Thought provoking

SIR - A thought-provoking seminar was given on Friday, May 18 in the Leigh-Browne Room of Sidmouth Old Meeting by Professor David Selby.

Professor Selby spoke about The Gathering Storm, the threat of climate change and why we ignore it. Some of us are in denial, not knowing how to respond to it, while others of us dispute the scientific data, even where the facts are overwhelming and accepted by reputable scientists.

It is important that older people and parents and teachers talk with youngsters to make them aware and prepare them.

Professor Selby said that people need to return to the numinous, and awareness of beauty, wonder and awe, instead of continually racing to purchase more and more consumer goods, wrongly imagining that unlimited growth and huge technological fixes are the answers to all our environmental problems.

A member of Professor Selby’s audience pointed out that a sufficiency of goods should satisfy us, using the phrase “Enough is enough”, while many people across with world lack food due to climate change, causing them to leave their homes and migrate in sheer desperation.

Professor Selby is founding director of Sustainability Frontiers, a locally-based non-governmental organisation that works internationally, often with UNESCO and UNICEF. He has many prestigious appointments.

Miriam Brown

Lennox Avenue, Sidmouth