Comments on: Opinion: Leading the fight against climate change

By: Ralph

Ralph — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:27:18 +0000

Stephen,

I stand corrected on the title.

With the councils you control you can show the country that your policies work, while all this press release is is a lot of rhetoric you can’t implement. If you see that suggestion as an attack so be it.

By: Stephen Tall

Stephen Tall — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:54:54 +0000

6 (Ralph) – And it says a lot about a leader when he has to put ‘Ming Campbell is MP for Fife North East, and Leader of the Liberal Democrats’ at the end of a post.

Ralph, it might astonish you to know that Ming didn’t actually type his piece into Lib Dem Voice. Through the wonders of editing I appended that one line – it’s something I do for all our Opinion writers, no matter how well known they are.

As for the “you’ll never be in government, so why does it matter” argument, it’s just boring. If Lib Dems matter that little why are you here reading and commenting on Ming’s piece?

By: Laurence Boyce

Laurence Boyce — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:44:09 +0000

Hey Ming, you’re my main man!

By: Ralph

Ralph — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:28:29 +0000

Lot’s of rhetoric not much that the Lib Dems will ever be able to implement. As they still control a few councils wouldn’t a more local focus be a better approach?

And it says a lot about a leader when he has to put ‘Ming Campbell is MP for Fife North East, and Leader of the Liberal Democrats’ at the end of a post.

By: Letters From A Tory

Letters From A Tory — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:37:49 +0000

I don’t think China is going to persuade itself to behave better, seeing as they are hellbent on becoming the largest economy and largest military force on the planet (and probably won’t take that long to get there).

By: Joe Otten

Joe Otten — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:59:16 +0000

Chris, can you elaborate on that 20% figure?

By: Chris Paul

Chris Paul — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 13:52:03 +0000

Comments 1 and 2:

You do of course realise that China and so on are polluting because we are exporting out manufacturing there and not paying enough to bring clean technologies?

It is OUR pollution BY PROXY.

China is sadly copying our technologies – for example national power grids which are c 20% efficient – when these are not of the best any more.

By: Geoffrey Payne

Geoffrey Payne — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:13:04 +0000

How to change China? By providing leadership!
China ought to persuade itself to do something. Global warming has led to the melting of glaciers in the Himalayers that feed some of the great rivers of China. As the amount of melting water reduces and the rivers dwindle, millions of people will face famine in the future.
At some point China will have to confront the terrible ecological problems it faces. Then it will get ideas from the west.
It can’t happen quickly enough of course, but there is no other way.

By: Letters From A Tory

Letters From A Tory — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 11:58:33 +0000

Sounds promising, but seeing as your paper is entitled ‘Taking a Global Lead’ maybe the Lib Dems should tell everyone what they are going to do about the pollution pouring out of India and China as they rapidly expand their economies?

The impact of making the UK more environmentally friendly will barely register on a global scale if more polluting nations don’t follow suit. That doesn’t mean your policies are useless, far from it, but if you are serious about climate change you have to get serious about the international nature of the issues.