From Nick Palmer.
THE three wise monkeys prevented themselves from seeing, hearing or speaking any evil. The 35 unwise States Members who voted against the incinerator rescindment prevented themselves from seeing, hearing or speaking any wisdom.

There were vital aspects which were sidelined or ignored by Members in their deliberations and voting.
In the same week that Environment Minister Freddie Cohen and Transport Minister Mike Jackson backed the ‘hour of darkness’ climate change initiative, they both failed to sufficiently consider sustainability issues such as the considerable global warming impact of incineration and also that likely falling waste volumes, and changing composition thereof, will almost certainly render the incinerator unable to operate within ten years, even if future EU directives still allow us to operate such an inefficient disposal plant to deal with our residual waste.

Rescinding the decision would have been a waste of £50 million but would have saved us wasting another £70 million on a pariah plant that will be redundant long before its life is over, at which point we will have to buy better plant to replace it at further expense.

The lack of sustainability in their decision was not unexpected considering our Chief Minster’s definition of it (Jersey Evening Post, 25 February): ‘As far as I am concerned, sustainability refers to the ability of the Island to continue in a financial manner for a long time into the future, recognising circumstances and environments . . .

‘One should look at the Island’s policies as a whole, rather than deciding on the sustainability of any particular one.’

Genuine sustainability strategy should be what we need to do to preserve the global environment so that it continues to support the planetary life support mechanisms which keep Earth habitable and (mostly) pleasant. That is what it means.

We have to consider whether the States are aware enough of the bigger picture to make proper choices to enable Jersey to play its part in the international moves towards global sustainability. The evidence, looking at the incinerator vote, is not encouraging.

Abraham Lincoln said: ‘I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the facts.’ Amen, Abraham!

TTS’s case for the incinerator was far from this ideal. In early January, all States Members were sent a copy of the New Scientist, which had a special sustainability feature entitled ‘How the economy is killing the Earth’.

Members were also sent reports and e-mails prior to the incinerator debate, and in addition to the incinerator-specific aspects they were also exposed to more than sufficient information to ensure that they were aware of basic sustainability issues.

A majority of 35 saw no relevance, ignored them, or didn’t understand them.

Even worse, they may have understood them and chosen to treat them as somebody else’s problem, presumably hoping that Jersey can benefit by paying insufficient attention to its international responsibilities.

I leave it to the reader to assess which of those alternatives our elected representatives acted out.
Winterwood,
Rue des Hamonnets,
St Lawrence.