At least cycling is better for our planet as climate change protests grow – Yorkshire Post Letters

WHILE the UCI World Cycling Championships clearly has a great deal of support, there are a significant number of people who don’t like cyclists.

In his letter (The Yorkshire Post, September 20), Simon Russell writes: “I own one of the longest standing retail outlets in Harrogate which has had a prominent position on The Crescent since 1947.”

How UCI Road World Championships is taking its toll on Harrogate – Yorkshire Post Letters

I was born in 1948, and consider myself very lucky – I missed the Second World War, and was one of the first children to benefit from our free NHS. Also, my granddad introduced me to cycling before I could walk.

My food security fears ahead of no-deal Brexit and climate change catastrophe – Mary Creagh

As a cyclist, with a wife and two children, I was able to cycle to work, (until I got a car, aged 26) and with the money and time I saved, (cycling was over an hour quicker than public transport), I paid my energy bills, and had more time to spend with my family.

Mr Russell also writes: “I can assure you nobody asked me what I thought or how it (cycling) impacts my business and scores of others.”

To get what we have today, millions of lives were sacrificed in the Second World War. Now we’re at war against climate change, and even if we stopped burning fossil fuels today, we can’t stop it having a negative impact on the lives of my grandchildren. Indeed, with Extinction Rebellion, it has already happened.

From: Mary Vesey, Royal Avenue, Scarborough.

CIVIL action has been the last resort of the working man and woman since capitalism reared its ugly head and began consuming the planet.

The suffragettes had to resort to even more desperate measures to claim what was rightfully theirs and they were not popular at the time. The abolition of slavery and the ending of apartheid also took many years of civil action to make a change.

If you care about your children’s future then you, too, will stop contributing to the machine that is consuming our planet and is driven by the greedy fossil fuel industry. We live on a finite planet yet capitalism requires endless growth. This is no longer possible. That is why I support the climate strikes.

From: R Kimble, Hawksworth.

IN response to suggestions that parents should be fined for the unauthorised absence of children from school for climate change activities.

May I point out that the people who should be severely fined for absence are MPs. Less that 15 turned up for debates on climate change and bullying in the workplace – and no Tory MPs for the latter. None of Theresa May’s front bench turned up for any of the pointless Brexit debates and we all saw Jacob Rees-Mogg asleep on duty.

From: Mary Wilcock, Scotland Lane, Horsforth.

I WOULD be more likely to take notice if these young people waving banners, and creating mayhem, actually did something useful. How about proposing all children where ever possible should walk to school?

Just think how different the roads are during school holidays – children around our area are driven to schools which are only a short distance away. Just think how much healthier both they, and their parents, would be.

From: Arthur Quarmby, Mill Moor Road, Meltham.

IF you feed kids a relentless diet of “the world is going to end in a blazing apocalypse within your lifetime”, then don’t be surprised if they start flying drones into the path of passenger jets.