Madam, - Oisin Coughlan of Friends of the Earth argues cogently that we have to stop flying so much (Head to Head, April 14th). Can this be the same Oisin Coughlan who told Harry McGee that Friends of the Earth did not campaign against a second terminal at Dublin airport because of "the current inadequacy of the airport" (The Irish Times, January 25th)?
The Government intends to double the number of passengers using Dublin airport to over 30 million by 2030 with the new terminal and a new runway - both recently permitted without proper assessment of their greenhouse gas effects and opposed by few environmental organisations.
It is shocking that Friends of the Earth should consider the "inadequacy" of the airport justifies inducing this level of demand when, as Mr Coughlan, eloquently notes "if aviation continues to grow unchecked it would account for all our permitted emissions well before 2050. All other polluting activity - including much that is essential for human survival - would have to stop."
The coalition Government has adopted a reasonable target of 3 per cent average annual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. It is important that our infrastructure reflects a desire to reduce emissions too. At the moment we are building and expanding airports, roads and ports (for carbon-heavy imports) as if global warming didn't exist. It is likely that the Ireland of the future will be environmentally delinquent despite, ostensibly, so much current goodwill.
It's time for both environmentalists and the Government, including the Greens, to be honest and hard-minded and to join up their thinking. - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL SMITH, Ormond Quay Upper, Dublin 7.