Subscribe now

Letter: Fired up

Published 15 June 2011

From Karl Lehmann

I read with concern the story on energy-related carbon dioxide emissions hitting a record high last year (4 June, p 6). It looks like Germany has just decided to focus on burning more coal and gas for political reasons. Opportunists such as the German chancellor Angela Merkel keep repeating words like “renewable” to disguise the reality, and gullible voters swallow it.

It is time to realise the fossil fuel industry has won. All recoverable coal and oil is going to be burned. We need to start mitigating the effects of climate change now, before it’s too late.

Top priorities should be the creation of migratory corridors between wildlife refuges, assisted migration of threatened ecosystems where that isn’t possible and creation of doomsday vaults for seeds, embryos and tissue samples.

At least that will give our descendants a chance to partly restore the planet, should they survive the bottleneck.

Taos, New Mexico, US

Issue no. 2817 published 18 June 2011

Sign up to our weekly newsletter

Receive a weekly dose of discovery in your inbox. We'll also keep you up to date with New Scientist events and special offers.

Sign up
Piano Exit Overlay Banner Mobile Piano Exit Overlay Banner Desktop