Letter: The climate crisis is real and not 'doom mongering'

Taiwan's monsoon period is now a month longer than normal.

A repeated reaction to such events by some correspondents is "I'll take a pinch of salt".

Do they need to have at least 160 people swept away by their local river before they understand the reality of the climate crisis?

I sincerely fear for their health given how much salt they gobble.

The Climate Intelligence Unit shows us that arable farmers in the UK will lose 23 per cent of their income by the end of this year because of abnormally wet months, while human activity globally has caused a 70 per cent decline in wildlife.

The UK is world-beating here: 35 of our 86 species of tree are endangered.

Environment and climate issues are at last being reported daily.

Enough of this "doom-mongering"—those who "know" about the climate repeatedly insist with wilful and steely blindness that such "shock/horror stories" are often found "in the popular press".

And, following Mr Gove's infamous statement "that the British have had enough of experts," they insultingly reject decades of work by tens of thousands of scientists across the globe.

These happily benighted "it's alright Jack" recidivists are as dangerous as outright climate change deniers who often rely on conspiracy theories to "prove" their "opinion"; e.g. in the US, the belief that recent hurricanes were caused by the Democrat Party to harm Republican voters.

That insanity has no place in adult conversation.

Why do the "Pinch of salt" propagandists place themselves in a similar camp?

Is it that the conceit of disparaging truths makes them, in an adolescent way, feel superior?

Is it a lingering desire to challenge the teacher because as kids they were unable to debate with "Sir or Miss"?

Are some of these life-threatening correspondents addicted to having the last word on any topic?

Is it a twisted sense of "fair play"; any proposition must be met with a counter proposition?

There's certainly a determination to bathe in the attention they generate by cocking a snook at those of us who respect indisputably well-researched conclusions coming from sources as diverse as Sir David Attenborough and NASA.

Is it that many older people in this country "have never had it so good," to quote PM Harold Macmillan?

Very few of us still alive faced danger in a wartime front line.

Until recently, standards of living, the quality of medical treatment, and life expectancy increased steadily.

After this relative feather-bedding, is it that the naysayers cannot grasp the significance of the changes that will prove necessary as a response to the climate crisis?

The enormity of these changes is almost impossible for any of us to grasp, but to repeatedly deny the magnitude of what awaits us is to actively harm younger generations.

Many younger couples are going without children because of their doubts about the climate (as well as the cost of living).

Depression and drug dependence are in part a reaction to the climate and the selfishness of the "Salts".

To discuss climate topics is not "doom-mongering".

To have the capacity to grasp, as a layman, that the changes are not simple straight lines of heat everywhere seems beyond the "doubters".

If the Gulf Stream moves north, the UK is bound to lose temperature.

The most worrying of their comprehension blanks is the dismissal of the concept of tipping points—any kid knows that a system can hold up until... it is surely the willingly blind who are the doomsters.

Worst of all, we have many of the technical "tools" that can slow and perhaps counteract the coming "storm."

It is the lack of political will that holds us back.

If ditching my own hypocrisies, I was able to see that others of my generation were brave enough to present politicians of all parties with a community-wide determination to face reality, I would feel a little more courageous when my grandchildren ask, "What did you do when there was still time?"

Jeremy Hall
Crockernwell,  Exeter.