The major problem is with population control
I WAS saddened that the save the planet brigade have picked on the relatively small Jersey Air Display as another way of self flagellation. At the same time these people avoid getting to grips with the real issues that are behind human beings damaging the ecosystem of our world in the hope that all the things they enjoy are going to be changed into something acceptable by human invention. Sadly this is not going to happen unless they accept a huge change in the way we live. And I guess I am as bad as anybody, except we only had one child.
The major problem the world has to get a grip with is population control, simply because more people create more pollution and a reduction of world resources. I was born 75 years ago, the world population was 2.5 billion. It is now nearly eight billion and expected to reach over 14 billion even by those who are optimistic about a slowdown in births and longevity.
Irrespective of anything you do to make travelling more eco friendly you will end up with more pollution and reduce the resources of the world including the animal population. Unless you get a grasp on this you will carry on with the present attitude of cutting back minor pollution in such things as this air show and forget the fact we welcome cruise ships which use on average 250 tons of fuel a day, we jet off everywhere in aircraft burning two tons per hour or more, we have a fast ferry, unreliable but burns many more tons per trip than a modern conventional ferry. Much of our food is brought by ship at extra cost and more pollution. We buy much of our electricity from France believing it is eco friendly, but it isn’t. We have wind and tides but have no wind farm and no tidal power. Why? Our own power station still with very dirty oil engines and has invested in more of this. We have hardly any solar power and the States built a shed for sorting waste and at an extra cost put a roof on it that could not carry solar power. How on earth could that have happened?
The answer is we should abandon the island to those who can live here by subsistence farming and strictly control childbirth and be happy not to travel except perhaps in a sailing boat. Yes, those kids running round trying to save the world are part of the problem.
G. M. OLDROYD,
St Martin’s.