CLLR Mark Warters is right to say that the People’s March for the Climate coaches from York to London on Saturday, November 29 will create some CO2 emissions, as do the majority of longer journeys (Letters, November 17).

He may not appreciate that sharing a coach with a lot of other people means that overall emissions are shared and individual emissions reduced – one reason why excellent public transport is generally so important. He may also not be aware that while electric vehicles of any kind are better for air quality nearby, they will only help to reduce climate change when our electricity supplies are clean.

The London coaches are organised by York Climate Action - groups and individuals desperately concerned that the December Paris talks, going ahead despite the dreadful events of the last week, should lead to the practical policies and commitments that are so urgently needed.

Climate change is not a matter of belief or disbelief, but scientific fact. Tackling it needs governments to legislate and invest in solutions that support individuals, businesses and communities.

To add your voice at this crucial time, you can book coach tickets at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/york-coach-to-peoples-march-for-the-climate-tickets-18937006095

Cllr Denise Craghill, Green Party councillor for Guildhall ward, Broadway West, York

 

CLLR Mark Warters (Letters, November 17) clearly finds it amusing to invoke lazy stereotypes of Green activists and question their integrity with his accusations of hypocrisy, as they are travelling to London on coaches for a climate change demonstration, rather than walking or cycling.

Most environmental campaigners are not proposing we return to stone age levels of technology in the quest to reduce emissions. It has been suggested in some quarters, if we return to a 1970s level of consumption, this would be adequate to reduce our emissions enough to stay within the political target of a two degree rise in global temperatures by the end of the century; hardly a hair-shirt existence and one in which collective travel by coaches would be widespread.

As Cllr Warters has chosen to attack those demanding a major global agreement on emission reductions at COP21 in Paris, rather than accepting the scientific consensus of the reality of human induced climate change, supported by a growing body of evidence, he betrays that he has swallowed wholesale the propaganda disseminated widely by the vested interests of the fossil fuel industry.

Cllr Warters can choose to bury his head in the sand on the issue of climate change. However, his mocking letter is unfitting for an elected official.

Baz Buchanan, Teal Drive, York