The response of the Assembly Executive has been pathetic. The formal position of the Executive is to reduce carbon emissions, yet they continue to back him as Minister. Wilson may have bizarre views on climate change and may be ridiculed by fellow right-wing politicians, but the inability of big business and capitalist governments to put the needs of the environment before profit is more alarming. Steps taken by the main countries responsible for carbon emissions fall far short of what is required to tackle climate change. It is up to ordinary working people across the world to fight for a democratic socialist planned economy to rescue our planet from the threat of global warming.
Sarah Mair, The Socialist, March 2009Sammy Wilson bans climate change!!
IT DOES not come as much of a surprise to most people in Northern Ireland to hear that, yet again, the Assembly has managed to make a monumental mess of things. But the decision of Environment Minister Sammy Wilson to ban the broadcasting of a government TV ad encouraging people to switch off electrical appliances when not in use in order to save energy has left even the most hardened political cynics open-mouthed.
News stations around the world have broadcast the story in disbelief. Wilson’s reason for this unprecedented move was that the ad was just more “insidious New Labour propaganda” about the impact of climate change. Incredibly, Wilson has said that the world-wide “uninformed hysteria” surrounding the issue was “a con” which had been launched into without examining the “science and implications”. Yet he ignores the overwhelming scientific evidence linking human activity to global warming and virtually universal acceptance that emergency action is urgently required to prevent a major environmental crisis.
The real effects of these cuts can be seen with the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service cutting 70,000 hours from front line cover. This will affect people across the North, but will particularly hit those in rural areas that have suffered from years of cuts backs including the closure of several hospitals.