I READ with interest the letter from Mary M Sullivan (March 7) regarding the challenge of the climate emergency.
We are at the point, due to the pandemic, where we could transform our position and save our planet from climate change. Unfortunately, I continue to wake up every day in Groundhog Day. I have known about the dangers to our planet for more than 40 years, and still we are no nearer to actually taking any action. Big business is still controlling everything; a a quick buck is all they know.
READ MORE: Scottish independence is vital if we want to save our planet
We cannot get a viable public transport system while we have to travel individually in cars. This is because if too many humans are closely packed together in the same place, viruses spread to others. However, we continue to pack animals, birds and fish together in the most cruel, inhumane conditions, despite the fact that it is well known that animals are just as likely to get infections from other animals when they are packed together in industrialised so-called farms. Not only that, but they are force-fed parts of other animals, making them cannibals.
The viruses attacking humankind are coming from the industrialisation of farming, so we have no chance of sorting out the climate crisis until we stop treating sentient beings, which is what animals are, as objects of production to make as much profit as possible. We cannot eat pound coins, dollar bills, or gold bars – is there any chance of us realising that before it is too late?
Margaret Forbes
Kilmacolm
US politician John Kerry has said that the COP26 Glasgow climate conference will be
“the last best chance” to avert the worst environmental consequences. However, at the start of the 2005 COP11 in Montreal, campaigner Mark Lynas wrote “Montreal represents a last chance”. In the run-up to COP13 in Bali in 2007 Tony Juniper, executive director of Friends of the Earth, said “Bali could be the last chance”. Just before the 2018 COP 24 conference in Katowice, Greta Thunberg said “this is our last chance”.
How many more last chances are we going to get?
Geoff Moore
Alness, Highland
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