Letters: Apocalyptic climate predictions do nothing to engage the public

SIR – You recently reported (August 1) on the warning from Professor Jim Skea, the newly elected head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that apocalyptic messaging on this subject merely “paralyses” the public and fails to motivate individuals to protect the planet. 

In the same article, Professor Skea was quoted as saying that the world warming 1.5C above pre-industrial levels was “not an existential threat to humanity”. He also stated that, while action to mitigate climate change is to be encouraged, we should not despair.

I wonder if Dr Roger Harrabin (“The climate threat”, Letters, August 14) missed this article.
The issue cannot be ignored, and it is not being ignored. Everyone must play their part, no matter how small. But a less doom-mongering approach would be welcome.

Mary Marshall
Ilkley, West Yorkshire

SIR – Dr Harrabin suggests that all kinds of catastrophes will occur if we do not comply with emissions targets. 

Yet the IPCC does not predict catastrophe. Its latest report is full of possible scenarios, which may or may not come to pass.

What will surely happen, however, if we decarbonise at the rate currently proposed, is that millions will fall into poverty.

Gordon Welford
Portishead, Somerset

SIR – The challenge of making people take the climate threat seriously, as described by Dr Harrabin, is illustrated by two other letters printed on the same day in support of SUVs, which follow a photo on the previous page of some of the 2,000 buildings in one Hawaiian town pulverised by the wildfires and hurricane.

Richard Lennox
Langholm, Dumfriesshire

SIR – We live in a rural house and rely on an oil boiler. We cannot afford a heat pump (report, August 12). If boilers are banned, we will be forced to use our wood-burners (one is multi-fuel; the other burns wood only). This may well result in more pollution.

If it’s a choice between freezing or polluting, we will choose polluting – as will thousands of other people living in rural, older homes. Not only that, but another nail will be hammered into the Conservative Party’s (presumably biodegradable) coffin.

Rennison Hammond
Woodbridge, Suffolk

SIR – I lived for 14 years in a 300-year-old house in the Yorkshire Dales, which was heated by electric night storage heaters.

These kept the house at a very comfortable temperature during the winter and ran on cheap night-time electricity, meaning that bills were reasonable. I even bought a new one and installed it myself, which wasn’t difficult or expensive.

David Bryant
Leeds, West Yorkshire

Better border control

SIR – Nick Timothy (Comment, August 14) points out that almost one billion people worldwide would be able to claim asylum in Britain and Europe if they managed to reach or cross our borders. 

These grim figures highlight the need for Britain to regain control of its borders, which will only be possible with the full cooperation of the French authorities.

Surely there is a way – if, for example, we agree to accept (say) 20,000 immigrants a year from France and set up a British immigration office to process genuine refugees there, with France agreeing to take back all illegal immigrants making their journey in small boats. 

Such a solution would stop the evil people smugglers and help prevent desperate people from risking their lives in the Channel. It is quite obvious that the present agreement does not work and, to a degree, France is happy to see some immigrants departing.

Michael Edwards
Haslemere, Surrey

SIR – You report (August 13) that ministers plan to house migrants in university accommodation – but universities are struggling to provide accommodation for their own students. If the Government decides to prioritise migrants over British students, the public will justifiably be very angry.

Bobby Angelov
Falmouth, Cornwall

SIR – History tells us there is no simple solution to the migrant crisis. French police would have to stand shoulder-to-shoulder to prevent crossings, and even then our sclerotic bureaucracy is incapable of dealing with legitimate arrivals.

However, just as the liberal Left is being disingenuous about the very real cultural and financial problems caused by large numbers of predominantly young men from non-Western countries arriving without jobs or accommodation, the conservative Right is being strangely silent about the potential benefits of a young and motivated workforce to an economy struggling with a labour shortage. 

Splendid isolation didn’t work in the 19th century, and it is impossible now.

Michael Heaton
Warminster, Wiltshire

Keeping the faith

SIR – E R Chalker affirms that life is the main evidence for God (Letters, August 14). He says it’s “far too fanciful” to believe that life is “the result of an accident”, an accident involving (presumably) inanimate things. This implies that the latter atoms and chemicals are not such clear evidence for a Creator, if at all.

That is a hostage to the fortune of science, which seems to be demonstrating that living organisms and inanimate objects are organised on the same principles. Mr Chalker’s (not unpopular) “proof” from the gap between animate and inanimate infers only the old god-of-the-gaps. Close the gap and atheism wins.

