Post: #1
Reply to: #None
Joined: 29th Jun 2008
From: United Kingdom
Posts: 4
Roland Clift, Professor of Environmental Engineering at Surrey University issued a stark warning both to a meeting of the Haslemere's U3A and to the human race as reported in the Haslemere Herald edition of 27th June 2008. "Reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere by 60% by the year 2050" he said "Or prepare for large areas of habitable land to be uninhabitable".
Surely, Professor Clift was also saying that everyone must do his or her bit in this vital environmental campaign, however small. Green house gas emissions must be reduced or else many human beings and much wild life will suffer. Yet our (supposed) protector of the environment, the National Trust, remains hell bent on closing the Old A3 when the much-needed Hindhead bypass opens in 2011. This action will force all residents of Hindhead, Grayshott and the surrounding district to travel unnecessary miles in the direction of Portsmouth when they really wish to go direct to Guildford. They will have no choice. Moreover these residents - not the National Trust - will have to pay for the fuel to produce this entirely unnecessary and damaging pollution. So much for the principle, 'The polluter must be made to pay', never mind the escalating price of motor fuel!
Several weeks ago, I invited Ms. Reynolds, the Director-General of the National Trust to brief me as to how the proposed closure of the Old A3 can be reconciled with the much trumpeted 'Green Leap Year' initiative launched by the Trust in February. So far, a disdainful and very disappointing silence has been the sum total of her reply.
I hope the members of Haslemere U3A did indeed take on board Professor Clift's bleak message for the human race. If so, they should surely write to Ms. Reynolds and ask her why the Trust will not be playing its part in reducing unnecessary emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases at Hindhead in 2011. Why does the Trust intend to close the Old A3 once our splendid bypass is completed, and especially so since the threat of global warming and its relation to man-made emissions have become more apparent since the A3 Public Inquiry was held? At the Inquiry we estimated that the local community would generate up to 350 tonnes of unwanted carbon dioxide each year and every year if the Old A3 were closed, an estimate that was not challenged by the Highways Agency or the National Trust. Hopefully, enquiries by U3A members to Ms. Reynolds will be more successful than my own effort in prompting a comment from the lady!
David Barrett
Hindhead
