling pool. Even a minute is totally refreshing. The water lasts for days and can be recycled in the garden. It makes me smile every time and brings out the child in me. Rose GanderExeter