Fr Hugh MacKenzie
Westminster Cathedral
London SW1

SIR – In 1957 I was interviewed by a brigadier to see if I was suitable material to become an Army officer. 

I was floored by one question: “Which is better: an atheist or agnostic?” I replied that I knew the difference but, as to which was better, I really could not say. “Atheist, of course,” barked the brigadier. “We can’t have officers in the Army who cannot make up their minds.”

Somehow he still passed me. 

Clive Williams
Upper Basildon, Berkshire

Junior doctors’ needs

SIR – As consultant cardiologists we have been saddened by the junior doctors’ continued strike action (Letters, August 14), perhaps most of all by the news that newly qualified doctors have been seen on picket lines. 

We are concerned that these young people may have been subject to unhealthy peer pressure and manipulation by trade unions. It is in their own interests and the interests of their patients that this dispute be settled quickly. We suggest that, instead of demanding large pay increases, they ask their unions to use their negotiating skills to achieve more modest ones, coupled with improvements to their terms and conditions that will enhance their quality of life at work. 

Relief from student loan repayments while working for the NHS and the provision of meals and rest facilities during on-call nights are a few of the measures that can restore contentment. 

Finally, we urge them to remember that the NHS pension is pay deferred and ensures lifelong financial security.

Professor J N Townend
Birmingham

Dr J N West
Sheffield, South Yorkshire

SIR – Strikes by doctors inevitably lead to delays in treatment. I acknowledge that there have been years of refusal to implement the independent pay review body’s award, and that the Government’s pledge to honour this year’s award in full does not ease the doctors’ annoyance, but there must be a way of ending the current stand-off, which is adversely affecting so many.

Dr Malcolm Freeth
Bournemouth, Dorset

Last respects

SIR – As the correspondent responsible for starting the conversation about what people might wear and have in their coffins (Letters, July 31), I thought readers might like to know that my brother’s funeral went as well as could be expected in the circumstances. 

I was amazed at the number of mourners (presumably Telegraph readers) who mentioned my Tommy Nutter suit, in which I said I would like to be buried; others in attendance were puzzled as to why I threw a chocolate cupcake into my brother’s grave.

As children, our mother would give my two brothers and me cupcakes as a treat. The cakes came in a box of four. My late brother used to solve the problem of who had the fourth cake by coughing all over it. Somehow, my offering seemed appropriate.

Nicholas Young 
London W13

Birds that flourish on well-managed moorland

SIR – A recent, thoroughly researched and peer-reviewed scientific report from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust demonstrates that the rapidly declining Eurasian curlew is able to breed four times more successfully on British moors managed for driven grouse shooting than on unmanaged moorland.

In addition, it shows that lapwings, golden plovers, oystercatchers and redshanks all benefited and raised more chicks on sites where predator control was in place as part of grouse moorland management.

However, Chris Packham and his Wild Justice campaigning group choose to ignore this evidence, and continue to use the start of the perfectly legal grouse shooting season to publicise their claim that banning this activity would be good for wildlife.

Anthony Clay
Burnham Overy, Norfolk 

SIR – The gamekeeper Andrew Chadwick’s comments about moorland management and licensing of grouse shooting in the future are relevant for the Country Land and Business Association, moor managers, keepers, farmers and tenants. 

Should United Utilities proceed with plans that will effectively ban shooting on its land, it will find itself seriously out of pocket as many of its tenants will give up their tenancy and the heather moorlands will revert to a wilderness. 

Ian Caudwell
Rowsley, Derbyshire

Settling on a name for a younger grandparent

SIR – When our first grandchild was due, my husband, aged 55, said he was far too young to be called Grandad and eventually agreed to Pops (Letters, August 14). In order to keep it simple I became Mops. Eighteen years later, the staff at the nearby nursery still call me Mops when they see me.

Heather Farquharson
Braintree, Essex

SIR – My wife’s father was some 20 years older than my father. My children met my wife’s father some years before my father. As a result, the former became Old Grandad and the latter New Grandad.

Tom Dubec
Tunbridge Wells, Kent

SIR – My paternal grandparents were known as 70 Grandma and Grandpa (they lived at 70 Woodbury Street in Tooting). However, I did feel sorry for my mother’s mother, who was simply Other Grandma. My husband and I are delighted to be Grandma and (occasionally) Silly Grandad.

Mary Moore
Croydon, Surrey

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