Letters: Climate change

Thursday 21 September 2006 19:00 EDT
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Are we capable of making rational decisions on climate?

Sir: I congratulate you on your reporting of climate issues. Now there can be no doubt that global warming is under way and that only by extraordinary action at national and international level can catastrophe be averted.

But how can we ensure that extraordinary action is now taken? Making the case is not in itself enough. We have an inward-looking, populist, media- and consumer-oriented polity, which has become short-termist and confused. Despite admirable exceptions, the mass media seem locked into a mentality of business-as-usual.

Internationally, too, there are huge obstacles to rational decision-making on climate issues - quite apart from the Bush administration's official policy of denial. In the international system of states, buck-passing is an operating principle. There is endless scope for action to be postponed while arguments rage about who is historically "responsible" for what has happened, and who pays how much today, or tomorrow.

Can all this be transcended? There are some glimmers of hope. At home, David Cameron has proposed that climate change should be removed from party politics through an all-party "settlement" on the issue. Internationally, proposals for a supranational climate authority or community to administer a carbon emissions system in which all states would participate on an equitable basis have been put forward by the Global Commons Institute. At Nairobi in November, at the UN Climate Change Conference, there is a chance that imaginative ways of moving beyond Kyoto will be tabled.

But the challenge of securing agreement on meaningful action remains formidable. Perhaps the time has come to bring in the political scientists alongside the climate scientists to help chart the way forward.

DAVID STEPHEN

NORTH TAMERTON, CORNWALL

Where Muslims and Christians differ

Sir: I regularly read Johann Hari's column and often enjoy it, even though I find his disparagement of the Christian faith a little trying sometimes ("Here are the real reasons to oppose the Pope", 21 September).

It is certainly true that the Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths all recognise the God of Abraham as the one true God and that each faith shares many of the teachings of what Christians call the Old Testament. Each faith believes in loving and respecting other people, caring for those in need, the equality of all humanity and in living faithful, honest and chaste lives.

Whilst each faith has strong similarities in the virtues they encourage, each one has a significantly different revelation of God. Christians believe that Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, reveals to us the true nature of the living God. Christians revere the Old Testament because it records the slowly evolving relationship between God and humankind. For Christians, these scriptures can only be interpreted through the teachings of Jesus Christ.

There is nowhere in the Bible where Jesus supports slavery, genocide or stoning prostitutes and he certainly didn't recommend feeding small children to bears. (Mr Hari has mentioned this before and although I know the Bible fairly well, I'm not at all sure to what he is alluding.)

If Catholic priests are telling lies about condoms to their congregations, then they are committing a sin. They cannot justify this by claiming that they are trying to prevent what they consider to be a greater sin. I hope Mr Hari challenged them about this; it's outrageous and these men are a disgrace both to their faith and to their calling as priests.

BARBARA PEARMAN

TILNEY ALL SAINTS, NORFOLK

Sir: It is quiet a stretch on the part of Dominic Lawson (Opinion, 19 September) to claim that the Pope purposefully upset the Muslim world. If you read the Pope's talk, it is clear he is only using the quote to help make a point about the necessity of both reason and faith.

The fault here belongs to his diplomatic advisers. They should have warned the theologian-pope of the geopolitical significance of using the quote. He also needs to be told that as Pope he can no longer give in public academic presentations, no matter how brilliant they may be.

FR RICHARD BAIN

SAN FRANCISCO

Sir: Dominic Lawson's attempt at being frank and sincere about the true position of revealed faiths on each other is to be commended. His article had one fatal flaw and a major piece of misinformation that must be addressed.

Christians essentially believe Mohamed was deluded or a liar; they would have converted otherwise. It is also true that Muslims do not accept that Jesus is the son of God; this, contrary to Mr Lawson's suggestion, does not imply that Jesus was deluded or a liar. There is a simple explanation, clearly stated in the Koran, that Muslims believe: Jesus never said he was the son of God.

