Readers' letters: 'A small start to fight climate change  - and there’s plenty more to do'

If you suspect a building is unsafe, you do not enter it and you certainly would not let your children enter.

If a vehicle is faulty and there is any chance of it breaking down, you would find some other form of transport.

If it were rumoured that a restaurant was infested with rats, you would get your family’s takeaway from somewhere else.

Australia and California have been burning with hotter and more widespread fires.

Oceans are warming and becoming more acidic, sea levels are rising, the Arctic sea ice is melting rapidly and 97 per cent of climate scientists, meteorologists and weather-forecasters say that these and many other phenomena are caused by man-made global changes in climate.

We have a Climate Crisis. Listen to the science.

Yet we are still in denial or putting off any tangible activities until 2050.

I’m concerned about Climate Crisis and am determined to do something about it.

My personal target is to reduce my carbon dioxide emissions by 10-15 per cent year on year.

But I drive a car. My son lives in USA and I fly to see him once a year each year.

I drink cows’ milk and eat eggs. However, my diet is mainly vegetarian.

I have a garden and grow a lot of my own food. I have solar panels on my roof.

When my 10-year-old car gives up the ghost in three or four years’ time, I will get an electric car.

They will be cheaper and there will a substantial network of charging points, served by electricity from renewable sources.

A small start and plenty more to do. I would be interested in other readers’ personal commitments.

John Le Corney

via email

Celebrating RAF trailblazers

This International Women’s Day (March 8), the RAF Benevolent Fund is celebrating the female RAF trailblazers who embody the motto of the Royal Air Force – Per Ardua Ad Astra (through adversity to the stars).

These women have served our country with huge distinction and, in doing so, have continued the legacies of their predecessors, the WRAF and WAAF, who bravely fought during the First and Second World War.

One of those trailblazers is Caroline Paige, the first transgender officer to transition openly while serving in the UK Armed Forces in 1999.

Lauded as a tactical expert on battlefield helicopter operations, Caroline enjoyed a 35-year career in the RAF.

She has spent the last 20 years championing diversity in the workplace and knows from her own experience, talking about these issues helps people understand themselves and the people around them.

For Kirsty Murphy, the RAF’s first and, to date, only female Red Arrows pilot, inspiring young girls watching the acrobatic team’s jaw-dropping displays was the best part of the job.

During her 17-year career in the RAF, Kirsty trained as a GR4 Tornado pilot and, since leaving the service, has flown with the Blades Aerobatic Display Team.

As the RAF’s first female Air-Vice Marshal, Elaine West climbed to the top of her profession.

She has since become a trustee for the RAF Benevolent Fund, continuing her work looking after the welfare needs of the RAF Family.

All three of these remarkable women have gone on to do remarkable things since leaving the RAF and we are proud to call them friends of the RAF Benevolent Fund, supporting our work providing assistance to serving and retired personnel and their dependants.

Air Vice-Marshal David Murray

Chief Executive, RAF Benevolent Fund

Send a Mary’s Meal gift card

This Mother’s Day, I am thinking about everything women do to give their children the best start in life.

Like the women in countries such as Malawi, Liberia and India, who rise early each day to cook and serve food to hungry children in their communities with the charity Mary’s Meals.

Their dedication epitomises powerful motherly love, and it is thanks to them that Mary’s Meals is able to feed 1.6 million hungry children around the world every school day.

The food they lovingly serve attracts little ones into the classroom, giving them the energy to gain an education that can, one day, be their ladder out of poverty.

I am in awe of these incredible women. And that’s why I am asking your readers to send a Mary’s Meals gift card to the special women in their lives this Mother’s Day.

For just £15.90, it will feed a hungry child every day for an entire school year.

Please visit marysmeals.org.uk/mothersday to purchase your gift card in honour of the mums who make Mary’s Meals.

I have already told my boys this is a gift I would be delighted to receive!

Sophie Thompson

Actress

Law must be enforced

Hunts attract my personal disapproval for the repeated ‘accidental’ deaths of foxes during so-called trail hunts.

As to prosecutions – until all police forces and the judiciary show a clear intention to work positively with the provisions of the Hunting Act instead of focusing on its limitations, successful prosecutions are unlikely.

With so many debatable issues surrounding fox hunting, it is understandable that opinions will differ.

But the law is clear and must be enforced, not denigrated or ignored.

Mrs R Roshier

Address supplied

Prevent RCS from taking lives

For construction workers in Wigan and across the UK, we’re calling on the Government to take action and prevent the ‘next asbestos’ from taking more lives in the UK.

It’s estimated that 600,000 workers across the UK are exposed to RCS – the dust created by cutting or fracturing brick and stone – which causes silicosis, the most common chronic occupational lung disease in the world.

Our recent joint parliamentary inquiry heard expert evidence that workplace exposure limits for RCS are too high, there are difficulties in diagnosis due to pressure on GPs’ time and problems accessing expert specialists, and there is a widespread lack of awareness among construction workers and employers of the risks around RCS.

We’re calling on the Government to take a number of crucial steps to address these issues and protect construction workers from what could develop into a future occupational health epidemic.

Jim Shannon MP, Chairman

Gregg McClymont

Director of Policy, B&CE