I SHARE Richard Bramley’s concerns regarding climate change, (Farmer exhausted by climate change issues,The Press, June 4) and have worked hard on this as a city councillor in York and now as a prospective parliamentary candidate in Selby.
Government is not doing nearly enough to respond to the challenges posed by climate change. Farmers across the world see the evidence in the shifting seasons, sowing and harvests. We see it in the increased flooding and multiple threats to crops and biodiversity.
With Brexit came the abandoning of grants for set-aside. Now farmers can no longer afford to leave a protective border around their fields to nurture pollinators and other wildlife.
There are, however, multiple opportunities to do better.
For example, tens of thousands of homes around Selby could be heated by district heating with geothermal energy from the old Selby coalfield mine. I went down those pits shortly before they closed and felt for myself how hot is is down there. Why are we not transforming our nation’s heating as we have transformed electricity generation? Why don’t we learn from other countries?
A climate change economy will bring jobs and security, and benefit agriculture, as well as protecting nature and our way of life, when we finally get busy.
Christian Vassie,
PPC for the Lib Dems in Selby
Blake Court,
Wheldrake,
York
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