So, a fine October for some is worth devastating heatwaves, hurricanes and floods for others is it Scott Marmion (Letters, October 24)?

The climate change we are now experiencing, which is far more advanced than at any other time in human history, will only intensify if we fail to heed the urgent warnings of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the pre-eminent body of experts that we have.

The suggestion that ‘merely’ returning carbon to the atmosphere in the quantities that we do now is some sort of benign action, is simply absurd. Scientific evidence shows that it contributes dangerously to global warming and, if we fail to reduce it, future impacts are likely to be catastrophic to all life on earth.

Facing up to such an unpleasant reality is something that people find difficult. It can seem too big to address, and we may doubt our individual ability to play any significant role in it. Action may also have a perceived negative impact on us, like not flying so much, or having to sort our recycling out.

But that doesn’t make it any less real, and those people who routinely seek to play down the risks and question the accepted science are either sticking their heads in the sand, or have a vested interest in the political or economic status quo.

Any pseudo-scientific attempt to play it down does us a disservice. It is the biggest issue of our times and, for the sake of future generations, something we need to act on without further prevarication.

Matt Rylatt,

Caedmon Close, York

New developments will be ‘madness’

ON October 8 the International Panel on Climate Change reported that if we continue to act as we are now, there is little hope of limiting global warming to the recommended 1.5 degrees C.

It points out that we are already seeing the consequences of one degree C of global warming through more extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice.

The authors emphasise that even a rise of a further half a degree would mean yet more extreme weather. It concludes that ‘rapid, far- reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society are needed’.

Yet what was the lead story in The Press on October 24? That a new 79-acre business park is proposed for the outskirts of York. If this is built its construction will result in the emission of tens of thousands of tons of CO2.

I see no mention in this proposal of any plan to off-set this very considerable damage by, for example, planting the tens of thousands of acres of new trees that would be needed to cancel out this CO2.

It is true that, if this foolishness should be given the go-ahead, there will be more jobs. But the people who take them will, like all of us, suffer a very high price for their employment, in the form of yet more flooded and storm damaged homes, more delayed and cancelled trains and planes, not to mention more mass migration.

For all our sakes, and especially for our children and grandchildren, the madness that is ‘normal development’ must stop.

Colin Campbell,

Fulford, York