Sir, – President Donald Trump’s announcement of withdrawal from the Paris agreement indicates a fundamental change in his attitude. Previously, he described climate change as a hoax, presumably meaning that he believed it was not happening, or that it was not due to human activity.
However, he is offering to rejoin or renegotiate the Paris agreement if the terms are right for America. In so doing, he implicitly accepts its premise of human-generated climate change, even though he regards the cost of American compliance as too great at present. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL PEGUM,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
Sir, – Emmanuel Macron pledges to “make our planet great again” (News, June 2nd).
That’s all very well, but which one is he from? – Yours, etc,
EUGENE TANNAM,
Firhouse, Dublin 24.
Sir, – Donald Trump is planning to build a wall of rock in Doonbeg to protect his Clare golf course from climate change, namely sea level rise and increased storm intensity, attributable to our warming seas. His move to take the US out of the Paris agreement is therefore entirely cynical. If he doesn’t believe in climate change, then surely he doesn’t need a wall. – Yours, etc,
SARAH RYAN,
Raheen,
Limerick.
Sir, – I think Mary Robinson may not be too far off the mark in ascribing the term “rogue state” to Donald Trump’s America. Certainly Mr Trump himself may fit the bill as a rogue. In my dictionary I find an interesting meaning for the word rogue, “a savage elephant or other animal cast out or withdrawn from its herd”. – Yours, etc,
GEAROID KILGALLEN,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – President Trump has provided a rare example of moral and democratic leadership: he promised a certain action in his election campaign, he was elected, then he took the action that he promised, despite the fiercest political and media pressure not to do so.
We may contrast his principled leadership to the hypocrisy of so many senior Irish and European politicians now indulging in their shrill, self-righteous indignation against him. They will continue to fly around the world for their various meetings, they will continue to work or reside in well-heated buildings, they will continue to dine well at the taxpayers’ expense. Yet the same people will sign up to commitments that will eventually render transport unaffordable to many ordinary taxpayers, will leave them shuddering in fuel-poverty, and would even deny them the occasional steak.
When Mary Robinson and her ilk restrict themselves to video-conferences, bicycles, and turnips, then I will begin to take them seriously. – Yours, etc,
Dr DAVID WOODS,
Cork.
Sir, – I have just checked my Stoic thought for the day. It recalled the wonderful dialogue written by Lucian of Samosata in the second century AD and called Icaromenippus and the Aerial Expedition. The narrator is given the ability to fly and see the world from above. Turning his eyes earthward he sees how comically small even the richest people, the biggest estates and entire empires look from above. All their battles and concerns were made to look petty in perspective
Almost two thousand years and the astronaut Edgar Mitchell, one of the first people to see the earth from outer space, recounted: “In outer space you develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation and instant dissatisfaction with the state of the world and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say ‘Look at that you son of a bitch.’”
Unfortunately, he was never afforded the opportunity with Donald Trump. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL BROPHY,
Glasnevin,
Dublin 11.
Sir, – I read with dismay that President Trump had pulled out of the Paris climate accord. Thinking that only a complete idiot would take that course of action, I consoled myself with the thought that it’s probably fake news. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN QUIGLEY,
Bettystown,
Co Meath.