YOU will be witnessing the debate that the easing of green measures by the Tories may or may not result in the UK missing their net zero commitments around the middle of this century. Net zero being the balance of our continued burning of fossil fuels against what can be captured in forests, bogs or by human engineering. Both sides of the debate are giving you the reassurance that all will be well when net zero is achieved.
Really! Let’s consider this. Antonio Guterres, secretary general of the UN (pictured), describes our world now as burning. Droughts, floods, wild fires, melting ice and rising sea levels are never off the news. This is with global warming at about 1.1C above pre-industrial levels. The Paris Agreement was to limit this rise to “only” 1.5C but most estimates are for the world to warm much more.
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We can only speculate as to what degree the devastation currently happening will be like when (if) net zero is reached. How many millions will be forced to migrate or die as their land becomes a desert? How many low-lying islands or coastal regions will be lost beneath the seas? Many cities are sited by the coast, so what could be the economic effects? Which tipping points will be crossed to create unstoppable effects?
It’s like we are accelerating towards a cliff and we are being sold that by reducing the acceleration to reach a constant fast speed towards this cliff, ALL WILL BE WELL!
We must wake up to the delusion we are being sold. Net zero is not enough. The Tories are trying to save themselves with populist policies reducing current regulations and timescales. What is required from politicians worldwide is a realisation that we as a world are heading for disaster and that immediate action is required to REDUCE global temperatures. Reassuring the Titanic passengers by having the orchestra playing is not enough.
Campbell Anderson
Edinburgh
IN the Sunday National of Oct 1 Clive Young divides Scots into the language itself, English with a Scots accent, and a fresh version he calls Scottish Vernacular Language. Regarding the main language itself, there are many other ways of dividing it. This is true of every language, but particularly Scots because of its recent chequered history and also because of the strong cultural and political reaction it engenders. While doing this breakdown, I also would like to draw attention to another aspect of the language, namely the importance of the hierarchy of learning: listening, speaking, reading then writing.
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My divisions are dialect, spelling, register, vocabulary, grammar.
Fur this purposs A wul tak this tid ti explene masell in the “mither tung”. The daialeks ar the maist clair vawriautioun. Thai becam mair strang an saiprit syne the Court an Perlament gaed ti Lunnon. Spakken daialek wul nae dout hing on kiz o hits neibourheid naitur. Skreivit Scots may intak mair daialek wirds wi the pass o tyme an the growthe o leir.
Spellin differs furby. The maist clair raison is the Inglish souch at wi hae ti leisten til dailie day. The Concise Scots Dictionary says at furms o Inglish spells lik ee, oo, ea, an oa cam frae the Suddron. The’r ithers. A howp thai wul wede awaw wi edicautioun.
Register is fand in maist leids. A consither at Scots wul nede ti yaise auld an legall vocabular ti dale wi poleiticall idaias an maitters o abstrak thocht. This heich leid wul be aye differand frae the speik o the causie an the pleygrun.
Scots vocabular an uisage is verra wyde. Fowk maun ettil at leirin as mukkil vocabular an no traist on Inglish. Scots hes a wird fur maist things gif ye wul can finnd it. Graimmar is the Rashiecoit (Cinderella) o Scots.The’r nae sicht mair sair nir bittocks of Scot be-in yaised ti décor a wryte at hes at steid ane Inglish construk. Equal-aqual ther’r nae soun as ill as spakken Inglish be-in sautit wi Scots wirds in “inverted commas”.
Laistlie, whan Scots is in hits correk plece in a frie Scotland at Clive Young is argillin fur. the’r ae sair warnishin ye maun mynd. Ye maun leir aw aspeks o the tung in the richt cherarchie, ti leisten, speik, rede than wryte, lik a bairn dis, itherwyss ye wul enn up lik me at can rede and wryte Scots bot no speik it verra glib-lik.
Iain WD Forde
Scotlandwell
THE long letter by Iain K of Dunoon on Sep 30 regarding copies of The National being deliberately hidden under other newspapers certainly struck a chord with me.
I’ve experienced this many times at my local supermarket. Time and again I’ve had to go rummaging through other newspapers in order to get The National. This puerile behaviour goes on unchecked. I’ve even complained to a manager about this mindless behaviour but there is not much he can do about it unless he catches the culprit red-handed.
I’ve even been berated at the newsstand when searching for The National by a puce-faced individual who looked to be of pension age. I calmly told him why I was having to search through the newspapers and reminded him that everyone is entitled to their opinion, or didn’t he believe in that? He didn’t answer but stormed off muttering furiously to himself. Maybe he was responsible for hiding The National, who knows.
Sandy Gordon
Edinburgh
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