Mr Sheppard, of Beckingham, writes in News Views that “fear-mongering narratives about the effects of carbon dioxide have resulted in nonsensical expenditure of billions on the achievement of net-zero” and refers to net-zero policies on climate change as “welfare destroying” and “economically irrelevant”.
On the same day the front-page headline in The Guardian reads: “Scientists despair amid forecast of at least 2.5C temperature rise”.
This is the view of “hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists” who are members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Many of them “envisage a ‘semi-dystopian’ future, with famines, conflicts and mass migration driven by heatwaves, wildfires, floods and storms of an intensity and frequency far beyond those that have already struck”.
Mr Sheppard wants stronger dykes, better house insulation, stability of property against hurricanes, forest firebreaks and storage of excess rainwater.
Fine, but tackling the source of the problem as well as its effects is warranted.
Reduce the flow of carbon dioxide (from fossil fuels) and methane (from cattle) into our atmosphere.
Here lies the societal problem. We need our cars to travel and gas-fired central heating to keep us warm; and we enjoy our beef roasts.
Perhaps we need historians to tell how, until a 150 years ago, people led busy and contented lives without these luxuries!
And we need politicians who understand the menace of climate change, endeavour to convince the public of the danger. and are willing to tackle it. — M. BASSEY, Coddington.
