Editor

Last week’s edition was an interesting one. Few could not be concerned at the sad prospects for the people of Fairbourne and Nefyn. But their problems are a small part of a much larger issue.

All the towns and infrastructure of the North Wales coast are at risk, along with the cities of South Wales, and the billions of people who live in coastal cities around the world, and some ofthe planet’s most productive farmlands in deltas, valleys and islands across the planet. And we have the Tory Simon Hart bleating that “these things seem to be happening more and more these days...”

Of course they are happening more often. It is caused by global warming, caused by human action, and it has been predicted for decades that rising sea levels would be the result.Unfortunately it is not the only result and we know our species cannot survive if we continue to cause it. We all have our part to play in the solution, but Simon it is primarily caused by the rich, who consume and control vastly more of the planet’s resources than is their fair share.

Yes, we have individually to choose sustainable transport modes, consume less stuff, use renewable resources, and recycle.But we have, as a species, to ensure that nobody continues to take fossil fuels from the ground, that nobody flies to New York to do their shopping, that nobody takes repeated long haul flights for exotic holidays.

Of course some rich people have recognised this. Most have not. Experience teaches us that few of the rich will give up their excessive lifestyles, and few will give up their chance to make profits, whatever the cost to the environment. It means hard choices, but as a species we have to reverse global warming.

In Wales, Plaid Werdd, Plaid Cymru and Plaid Llafur all have policies in their manifestos that seek to address climate change.Judging from the stuff that comes through my door however, most candidates are not putting this issue first. Of course recovery from Covid is vital, but in putting that first they are playing into the hands of the “back to business as usual” brigade. We cannot have business as usual if we are to survive. We have, collectively, to change the way we do things.

In the last issue, candidates’ views on health issues were cogent. Perhaps in the next issue we can have their views on the much larger, much more difficult, and now pressing issue of global warming?

Tony Lovelock Glanypwll Blaenau Ffestiniog

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