19th March 2008

A letter by Cllr Philip Booth responding to an article in The Citizen this week that says that most of the wind  in 21st century is coming from the Green party. 

Martin Kirby had another go at Greens on Monday calling us the 'loopy league' for reiterating what the scientists are saying about climate change (The Citizen 17/03/08 and enclosed below). In a comment piece, that Mr Kirby seems to deny climate change exists, he dismisses concerns about recent weather. I'm not so sure others would agree; like perhaps Longford residents whose homes were flooded again or the businesses that lost many thousands of pounds at Cheltenham races?

No one is pretending that the science around climate change is fully understood or that every piece of bad weather is a sign of climate change. Indeed it is also important to note that our vulnerability to flooding is going up mainly due to flood plain developments.

However the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and it's analysis by 2,500 of the world's top climate scientists shows our role in causing global warming and that our weather is set to become more extreme. They paint a scary future if we don't act. Furthermore not one of the 928 climate change-related articles published in peer-reviewed journals in ten years has doubted the cause of global warming, yet more than half of the published articles in the popular press have done just that.

We need responsible journalism. Climate change is deadly serious and critically urgent. We can tackle it together, but the longer we leave it the more devastating are the consequences.

Philip Booth
 

Martin Kirby's comment piece:

The recent stormy weather caused huge kerfuffle and, predictably, the "loopy league" got in on the act.Stroud's Green Party Candidate made the usual "prepare to meet thy doom" statement.

"The turbulent weather conditions are a worrying sign of things to come unless our, and other Governments, take a tougher line on climate change." What utter cobblers! In 1987, most of the south of England was flattened when wind speeds were between 94mph and 110mph, while last week it only made 85mph.

Yes, things were a bit rough and the Cheltenham Festival was interrupted, but the reason for so much fuss was TV reporters having enough warning to get excited, whereas the '87 storm took us by surprise and the doomsayers never got into top gear.

Let's get real. It's March - a month known for being windy - just as we get showers in April, Christmas in December and French baggage handlers on strike every summer.

My mother often used to recite a rhyme she learned at school during the 1930s: "The March wind doth blow, and we shall have snow."

Her generation didn't panic at the first strong breeze. They just got on with it.

One fact the Greens don't want to highlight is, according to the Met Office, a storm in England of similar magnitude to the one in 1987 occurred in 1703, when there weren't any Jeep Grand Cherokees.

Here in the 21st Century, most of the wind emanates from the Green Party.