Letters to the Editor
Dear Sir,
I’d like to tell you about a little adventure I had recently whilst driving round the roundabout at Blackheath Standard. My car broke down. In the middle of the road.
Fortunately, one of your congregation was on hand and he, and some other helpful folk, pushed me into a safer spot outside the barbers. He then helped me call the AA (I’d forgotten the make, registration number and even the colour of my car) and brought me a copy of St John’s News to read while I sat in the barbers waiting for the pickup truck. I forgot to ask his name but I’d like to thank him, the barber and all the other helpful people who were out in the Standard that morning.
Yours sincerely.
[Name Withheld].
Sir,
The Tearfund leaflet on climate change and global poverty recently distributed in church calls upon us to ask the Prime Minister for tougher cuts in carbon emissions. Your readers may be interested in the following summary of the opinions of Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic:-
‘So called man-made climate change has become an argument for the most dangerous distortion of human affairs.
‘As someone who has lived under Communism for most of my life, I feel obliged to say that the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity is now Ambitious Environmentalism. This ideology preaches earth and nature, similar to the old Marxism, and wants central planning for the whole world.
‘Adherence to the ideology will mean countries accepting irrational targets and limitations, thus devastating whole economies, but the people who will suffer most will be those in the developing countries forced to do the same.
‘Instead of hopeless attempts to fight global warming we should prepare for its consequences. We should not ignore the fact that the higher the wealth of a society the better the health of its environment, and developed countries should stimulate free trade and the economic development of poorer countries.
‘The moral obligation of the developed countries is not to introduce large emission reduction schemes.’
Yours,
John Ray
