As the world burns, it’s sad to see so many leaders remain in denial about the reality of climate change

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After the Amazon’s blazing rainforest fires that raged havoc, affecting not only Brazil’s but the globe’s ecology, the world is watching the devastation caused by the forest fires in Australia with shock and concern as the unprecedented devastation continues to take human lives and destroy natural habitats and wildlife.

However, it’s worrisome and sad to see many leaders across the world still prefer to remain in the cocoon of denial about the reality of climate change and global warming unfolding in the world. Even Australia, with its huge resources and financial power, is having a tough time containing the rapidly blazing bushfires across New South Wales that have resulted in people fleeing to the safety of beaches.

While we sincerely pray for the safety of Australians and of all those across the world who are victims of such unprecedented, albeit preventable natural disasters, I sincerely hope that the unmerited debates about the very existence of global warming are put to rest by the international community. Also, I hope the looming threat of climate change is jointly tackled head-on before it’s too late.

Just imagine the plight of nations who barely have resources to deal with the wrath of mother nature?

The world owes much to the present and many more generations to come to create a green planet and a clean environment.

Atul M Karnik
New York, US

End of the world

The Marxist theorist Fredric Jameson observed that we have been living in a period when it is “easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism”. Jameson argued the necessity of seeing “capitalism by way of imagining the end of the world”.

We no longer need to imagine the end of the world. It is playing out before us.

Massive wildfires are raging in Australia. They are just one symptom of the catastrophic climate changes brought about by capitalism. The world is on fire and stands on the precipice of the mass extinction of its plant and animal life.

In addition we face the prospect of a new round of warfare in the Middle East after Donald Trump’s assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

It is now all too clear that unless we end capitalism, it will end the world.

Sasha Simic
London

Optimistically cautious

For the first time since the general election debacle, I feel cheered by the Labour Party and its contenders to be the next leader. There are some good candidates and I welcome the diversity and the individual strengths they will bring to a hopefully strong and determined opposition.

Boris Johnson has surrounded himself with colleagues who will agree with his every whim and desire, because before they were elected, they all had to state they would vote for the Brexit deal. So the opposition has to be robust and committed to uphold any necessary divergences to the will of Johnson and in this instance, not necessarily the people.

Please, Labour, don’t go all introspective and hum and haw for the duration. Just get on with it and be ready to challenge with purpose and determination, because prevarication and trying to please everyone is not a legitimate proactive stance and was certainly not a vote-winner.

Judith A Daniels
Great Yarmouth, Norfolk

New year promises

With reference to Sophie Gallagher’s article on new year resolutions, I can truthfully say that many decades ago I made a resolution which I have not broken. It was quite simply not to make any more new year resolutions.

Gillian Hoyle
Address supplied​

What’s in a handshake?

Anyone who has been watching the Australian fires has seen much of the horror that nature can produce. There has been criticism of the way the Australian government has handled the disasters and even criticism of the prime minister, Scott Morrison, and how he shakes hands with the people he meets.

Shaking hands is a positive way to greet people and in the past it was a sign of peace showing you were not holding weapons, although it must be genuine and equitable. There have been handshakes that symbolised change and hope – Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat in 1993, Raul Castro and Barack Obama in 2016, and Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in in 2018 – although not all led to successful negotiations. A handshake should be firm, not aggressive like President Trump’s – although when meeting Queen Elizabeth it is probably appropriate to remember that she is 93 years old.

Scott Morrison has met many people with a handshake, although some have declined it for various reasons and that should be their right. The problem as shown in the news is that he has then gone on to grab their hand and force them to shake hands, realistically an assault and certainly offensive. There have been a number of reports of his lack of empathy.

We should always greet people with a handshake or its cultural equivalent and if it is declined accept that and move on. We need to meet and greet openly and with hope in our hearts.

Dennis Fitzgerald
Melbourne, Australia

Brexit trade-off

Here is an interesting scenario. The present conflict between Iran and the US escalates seriously, resulting in the large-scale deployment of American troops to the Middle East. To legitimise this move, Donald Trump calls for support from other western powers. Not surprisingly they are reluctant to get involved. The US president then suggests that the only way the UK can expect an acceptable and speedy trade deal is if it accepts and joins his anti-Iran strategy. Would this situation be considered an early Brexit dividend?

MT Harris
Grimsby

Not a third world war

The assassination of General Soleimani will not herald a third world war. The region has already and is still being used as the battlefield for Iran’s proxy wars that has brought only death, destruction, desolation, diseases and the displacement of millions of people of what has been known as the most calamitous humanitarian emergency in modern times.

Arabs have been the primary losers of Iran’s ambition to fortify its Shia crescent and spread the ideals of its Islamic revolution throughout the Middle East and north Africa. King Abdullah II was the first leader to ring alarm bells. The last thing we all need is a third world war and more religious animosities that can burn the region and far beyond.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob
London