Newark Advertiser Readers’ Letters: Climate change is a threat to civilization

R Sheppard’s advice to "forget experts and make up your own minds" seems highly irresponsible.

Would you ignore the advice of a structural engineer? the advice of a doctor? Or the advice of a financial consultant?

Experts in all fields are experts because they have studied their subject, they have access to data that most people wouldn't understand and because of their studies they are able to interpret it.

Climate experts are warning us about a threat to civilization as we know it, and we should listen.

R Sheppard tells us that we cannot use weight of numbers as evidence - agreed, but if 100 people told you that you should leave your house because river levels were rising fast, but one person said “no, it's fine”, who would you believe?

97% of climate scientists believe in man made climate change.

Surely R Sheppard admits that climate change is happening. Surely he remembers that winters used to be longer and much colder?

Surely he does not deny that Arctic sea ice has melted to a worrying degree or that plants, animals, and insects are migrating to different regions as their habitats change.

Climate change is undeniably happening all around us right now. What does R Sheppard think is causing this?

It's not a change in solar radiation, it's not the position of the earth, it's not volcanos. Scientists have looked at ALL the possible causes and concluded that CO2 is the most significant factor. Indeed they have been able to look at past ice ages and warm periods and verify this correlation.

If we do nothing to reduce CO2 emissions, temperature rises will continue and accelerate.

This will lead to sea level rises which could mean that much of London would be underwater and large areas north of Peterborough and Cambridge will be uninhabitable by 2100.

Cities such as Jakarta, Dhaka,Bangkok,New York, and Miami could all be lost. Across the world 275 million people live in areas that will go underwater if temperature rises reach 3 degrees.

In addition to this, food and water shortages and extremes in temperature will cause levels of migration which will make today’s immigration problems seem utterly trivial. This may read like scary science fiction.

However, in my lifetime I’ve seen and experienced climate change. I don’t need a computer model to see that in 50-70 years time the above could easily become reality.

Do we really want to leave a world in this state to our children and grandchildren?

I am utterly disgusted that despite endless COP meetings over the years, car manufactures are still able to build and sell ever larger, ever heavier vehicles across the world and whose emissions accounted for more than 20% of the growth in global energy-related CO2 emissions last year.

Consumers should really look at their conscience before purchasing any major purchase, particularly a vehicle.

The idea that Governments, Bankers and businesses throughout the entire world have been hoodwinked into believing a “pseudoscience” is simply not credible.

R Sheppard continues to ignore the fact that it's not just Politicians and Scientists who are worried about climate change.

Even oil producing companies such as BP, Exon and Shell who stand to lose billions of dollars, now recognise that man made climate change is a real and present danger.

These companies are beginning to see that climate change is actually an opportunity to reinvent themselves and ultimately become more profitable.

This is the attitude that Governments need to adopt to face the future.

With the general election approaching I hope voters take into account each party's policies on climate change issues, and vote appropriately. — Nick Roulstone