Like many people last night I watched the 'BBC News at 10pm' with a sense of dejection as yet another report indicating catastrophic changes to the world's climate was revealed. The Independent has traditionally embraced the 'global warming' issue. Who can forget that run of stark front page headlines a couple of years ago. They need to step outside the box again and in the words of Spike Lee, "do the right thing...."
Letters editor, The Independent
Sir,
It shouldn't be a surprise that sea-levels are rising faster than expected (Independent 11.3.09). The observable pattern with scientific reports is that they continually reveal that climate change is more serious than we thought previously.
What is astonishing, on the other hand, is that all three big political parties in the UK fail to adopt the right targets, fail to pursue the full package of policies necessary to meet even their inadequate targets, and continue to pursue some policies that go in exactly the wrong direction. This is another observable pattern.
And another one is the way the bulk of the UK media manage to avoid spelling out the fact that there is still only one political party that has always had the right targets and the full range of policies needed to meet those targets in an economically viable and socially just manner. The public needs to know this. The public gets most of its information on matters like this most of the time via the mass media. In a democracy, this gives the media a significant responsibility.
So instead of just reporting on what must be done, and on the fact that it isn't being done, when are Britain's newspapers going to begin stating this simple fact: if you want the right action taken on the climate crisis, you're going to have to elect more Greens.
And the next opportunity is of course the European election on 4 June. The EU has a huge role to play on the world stage, and the need for more Green MEPs has never been greater. Will the Independent take the lead and acknowledge this?
Yours sincerely
Prof John Whitelegg
Green Party spokesperson on sustainable development
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Tags croydon, greenparty
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