Sir, – Fintan O'Toole ("Urbanites have no right to preach to those who burn turf", Opinion & Analysis, May 3rd) makes the fair point that climate inaction and denial are not confined to rural dwellers, and that many people in urban areas also vocally oppose climate mitigation and adaptation measures.
But I’m not aware of anybody really denying any of this.
The current controversy over turf is just the latest in a long line of individual battles between those urging climate action and those who want to use a special pleading for a particular sector.
Here in Galway, for example, and repeated in urban areas across the country, there are equivalent battles between those who want to encourage more cycling and those who want to continue to facilitate short car journeys.
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So instead of characterising the problem in simplistic urban-rural terms, we should focus on the real divide – between people and political parties who are prepared to act to actually reduce emissions, and those who talk about it in the abstract but when it comes to the crunch are unwilling to change.
As always, the media and public have a huge part to play in this since every time a politician claims that they’ll oppose a particular measure, they should always be asked the question, “If we’re not going to cut emissions here, where else instead?”
The atmosphere’s capacity to provide our grandchildren with a livable planet isn’t going to yield to performative outrage on the part of local representatives, so we need to quickly figure out how we expect our political system to provide the change that’s needed.
At the moment it seems to reward denial, delay and distraction, of which a false urban-rural divide is just one part. – Yours, etc,
DAVE MATHIESON,
Salthill,
Galway.