Ridley’s wrong
Sir: In last week’s issue the former Northern Rock chairman rejoiced in the ‘good news’ that climate change would not start to damage our planet for another 57 years (‘Carry on warming’, 19 October).
I am not a scientist. As a minister, I rely on the opinion of experts including the government chief scientist, the Meteorological Office and the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They do not share Lord Ridley’s views.
The latest IPCC scientific analysis from 259 climate experts in 39 countries, reviewed by another 659 experts who dealt with 53,000 individual comments, is clear about the very real threat that dangerous man-made climate change poses to humankind. But if we followed Lord Ridley’s logic, presumably we wouldn’t just stop investing in clean energy but we would also slam the brakes on investing in long-term infrastructure, maybe stop preserving historic monuments, eat up the world’s resources, deplete oceans and hack down forests. Since the full consequences of our actions wouldn’t be felt for 57 years, why worry?
To a Conservative, especially, this is an appalling argument. Margaret Thatcher reminded the 1988 party conference that, ‘It’s we Conservatives who are not merely friends of the earth — we are its guardians and trustees for generations to come… No generation has a freehold on this earth. All we have is a life tenancy — with a full repairing lease. This government intends to meet the terms of that lease in full.’ Have we forgotten her words already?
Rt Hon. Greg Barker, MP
Minister for Energy and Climate Change, London SW1
The real Kenya
Sir: Aidan Hartley refers to Kenya (‘Are you my death?’, 28 September) as ‘an important modern country, with a booming economy and a bright future’ rather than as the typical ‘ill-managed African banana republic’.
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