In response to Ashish Ghadiali’s story last week (“Yes, there is a lot of greenwashing, but Cop summits are our best chance of averting climate breakdown”, Comment, last week), nearly 70 years ago Gilbert Plass coined the term “climate change” in a paper in the journal Tellus.
Most of that 70 years has been spent arguing over the reality of climate change, an argument by vested interests that continues to this day. Meanwhile, global warming has continued to rise due to the burning of fossil fuels. Now, polar ice caps and glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, causing sea level rises and threatening the survival of over half the world’s population living on islands and in coastal zones near sea level.
The time has come to describe climate change as the “Big Melt”, an environment in which humans will face increasing threats from the atmosphere and the oceans for centuries to come, when the inventions and institutions of mankind will slowly collapse along with the ecologies that comprise human habitats. We need to stop fooling ourselves into thinking that humans can fix this melting problem. Humans are the problem. It is nature that is going to solve the problem by eliminating the modern human.
Jeff Olson
Gabriola, British Columbia, Canada
The climate finance deal agreed at Cop29 will almost certainly fuel sovereign debt crises in poor countries (“Row over who will pay $1tn climate fund drags Cop29 talks past the deadline”, News). More than three-quarters of the $1.3tn a year for these countries will come from highly expensive private sector loans. The most vulnerable countries are already drowning in debt: our analysis shows that, on average, the governments of the countries worst affected by food crises spent almost 16% of their revenues on servicing external public debt last year.
Debt restructuring and debt cancellation mechanisms that operate under the auspices of the United Nations are more urgent than ever. Such mechanisms would compel private creditors to participate in international sovereign debt treatment processes and not block progress in tackling unsustainable debt.
Sunit Bagree, Senior Policy Advocacy Officer, Results UK, London SE1
Faith or self-improvement?
While Martha Gill made interesting observations about the links between self-help and religion, I felt that she caricatured those with faith (“Not quite religion, not quite self-help: welcome to the age of nonsense”, Comment).
I don’t agree that modern progress is due to the “fight” against religion. So-called “modern” ethics and progress are arguably based on historical Christianity. If “as history fades so does truth”, is it not reasonable to see truth in the historically grounded faith of Christianity, rather than disparaging those who believe? Christianity is not a system of rules for living, it’s about having a relationship with a God who fulfils his righteous requirements for us. It’s not about self-improvement but self-forgetfulness. It’s not about gaining an individual sense of control or self but being part of a diverse community of believers.
Thoughtful reasonable belief is neither tribally mediated nor the outworking of a “mob mentality”. On the contrary, such faith often means standing against popular opinion and relying on a historical truth that is relevant but not current and defensible rather than dubious.
Emma Scrivener
Eastbourne
Martha Gill wonders about the upsurge of “mystic self-help” exemplified by Jordan Peterson’s new book. Perhaps the words of G K Chesterton are apt: “When (people) choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”
Lance Stone
London SW2
£4m banana is work of satire
Maurizio Cattelan is a satirist, like Banksy, but of the art, rather than political, world (“Selling a piece of fruit for £4m isn’t bananas, it’s decadent. Art is better than this”, Editorial). In Comedian he is highlighting the commodification of art and how the upper echelons of the art market are dominated by “collectors” with more money than sense or artistic judgment. Art spends a lot of time taking itself far too seriously, and Cattelan’s satire provides a welcome invitation for it and us to lighten up a bit.
Steve Rouse
Hyde, Cheshire
Insecure securities
As Kalyeena Makortoff notes (“Remember the 2008 crisis? Well, high-risk securities are back”, Business), Labour’s obsession with growth suggests a failure to learn the lessons of history, or even grasp the true extent of the crisis. The challenge is far greater than rebuilding the economy; we need to rebuild society and this will require challenging the role of private equity and hedge funds which concentrate wealth in ever fewer hands.
Geoffrey Payne
London W5
Resilience or prevention?
Regarding David Robson’s article on resilience interventions (“‘Resilience interventions do work’ – why coping strategies should be a staple of education”, New Review), as a clinical psychologist for children and young people, the practice may miss the point of a young person’s distress.
If prevention is better than cure why do we let the myriad causes of poor mental health – poverty, inequality, a highly pressured education system, to name just a few – off the hook? Resilience interventions place responsibility on the individual to fix their mental health rather than addressing the systems that create distress. While research may show these interventions are better than “schooling as usual” for those young people who volunteer to take part, they can only be half the story when it comes to improving wellbeing.
Dr Kathryn Bradley, Clinical Psychologist, Nottingham
Cromwell, class operator
I thought Kate Maltby was rather harsh on Cromwell (“A caring Thomas Cromwell makes good TV, but beware ‘yes’ men who enable tyrants”, Comment).
Henry VIII was a despot and Cardinal Wolsey and his protege Cromwell sought to execute royal policies within the framework of English law. In the process, by using a fledgling parliament to enact an English revolution in church-state relations, Cromwell did much to strengthen parliament’s role. Maltby draws parallels between Henry and Donald Trump. Trump would be a lucky man if he could swap Elon Musk for an adviser of Cromwell’s proven political talents.
Clinton Leeks
West Herrington, Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne & Wear
Pomposity pricked
Thank you, Stewart Lee, for your wondrous prose-poetry take on Jeremy Clarkson (“Flat-cap Clarkson has his nose in the trough”, New Review, last week). The latter is almost beyond satire, responding to a reminder of his money-grubbing ways on live radio after a sighing pause with, “typical BBC”. No. Typical Clarkson.
Jonathan Toye
Downham Market, Norfolk
Judge a book by its author
Richard Platt laments the fact that those whose primary living comes from writing are witnessing income haemorrhaging away to celebrity “authors” (Letters, last week). It might comfort him to know that my partner and I have a so far foolproof way of selecting our next fiction read. If the originator is famous for anything predating their novel writing, it’s rubbish.
Bobbie Zopa
Talywaun, Pontypool, South Wales
