 on the warning from Professor Jim Skea, the newly elected head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that apocalyptic messaging on this subject merely 'paralyses' the public and fails to motivate individuals to protect the planet. In the same article, Professor Skea was quoted as saying that the world warming 1.5C above pre-industrial levels was 'not an existential threat to humanity'. He also stated that, while action to mitigate climate change is to be encouraged, we should not despair. I wonder if Dr Roger Harrabin ('The climate threat', Letters, August 14) missed this article. The issue cannot be ignored, and it is not being ignored. Everyone must play their part, no matter how small. But a less doom-mongering approach would be welcome. Mary Marshall Ilkley, West Yorkshire SIR – Dr Harrabin suggests that all kinds of catastrophes will occur if we do not comply with emissions targets. Yet the IPCC does not predict catastrophe. Its latest report is full of possible scenarios, which may or may not come to pass. What will surely happen, however, if we decarbonise at the rate currently proposed, is that millions will fall into poverty. Gordon Welford Portishead, Somerset SIR – The challenge of making people take the climate threat seriously, as described by Dr Harrabin, is illustrated by two other letters printed on the same day in support of SUVs, which follow a photo on the previous page of some of the 2,000 buildings in one Hawaiian town pulverised by the wildfires and hurricane. Richard Lennox Langholm, Dumfriesshire SIR – We live in a rural house and rely on an oil boiler. We cannot afford a heat pump (report, August 12) . If boilers are banned, we will be forced to use our wood-burners (one is multi-fuel; the other burns wood only). This may well result in more pollution. If it's a choice between freezing or polluting, we will choose polluting – as will thousands of other people living in rural, older homes.){kind=link}
Plus: better border control; junior doctors’ working conditions; questions of faith; and what to call a younger grandparent
SIR – You recently reported (August 1) on the warning from Professor Jim Skea, the newly elected head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that apocalyptic messaging on this subject merely “paralyses” the public and fails to motivate individuals to protect the planet.
In the same article, Professor Skea was quoted as saying that the world warming 1.5C above pre-industrial levels was “not an existential threat to humanity”. He also stated that, while action to mitigate climate change is to be encouraged, we should not despair.
I wonder if Dr Roger Harrabin (“The climate threat”, Letters, August 14) missed this article.The issue cannot be ignored, and it is not being ignored. Everyone must play their part, no matter how small. But a less doom-mongering approach would be welcome.
Mary MarshallIlkley, West Yorkshire