No more excuses

I write having become exasperated with some recent correspondents on the subject of climate change.

Some appear to view the matter as a conspiracy for Gordon Brown to levy a number of "green" taxes on air travellers and motorists; others as made up by scientists to gain research grants; that a 6.4cm rise in sea levels is no danger to anyone; that recent warmer winters have been a bonus for the elderly.

It is illuminating that calls from the business community in Britain, Europe and the US for clear, planned action for reducing carbon dioxide emissions have been increasingly made in the last few years and months.

The recent report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been actually rather cautious in its conclusions.

The product of the work of some 2,500 scientists was not ever going to be speculative and without a firm scientific foundation.

The report does not focus on a 6.4cm sea level rise but warns of a potential average 6.4C rise in temperatures by 2100 and a consequent 59cm sea level rise.

Warmer weather was no comfort to the elderly in 2003 when about 27,000 people across Europe died because of a heatwave.

The report views as most likely a temperature rise of up to 4C. This would mean a 10 per cent fall in global food production. There would be 1.8 million at risk of flooding in Britain alone and more than 100 million refugees from Bangladesh, the Nile Delta and Shanghai.

Mosquitoes would thrive exposing some 80 million more people to malaria in Africa and 2.5 billion to dengue fever.

Fresh water would be halved in southern Africa and the Mediterranean. And I could go on.

I don't tend to believe in conspiracies myself but more in human weakness and error. Climate change is a challenge we must all respond to now and not seek excuses to avoid action.

Robert Saunders, Telford