YP Letters: Environment destroyed while a shouting match goes on

What is rural Yorkshire's wishlist this Christmas?

“ARE you ready for Christmas?” “Are we ever ready for  anything?”

Instead of ‘Hello, how are you?’, it seems the popular December greeting is “Hello, are you ready for Christmas?”

I probably should have written that in capitals because people seems pretty frenzied, frequently bordering on the hysterical, when they ask.

We know Christmas is coming, it comes every year at the same time without fail and yet…. we’re not ready.

Is this a little bit like that  awful B word? We knew it was coming (it’s dominated the media since the vote) but no one’s ready!

Our climate is changing, becoming more intense, more severe. We knew that was coming and we were warned what what we had to do… but we’re not prepared.

The oceans are suffering  the effects of plastic pollution, yet we knew that was coming because Prince Charles warned us in the 1970s and yet it happened because we did nothing about it until now (thank you David Attenborough and Blue Planet II).

Television and radio interviews are full of shouty people talking over each other and not listening, each so intent on making their point that they fail to hear what the other is saying or, perhaps, just refusing to listen.

So, for Christmas this year, could we ask for some listening and some hearing?

It’s not rocket science. It’s just about listening to people and hearing what they say and then thinking about it.

For, while this shouting is going on, our oceans, countryside, biodiversity  and heritage are slowly but surely being degraded and destroyed.

Maybe, just may be this year Father Christmas, as you fly around delivering your wonderful gifts to the fortunate, could you just sprinkle some magic dust on the world (because we do believe in sharing) to make everyone a little happier, more caring, less greedy, more thoughtful and more considerate?

It really would make the world a happier place for everyone and then we could get on with making this country a better place for all.

In our case, that means campaigning to keep the countryside alive and  breathing, protecting our heritage and making sure that  we get the affordable homes  we need in the right place, at  the right time, for the right reasons.