Reader’s letter: No hope of holding back tide

The thousands of delegates attending COP 28 in Abu Dhabi seem to behave as though they possess miraculous powers to stop Climate Change if they hold such conferences frequently enough.

They remind me of our Danish King Canute (or Knut) and his attempt to stop the tide, which is frequently alluded to in contexts where the futility of "trying to stop the tide" of an inexorable event is pointed out, but usually misrepresents Canute as believing he had supernatural powers.

In fact the story relates the opposite to show that secular power is vain compared to the supreme power of God.

Many of those attending COP 28 do believe that they have supernatural powers over nature’s inexorable control of the climate of our planet.

King Canute clearly understood what he was doing but all those supporters of ‘Knut Zero’ are deluded when they believe that doing the same thing time and again will result in a different effect — the ‘turning of the tide’.

I believe that Einstein thought so too! — R. SHEPPARD, Beckingham.