Sir, – There was much interest recently in how Donald Trump is steering the US back towards coal and away from clean renewable energy. The sentiments expressed seemed to amount to part of the ongoing self-righteous anti-Trump narrative currently pervasive in the established media, as opposed to a genuine concern for the environment.
In perpetuating this narrative we risk forgetting that those of us whom Trump has united in opposition to his presidency, are just as much part of the problem and are damaging the environment by individually contributing to the culture of rampant consumerism fuelled by the manic obsession of creating “growth”.
The implication in this instance is that because we are calling out Trump’s environmental policy as backward and extremely damaging (which it most likely is), that our policy is squeaky clean (which it most definitely isn’t). In adopting this position we distort the truth and deflect from our own shortcomings in what is ironically a very Trumpian approach to “debate” and “news”.
By all means take Trump to task but please, let Trump not be the standard by which we judge ourselves in any endeavour, not least environmental stewardship. – Yours, etc,
CIARAN MCNAMARA,
Cabra, Dublin 7.