To: anyanswers@bbc.co.uk |
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Dear Jonathan (and the Any
Questions production team),
I was so shocked by the views
expressed in yesterday's broadcast by the
panellist, Claire Fox, that I
have just been online to find out more about her. How, I
wanted to know, could someone obviously so intelligent and
articulate express such incredibly stupid opinions about
global warming and sustainability? We (as individuals and as a
society) are still struggling to face up to the magnitude and
urgency of the threat posed by the increasing impact human
(largely economic) activity is having on our finite and
vulnerable planet, and you give airtime and credibility to
someone who is basically saying that there is nothing to worry
about! Or at least, nothing that market forces and technology
cannot take care of.
My Internet search took me to
www.lobbywatch.org,
where I found a profile of Claire Fox's Institute of Ideas.
That explained a great deal to me. I find it hard to imagine
that you could have known about her institute's lobby function
and still invited her to be one of your panellists. Unless, of
course, you were more interested in the "entertainment value"
of her contrary views?
Many of your listeners, I am sure,
will have been impressed (as I was) and perhaps influenced by
Ms Fox's intelligence and fluency into doubting that all the
fuss about global warming and sustainability is really
warranted, which is the very last thing that is needed when we
still have so far to go in facing up to just how important
they are.
So what motivates people like
Claire Fox and the lobby group she belongs to?
I cannot explain her personal
motives, of course, which may well be based (consciously, at
least) on sincerely held beliefs, but I can, I believe,
explain the forces on behalf of which (unknowingly, I'm sure)
she is acting, forces which strive to undermine concern about
global warming, the environment and sustainability, because
this concern is undermining sections of the economy, which
respond in defence of their interests.
We are, in fact, in a terrible
dilemma, because we ALL (not just a few greedy capitalists)
depend on an economy and way of life which are inherently
unsustainable on a finite and vulnerable planet with its ever
increasing population of technologically empowered but
essentially insatiable human beings.
It is a dilemma that can be solved
- but we have to face up to it first; and time is running
short.
Yours sincerely
Roger Hicks
Link: BBC Radio 4
Any Questions |