Letter to the editor on Copenhagen

Dear Sir

Whatever our views about MPs' expenses, bankers' bonuses, the pre-budget report, the coming general election, Iraq, Afghanistan or the war against terrorism, we need to recognise that the most important political events of this century are now taking place in Copenhagen. Are the world's leaders prepared to face up to the problem of fighting climate change, or are they going to betray the peoples they claim to represent?

And yet many British people are climate change sceptics - a tragedy if it means that our leaders are not subject to the pressure from the people that the issue warrants. Part of this scepticism is because people have not yet recognised the risks if governments refuse to act quickly - the risks not to "the planet", but to the survival of human life on the planet. And part of the scepticism comes from good old British bloody-mindedness.

But part of the problem comes from a strange willingness to adopt alien, US-style conspiracy theories which have no rational basis whatever. Indeed scientists may sometimes be wrong, and politicians often lie, and some scientists may even massage their results from time to time. And the scepticism of some members of the public is boosted by the scepticism of some much-loved columnists in our local press - loved because they usually show such common sense over a whole range of issues. But it makes no sense whatever to believe that scientists and politicians all over the world are conspiring to mislead the public into believing something that can cause nothing but grief and incovenience to scientists, politicians and public alike.

A few scientists predicted in the 19th century that carbon dioxide emissions resulting from human activity would cause warming of the climate. In the 20th century it became clear that emissions of carbon dioxide were increasing, and that warming was taking place. By the 21st century both trends have accelerated. The ice sheets over the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans are melting. The glaciers are in retreat. Global temperatures are continuing to rise. It would be criminal for policticians to opt for "business as usual" and to fail to take effective action until it is too late.

Chris Bramall, Liberal Democrat prospective Parliamentary candidate, Stourbridge