‘For a whole variety of reasons it is a very good idea to stop planning expansion of airports’

• THERE is strong evidence that we have been underestimating the rapidity of climate change. “Worse than expected” is the standard phrase.

A few years ago we were going to pass 1.5 degrees C around 2050. Now it is already happening. It looks likely that we will overtake two degrees in the next 15 years.

Arctic ice is melting much faster than predicted. AMOC – the ocean current that results in the mild temperatures we benefit from in the UK – was going to collapse at some point next century; now the odds are it will happen by 2050.

Much of this has been known for decades but information has been repressed.

Still the BBC reports on devastation resulting from fire, flood and famine without acknowledging the connection with human-induced climate change.

“Work hard, pay your mortgage, get a pension, dream of a bright future for your kids”, the gulf between reality and the world we pretend we live in is heart-breaking.

Rising sea levels will impact the UK and some areas will have to be abandoned. East London could be badly affected by 2030, and the centre of London is at risk too.

For a whole variety of reasons it is a very good idea to stop planning expansion of airports.

Policy at a national and local level is inadequate for addressing the climate and ecological emergency.

That we have not taken necessary steps to regulate carbon emission is not surprising, as people, including politicians, find it difficult to grasp reality when it does not map onto their existing world view.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is no different. He does not publicly acknowledge the existential threat nor the fact that we have a part to play in limiting the most harmful outcomes.

It is not surprising, but at the same time deeply disappointing, that he gives the impression of backing away from the actions that are needed: large scale energy consumption reduction measures (national retrofit), cessation of fossil fuel extraction and reining-in multinational corporations that are destroying the biosphere.

There are many groups that people can join to break the current logjam: Greenpeace, Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil and others. Please join and help fund them.

Citizens need to act to hold governments to account to ensure that human rights are upheld in future attempts to secure a liveable future.

ALICE BROWN, NW5