Letter to the Editor: Ecocide should be made an international crime

He rightly speaks up with concern for the Covid-affected generation and speaks of “lessons to be learnt” when policy changes are overdue.

However he now needs to warn them they must, post-2050, pay for every tonne of CO2 we are allowing into our collective atmosphere. This was agreed in Paris 2015 at the Conference of the Parties 21.

He ought also to warn the country of the expected Blue Ocean event expected around 2034 as Arctic ice disappears, triggering even more dangerously disruptive global overheating. Unfortunately, frightening tipping points in Earth’s climate are being reached sooner than at first expected. We must prepare!

After two years of school strikes but accelerating damage, despite many fine speeches, Greta and other youth climate activists are begging for an end to “ the ongoing wrecking, exploitation and destruction of our life-support systems”.

They speak of the continuing denial of multiple crises and the urgent need to “move towards a fully decarbonised economy that is centred on the wellbeing of all people, democracy and the natural world”. Ecocide should be made an international crime.

The activists point out this is a systemic failure and that things must change radically. “Even a child can see that the policies of today are incompatible with the current best available science...The willingness to act and the level of awareness are still nowhere in sight.”

I hope Tobias Ellwood will speedily reassure our youngsters that their wellbeing in a zero- carbon world is indeed his and his government’s highest priority and that a serious policy review will be undertaken.

Tax-payer money should not be funding exploitative behaviour and anachronistic energy systems. There are millions of jobs in energy-saving, in green growth, in food-growing, in resource and water salvage and in promoting clean energy.

Protection please!

SUSAN CHAPMAN

Parkwood Road, Southbourne