IT seems that climate change activist Greta Thunberg says it is “very unclear” if she has been officially invited to the climate change summit in Glasgow. Perhaps the First Minister could put her up in the spare room at Bute House and invite her to address the Scottish Parliament instead. Greta has been left out in the cold, unsure if she has even been invited to the party. Like the First Minister of our wee nation, they are not considered worthy of a place at even the bottom table let alone the top one.
Scotland, its parliament and its people have sidelined. They have been asked to provide the facilities, the venues, the police and to put up with the disruption for nearly a four-week period. Even the leader of a third world republic would at least have been asked to give the opening welcome address and meet and greet the world leaders. The people of Scotland have been relegated to serving the drinks, the teas and the coffees to world leaders while the leader of their land is locked out. They are clearing the tables, not sitting at them.
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Is it not about time our politicians got a bit angrier about this situation? Not just the First Minister and her government but even the so-called opposition. Scotland has more than done its bit to limit climate change. Its efforts are going unrecognised and unseen. COP26 will be a once-in-a-generation (where have I heard that before) missed opportunity to show how Scotland could lead the world. We are instead Burns’s wee, sleekit, cowrin, timrous beastie wae a panic in our breastie!
As Burns went on to say:
Still thou are blest, compared wi’ me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e’e,
On prospects drear!
An’ forward, tho’ I cannot see,
I guess an’ fear!
Brian Lawson
Paisley
SOMEBODY tell Johnson that there are many ways to skin a rabbit and Scotland knows them all. Just because he has managed to keep the Scottish Government away from the COP26 top table, that does not mean the Scottish Government will not play a part and be available to the world’s COP26 delegates.
Already Nicola Sturgeon has met up with some of the smaller groups of indigenous people, who possibly have more to lose through climate change than those of any other major countries.
Let’s not forget these smaller nations, like those in the Pacific Marshall Islands whose delegation was interviewed by Andrew Marr yesterday. 1.5 degrees is the limit for that nation, and we heard that even just one degree more is unacceptable.
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Above that is unimaginable as to what it would cost that archipelago of Pacific Islands, being little more than two meters above sea level, where homes are built on poles above the ground, and where fresh water wells are now contaminated due to already rising sea levels.
COP26 is not a political conference, regardless of the politics of the delegates. Boris Johnson may pronounce fine words and statements. But we know, and now the world knows, that what he utters cannot be taken seriously.
This 26th United Nations Conference Of Parties is now facing a worldwide desperate situation. We found a way to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. Now the world needs to find a way to save all life from extinction.
Alan Magnus-Bennett
Fife
I ONCE had the opportunity to attend a lecture for biology students given by Glasgow University on global warming. So shaken were we by what we heard that we ran “Green Day” for our secondary school. We ran pupil events with entry paid for by aluminium can, and we sought sponsorship from local companies to buy trees, which were then planted in the school grounds by junior year groups.
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Eton-educated Boris Johnson, who has been given the monumental responsibility of bringing the world together to face and try to avert this catastrophic threat to humanity, is apparently quite cool with boasting that he only really appreciated the issue when he became Prime Minister ... in 2019. And was so affected by what he has heard that he had to jet off and lie down on a sunbed to prepare for this event.
If COP26, led by this scientifically and ecologically ignorant man, fails to deliver ... well, I fear for us all, because the stakes have never been higher.
Oh, and that “Green Day”? It was 35 years ago!
I Easton
Glasgow
IT is with concern that I read in the National that the First Minister is against the reduction in air traffic duty, albeit in the context of the subject of climate effects and the imminent COP26 deliberations.
It must be pointed out that within mainland Britain, a rail journey to London from locations north of the central belt, such as Inverness or Aberdeen, take a full day’s travel, compared to the rapid electric journeys from Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Additionally, at this point in time travellers from Inverness and Aberdeen airports are already disadvantaged by having far fewer super-budget fares available from their home airports.
J D Moir
via email
WELL done the rail unions for suggesting free rail travel for under-24s and over-60s (“Unions call for free train travel when Scotrail nationalised”, Oct 29).
It’s great the transport unions are looking into the future with their “vision for Scottish railways”, which seeks to give us the “world-class rail system that all of Scotland can be proud of”.
I’d like to see the new Scotrail try out making some lightly used rail routes such as the beautiful Girvan-to-Stranraer line free to all.
This would help develop sustainable tourism, connect rural communities and cut car use.
Malcolm Bruce
Edinburgh
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