Young people need to do more than give speeches if they really want to tackle climate change

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At present, emissions from aviation are rising fast with the global expansion of the industry (AFP/Getty)

It was encouraging to read of Greta Thunberg’s speech to the rich and powerful at Davos. The contrast between this 16-year-old’s sincerity, rationality and lack of hypocrisy, and the environmentally damaging lifestyles of the elite members of her audience, was clear.

However, the idea that young people (or Generation Z or X) are necessarily adopting seriously green behaviour is unfortunately far from the truth. Many that I know think nothing of hopping on a plane to Barcelona, Bali or Bogota for a holiday, thereby stomping a big carbon footprint purely for their own pleasure. Some people need to fly for family, educational, political, journalistic or business reasons (although I’m sure some of this is unnecessary) but a huge amount of air travel is for holidays and frequent vacation fliers include wealthier retired people, the middle-aged and twenty-somethings.

The super-rich, celebrities and “leaders” of corporations with their private jets (many of whom could be found at Davos) are doubtless among the worst global warming offenders but tens of millions of wealthy westerners are also culpable in adding large amounts of greenhouse gases to our atmosphere as flying is indisputably one of the most carbon polluting activities. Whatever gender, age or ethnicity, these individuals are as much part of this destructive – and, let’s be frank, selfish – consumer culture as the elites, who more obviously care so much about the bottom line and so little about the lives of future generations.

At present, emissions from aviation are rising fast with the global expansion of the industry. So let’s work for airport shrinkage and encourage more sustainable low carbon travel abroad, including the ferry, train or even cycling. Like red meat, flying should be a rare treat if we seriously want to avoid disastrous climate change. It’s not the WEF that needs more Thunbergs, it is those highly vulnerable to the devastating consequences of global warming that need millions more young and older people to act as she does.

Malcolm Bride
London

Greta Thunberg at Davos represents hope for our future wellbeing on this planet – and indeed for the future wellbeing of the planet itself.

Youth, plus responsible world economics, and we will get there.

Michael Leighton
Devon

The Queen is right to say her piece

I, who am by no means a royalist, question Sean O’Grady on his analysis (It’s not the Queen’s place to wade into the Brexit debate) in relation to her speech to the Women’s Institute ladies in Sandringham, and her annual Christmas message.

Not only is this remarkable woman our head of state, she is also the supreme head of the Church of England, a matriarch respected by her own large family, as well as probably by most of her citizens and certainly quite a lot of the world’s leaders and population.

Her speeches are being interpreted by many journalists as veiled references to the shenanigans surrounding Brexit. I am certain that she of all people knows very well what is happening to the behaviour of a good few of her elected politicians and her subjects.

I think she has every right to comment on this pervasive nasty behaviour we are all witnessing at the moment. She also knows that to make overt or covert political comments is not in her remit.

This particular wise old lady has no issues with the Queen speaking her mind even if it has veiled political connotations.

CK Younis
London

I suspect most people agreed with the Queen when she recommended in a speech to the Sandringham WI: “Speaking well of each other and respecting different points of view; coming together to seek out the common ground; and never losing sight of the bigger picture.”

Civility, good faith, compromise, common sense, nation over party or faction – this is what voters, Leave or Remain, expect, and their frustration is clearly evident in a recent poll which showed that 85 per cent believed the entire political establishment has failed the country.

Rev Dr John Cameron
St Andrews

Why are we still clinging on to failing political leaders?

David Curran’s letter about our current and potential prime minister raises a good point but, as Einstein said, to carry on doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.

Patrick Cosgrove and Gilles Vincent raise matters of similar vein and it is self-evident from the condition of this country that we need a different type of PM, a different type of politician, and a different type of civil servant. Somehow we have to return to local accountability and, as with anyone from immigrants to plumbers, doctors, and other trades, the old way of learning on the job has to be improved by formalised training and relevant experience.

Everything from schools, industry, and hospitals to roads, public safety (terrorism is like aircraft accidents: shocking but statistically unimportant; burglary, vandalism, and behaviour matters much more, and it’s prevention we need, not criminalisation), and the quality of most our towns and cities is poor by best practice standards.

As with workplace behaviour and morals, and protection of the weak, our political system is decades behind the rest of the developed world and, far from being an exemplar legal and political system, we have degenerated into a self-serving and self-deluding authoritarian state.

Our parliament and politics needs a clearout. Anyone joining or remaining must be subject to professional auditing. Unless you have adequate credentials for the job, you must be barred from doing it.

No private business would hold on to a failed CEO the way political parties do. They talk about the importance and need to work with “business” but do almost the opposite. Change may not be perfect, but it is better than total failure and insanity.

People have to stop accepting the status quo and demand change from their elected representatives by calling, writing, twittering, or whatever else they have the ability to do. To do otherwise suggests you are either happy or insane.

Perhaps we need a national yellow jacket day when we all bake cakes, have coffee and donate to our favourite political cause or local service. A pictorial view of the jacket wearing population would show politicians how many of us reject the status quo.

Michael Mann
Shrewsbury

A much-needed lesson for MPs

Once again I read the assumption that a technology solution for the border with Ireland is still a hope. Let me give some advice to MPs to help them understand if the idea is technology-ready:

1. Do you have a mapped and tested process that you can clearly define?
2. Do you know what data you need to process and how that data will be entered?
3. Have you optimised your process so it’s efficient?
4. Have you sized the problem?
5. What permissions do you have to use the data and for what reason?
6. Have you clear understanding of what good would look like so when you test you know it works?
7. Are you willing to pay for the analysis before you place a contract with a supplier?
8. Is the policy surrounding this agreed and bought into?

Pretty certain the answers to those questions are all “no”.

There is a basic rule in tech: you cannot automate something that is not standard. And, as at this stage we have no clue what even the fundamentals of a Brexit deal will look like, investment in tech at this stage would be sheer folly. Spend it on dealing with the increasing number of people in the UK who are living in poverty. Agreed that is probably only short term too, but at least someone gets a hot meal.

Laura Dawson
Harpenden