Sir, - The toxic Texan", George W. "Burning" Bush, has sent shudders through environmentalists the world over with his recent policies. Notions of sustainability, protection of natural habitats and biodiversity are secondary when American energy suppliers and consumers alike seek expansion and old buddies in the oil industry want a return for their patronage.
We have responded by denouncing these policies. Some of us have heaped abuse on the president's name. We have attempted to voice the curses of generations as yet unborn in their imagined struggle with a hostile environment which might require spacesuits as protection against the rays of an ever-warmer sun filtering through a sky full of chemicals.
Undoubtedly, a splinter in this president's eye is affecting his vision. But what about our own modest efforts? We appear to be heading for a spectacular failure to honour the Kyoto Protocol. We are told that our own economic success is the main culprit! Is there a beam in our own eye? Should we really be indulging in disparagement of a fellow polluter, no matter how brazen?
Even at a local level there is much to worry about. I have noted buses running their engines at a nearby terminus while parked. On a quick calculation it works out that a stationary bus runs its engines about 96 hours each week, clearly a lose-lose scenario. The bus company loses (costs of fuel); the environment loses (pollution); consumers lose (increased costs must be passed on); and locals lose (noise and health nuisance). A simple law requiring owners of parked vehicles to turn off their engines would remedy this situation (in Sweden there is such a law).
No doubt more complex policies are needed for other matters, but why do we not take immediate care of simple matters that require only simple solutions? Once we have, perhaps we should then turn our attention to Mr Bush and the American consumer. - Yours, etc.,
Patrick Cafferky, St John's Wood, Clontarf, Dublin 3.