It is regrettable that neither our bishops nor, indeed, The Tablet have thought that the energy crisis and its ramifications for climate change and the future of the planet merited a more thorough treatment than that accorded it in the current election campaign and in the bishops’ advice to potential voters.
Both have done well in highlighting domestic poverty, the NHS crisis, hunger, oppression, Trident, our responsibility for the developing world and towards migrants, et al., but have failed to appreciate the urgency of our need to address directly the issue of the contribution made by the continuing search for and exploration of fossil fuels to the killing of our planet. One wonders if this is partly due to the fact that many of those immediately affected by the threat of fracking, for example, live in Lord Howell’s "desolate areas" of the North, far away from the metropolitan gaze. Or is the Church and the state in awe of a new god, the colossal god of business? Or are we awaiting directives from Rome?
Whilst local candidates for election to Westminster make the most, here in Ryedale, of their anti-fracking credentials, some with more conviction than others, one cannot escape the fact that climate change has been relegated nationally to a footnote in election campaigns, although the urgency of the task in hand and its relation to the common good suggest that it might have been at the forefront of your, the bishops’, and the various campaigns’ attentions.
David Cragg-James, Stonegrave, York
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