Well done to the protesters!

Keep up the pressure!

In the new film, The Age of Stupid ( see http://www.shropshirestar.com/2009/03/20/its-not-as-stupid-as-it-sounds/ ), Shropshire actor, Pete Postlethwaite, plays the part of an old man living in the globally warmed and destroyed world of 2055, watching film footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change while we had the chance?

In view of the repeated warnings from scientific institutions about climate tipping points and the dangers of burning new coal, it is hard not to conclude that the people promoting a new era of coal-mining and aviation expansion really want us all to stay in this myopic Age of Stupid.

NASA’s Jim Hansen, who has been warning about climate change since the late 1980s, recently came to Coventry and told hundreds of climate activists, ‘coal is the single greatest threat to civilisation and all life on our planet.’

As well as destroying the local environment and polluting the air, burning coal in this country is going to make the lives of some of the poorest people in the world much, much worse.

Surely the time is now right for people to put aside reservations about renewable technologies like wind and solar and to start supporting them vocally.

Many governments around the world now recognise that the way to stimulate their economies out of the downturn is a Green New Deal to promote a green industrial revolution.

Our government will only do so if the pressure is great enough, so I wish the protesters the very best of luck.

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Thanks for engaging, Lester, and apologies for missing your post at first.

Obviously, I don’t accept what you say about wind.

Massively investing in wind (off-shore and onshore), other renewables and in energy conservation is the way forward, if we want to create JOBS in the short term.

This is also the way forward if we want our children and grandchildren to be able to afford the future, in the long term.

You say, ‘Debate should cease and building should commence!’

I can only respond that climate science should be heeded.

New coal projects should cease.

And instead, a Green Industrial Revolution, funded by an ambitious Green New Deal ( http://www.shropshirestar.com/2008/07/21/experts-call-for-credit-and-climate-crunch-action/ )should commence.

Ignoring the appalling consequences of coal-burning and trying to shut down debate can only be described as myopic.

The British public are concerned about job losses caused by the economic downturn (2,400 in Shropshire in 8 months – http://www.shropshirestar.com/2009/04/22/budget-county-job-losses-mount/ ).

Green, sustainable industries of the future will create many MORE JOBS than the unsustainable industries of the past.

It therefore seems astonishing that the Labour government can promote coal and aviation expansion and only invest a tiny £100m of this year’s Budget in tackling climate change.

John Steel QC is quoted at the end of the article as saying, ‘the economic benefits of a mine would be far outweighed by the harm to people’s lives, the environment and Telford’s image’.

I agree.

And I would add that the short-term benefits of a mine are also outweighed by the long-term costs for our climate and our economy in the future (see Stern Report, October 30th 2006).

If we can create MORE JOBS with a more constructive view of the future, let’s move in that direction instead, and invest in a future which our kids can afford.

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