Every Muslim child knows that Jesus, Mohamed, Moses, Ibraham, Noah, along with many others, were all prophets of God and must be revered and respected at all times and in all circumstances

RASHEED GADIR

LONDON NW6

Sir: Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob (letter, 18 September) is mistaken in his assertion that the Nazis were Christians. They found Christianity abhorrent and blamed its philosophy for the emergence of Communism - "The bastard child of Christianity" according to Adolf Hitler.

They made continual attempts to foist a nostalgic reinvented paganism upon the German people and they tortured and murdered Christians who spoke out against their atrocities.

P BRAUN

HYDE, GREATER MANCHESTER

Sir: Fr Shurgolds account (letter, 18 September) of medieval Christian-Muslim relations is garbled. The Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim certainly destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009, but it was rebuilt the following year, and the new building was well described by the Persian traveller Nasir-i Khusrau in 1047, a full 50 years before the First Crusade.

CHRISTOPHER WALKER

LONDON W14

Responsibility for Gaza's suffering

Sir: Like Daniel Naftalin, (letter, 20 September) I found it painful to read The Independent's report on Israel's attacks on Gaza. However, unlike Mr Naftalin, I wish to congratulate The Independent for keeping the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza in the news. I reserve my criticism not for the messenger, but for those responsible for this violence - the Israeli government.

Israeli attacks on Gaza, which have taken place ever since the withdrawal of their settlers, have been relentless. Even before the election of Hamas, the economy in Gaza has been unable to function as Israel repeatedly closes the border crossings. All this year, Israel has been firing missiles into residential areas, killing civilians. Since the end of June, the population has been effectively without power for their homes, their hospitals and their sanitation systems.

Whether Israel intends to kill civilians as it bombs the world's most densely crowded territory is irrelevant - that is the obvious effect and such actions amount to war crimes. The Independent is right to focus on the situation in Gaza, not because it is "Israel-bashing" but because of the awful suffering of the people there. If Israelis were suffering in such a manner, we would be equally appalled.

What we must now do is to focus on how to alleviate this suffering. The people of Gaza need our support - my church has recently raised money for a British charity working with Palestinians there, as well as in the West Bank and Lebanon. But the real solution will only come when Israel recognises the legitimate rights of Palestinians to a secure, viable state of their own, just as they themselves enjoy.

DR STEPHEN LEAH

YORK

Sir: The barrage of, distortions, fabrications, and virulent hatred, that permeated your letters pages on 11 September, typifies the vilification of Israel and America that seems to have found a home in the columns of your newspaper.

It is profoundly wrong to state that the onus is upon western leaders to "understand" the delicate balance of terror exercised by al-Qa'ida, Jihadists, Hisbollah, Sunni, Shias, Kurds, warlords, Muslim clerics etc and act accordingly. It was Churchill who said he did not need to "understand" Nazism to know that it was necessary to defeat it. We should be thankful that at least three world leaders, Bush, Blair, and John Howard, came to the same conclusion after 9/11.

We are unquestionably involved in a global war against militant Islamist extremism. It cannot be fought through the judiciary and police force. It is a war not of our making, nor something we sought. America and Israel are at the sharp end, but it is clear that we are under attack from within our country as well as outside.

Turning away from America and Israel, allowing Islamist extremists to stop the Palestinians negotiating and declaring their own sovereign state, our own divisiveness and weakness, could jeopardise the future of our children and grandchildren. It's that important.

HARRY LEVY

PINNER, MIDDLESEX

An exotic vision of Africans

Sir: There is something more than a little creepy about the Red Independent (21 September). Kate Moss in blackface may not be a fashion statement, but it is a return to a kind of imagery that I hoped we'd seen the back of.

The whole campaign smacks of the exoticisation of the other - serious Africans commentating are replaced by the Western fashion industry and holiday brochure images of the Maasai in an American Express advert.

Last year's Make Poverty History campaign raised serious questions about why Africa is poor and what could be done about it, even if it didn't always manage to answer them. The Red campaign appears to have dropped serious questioning and replaced it with assuaging middle-class guilt and boosting the profits of multinationals.

