Letter: Global warming sparks a heated debate
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Gregg Easterbrook's article 'Hot air and global warming' ) is pernicious rubbish. There are some questions that can be addressed in terms of the simplifications of 'the sun continues to rise' type, with which Mr Easterbrook feels comfortable. But the questions raised by the environment are more complicated than this. In fact, they are specially complicated, for four reasons:
Lagged effects - the full environmental consequences of current activities will not become evident for three decades or more;
Delayed reactions - some of the most critical solutions would take a century to implement, even if we could all agree to start now;
Uncertainty - if we waited for certainty to develop on environmental issues, we could never take any preventative action at all;
Instability - the changes that we can now predict with some degree of confidence could rock us out of our present climatic equilibrium into another one, to which we may be ill adapted.
Even if these concerns were entirely unfounded, the environment perspective is rightly setting the agenda for industrial and social policy. Within its frame of reference companies reduce waste, improve product quality, protect their localities and achieve improved market share and earnings; in social policy the environment perspective addresses issues of distribution, underemployment, quality of life and responsibility.
The pace at which we are responding to global environmental change is dangerously slow, and debunking articles of the kind offered by Mr Easterbrook do their bit to paralyse it completely.
Yours faithfully,
DAVID FLEMING
Director
The Strategy Workshop
London, NW3
7 August
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments