From Bill Matthews.
OUR globe is warming, but are our hearts and minds? Alarm bells are ringing ever more insistently, but we are taking a long time to wake up to the dangers which are present and menacing.

Like many people, I feel that I should be doing something more effectively about it, but don’t quite know what. And the sad thing is that there are still those who think that it is a false alarm, even in the face of indisputable evidence.

History is the record of such a behaviour pattern and there are those who say: ‘We have always come through it somehow.’

What can we do in Jersey? Many think that we can live more simply and be much more consciously aware of our environment, and this is a good thing.
Each of us can be more alert, inventive and proactive in the way that we seek to limit energy consumption, and reduce pollution and revise our living patterns.

However, this is easier said than done, because there are a lot of things we like and have grown used to and, therefore, think we need.

Tightening belts in a fat society can be good for most of us, even those who think we are poor and underprivileged.

What can we do as an island community? Certainly we need to make the issue a priority in any of the planning we envisage.

It seems to me that the problem is, among other things like our greed, a consequence of technology which, if we choose, can be redirected to solve the problems rather than compound them.

Our Island is peculiarly well placed in this respect, since we are set within readily accessible sources of energy, such as wind and water and sun. Wind is almost constant in our low lying position and the technology to farm it is much advanced.

We are surrounded by shallow water and high tides, and should be utilising these. We advertise ourselves as the sunniest of the British Isles and solar power is now easily accessible.

There are many ways in which these elements can be embraced, as an Island and individually, for our good use and as part of any forward planning. To itemise these would require a longer article than this letter, but it needs to be done.

Of course, I hear the immediate cries of those who say that we cannot afford such an investment cost, but I believe that the much stronger reasoning is that we cannot afford not to face this challenge. The challenge is urgent and immediate.