"Desire meets virtue" - I become virtuous by buying a Red accessory, or presumably putting up a poster of a black Kate Moss.

KEN ARUNGU OLENDE

LONDON N16

Sir: In your excellent Red issue, Bill Gates quotes the annual cost of HIV treatment today for everyone who needs it as $7bn. He further says, "If the world hasn't been able to find $7bn now, how easily will it find the $14bn or $21bn or the $40bn some say we will need by 2020 to pay for universal treatment?"

The fact is, the money is already there but the political will is not. According to figures presented at the recent International AIDS Conference in Toronto by Dr Jim Kim of Harvard, the US alone has already spent $400bn on war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the estimated cost of addressing current health worker shortages would be "equal to the cost of two days of the Iraq war". As for medicines, even at the highest figure that Bill Gates suggests, the cost of providing universal treatment by 2020 is considerably lower than the cost of dropping bombs on people.

PAUL CLIFT

UK COALITION OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV AND AIDS, LONDON SE11

Honey, wine and Marmite

Sir: Hooray! Another Marmite and peanut butter fan. Has anyone else tried it with honey? When my sister and I were young we decided, for some reason, that it was bad luck to eat that combination without making seven circles of the breakfast table. It must have driven our parents mad.

TESSA BENNETT

LITTLEMORE, OXFORD

Sir: A friend described to me how Pinotage wine was a bit like Marmite, in as much as you either love it or you hate it. I love Pinotage wine but strangely hate Marmite. Do you think I need help?

JIM WALKER

LIVERPOOL

Approved accent

Sir: Bill Morrison (letter, 18 September) is correct in raising the point of the phonetic rendering (and mockery) of accents other than those of which The Independent approves. The only way in which the weekly "Get the Picture" competition in the Magazine can be completed is if we acknowledge straight away that whoever compiles it has no knowledge of the use of the letter R. Then all the clues fall neatly into place.

DOUGAL DIXON

WAREHAM, DORSET

Hunting accidents

Sir: Matthew Higgs (letter, 21 September) says that quarry hunts are now drag-hunting. Why then do they repeatedly put their packs into thick cover, indeed exactly the same pieces of cover they have visited year after year, and where they know the quarry species will almost certainly be found? Nowadays,when the hounds chase a fox, the chorus from hunters is that it was an "accident". It is time that this puerile excuse was tested in court and nailed once and for all.

PENNY LITTLE

GREAT HASELEY, OXFORDSHIRE

Forgotten nation

Sir: Professor Bryan Sykes's DNA analysis of the origins of the British, according to your article of 20 September, accounts for the migration of Celts from Spain, a clan from Africa, farmers from the Middle East, Romans, and two waves of Vikings from Denmark. Do you notice any omission from the traditional list of migrants to Britain? Where are the Anglo-Saxons, or English? Was there no Anglo-Saxon migration? Was Bede a writer of fiction rather than a historian?

MICHAEL ANDREWS

CLEETHORPES, LINCOLNSHIRE

Break from Bush

Sir: President Bush's proposal to bypass Article 3 of the Geneva Convention has been condemned by many in the USA, including Colin Powell. This could be the one opportunity for our Government to distance itself and Britain from the President. Lord Falconer has belatedly condemned Guantanamo Bay; a thunderbolt has not fallen upon him. Now could be the moment for the British poodle to slip its leash.

MAYNARD HALL

WIGTON, CUMBRIA

Licence and luxury

Sir: I have recently wondered what the BBC does with my TV licence fee. Thanks then to Claudia Winkleman (20 September) for enlightening me and explaining that it is spent on three-hour lunches in London's top restaurants. No doubt the powers that be at the Beeb are unable to concentrate on the task in hand over sandwiches and coffee like the rest of us mere mortals.

RACHEL BAKER

MARKET HARBOROUGH, LEICESTERSHIRE

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