Truck & Driver UK – August 2019

24

FROM THE SHARP END

Summer 2019 Truck & Driver

This i s

serious

F

irst, forgive me for borrowing this

platform to express my views but,

although I’m hardly at the ‘Sharp End’

of trucking, I hope you’ll accept my

role of deputy editor of T&D for more

than 20 years as qualification enough.

A thorough read (it’s my job!) of July T&D’s

From the Sharp End, page 24 prompted in me a

strong urge to respond to driver Alex Saville’s

arguments. Alex was clearly severely exercised

by the ‘softly softly’ reaction of politicians, the

police and the judiciary to the 10-day-long

protests in London by climate activists.

Anger does have its place, but when putting

pen to paper – as us old gits quaintly used to

say – to try to win people over, it’s often more

History will testify that

societal change is often

only brought about by

authority being challenged

Merely virtue signalling?

I disagree. This response

to last month’s Sharp End

argues that climate change

is a hot issue for humanity

that needs addressing now

CHRIS TURNER

Deputy editor

Truck & Driver

Shutterstock

effective to gather your thoughts calmly. Yes, of

course Extinction Rebellion broke the law; but

at least the protests were peaceful and, as I’m

sure Alex will appreciate, history will testify

that societal change is often only brought about

by authority being challenged.

The action by Extinction Rebellion achieved

its aim, too – of bringing to public attention the

damage being done to our planet.

The issue

More fundamentally, Alex, are you a climate

sceptic? Apologies if this isn’t the case, but I’m

sure that is the impression readers will have

picked up from your piece, especially given, for

example, your description of the activists as

‘anarchists posing as environmental protesters’

and your reference to Swedish schoolgirl Greta

Thunberg as ‘a silly wee lassie’. Judging by the

press coverage I witnessed, the protesters were

hardly a bunch of ‘anarchists’, more like a

pretty broad cross-section of society, albeit

largely – as Alex pointed out – middle class.

Are you happy to ignore the harm humanity

is doing to the planet? I, for one, feel it unwise

to ignore the scientists. The facts are stark –

unless more is done, not just individually but as

a species, to counter climate change, 16-year-

olds such as Greta (and my own much younger

grandchildren) face a very uncertain future.

What sort of legacy are we leaving them? Much

as an old man plants a tree, not to provide

himself with shade but to provide it for future

generations, we need to do something now.

And, speaking as someone in his late sixties

himself, why does a person’s youth disqualify

him or her from having an opinion? To my mind,

Greta, a clearly intelligent young person, is not

far short of a heroine in that she has captured

the world’s imagination; and that’s something

that, in today’s climate (pardon the pun), will

never be achieved by a politician.

Politically astute

I fully appreciate that trucks and truckers get a

bum deal. Modern diesel engines are far

cleaner than politicians give them credit for;

nor do drivers get anything like the praise they

deserve. I also understand Alex’s frustration

with the Blair government for ignoring the fuel

protests in 2000. But, today, politicians sit up

and listen to the likes of Extinction Rebellion

and Greta (or, as Alex stated, ‘are falling over

themselves to give her credibility’) because,

simply, they realise that the issues the ‘rebels’

are fighting for strike a chord with the public.

I’m no apologist for politicians, either. We

find ourselves – and this is a worldwide

phenomenon, too – in an age of populism and

of issue politics, thanks largely to the fact that

our political representatives have, over the

years, been particularly inept at gaining the

trust of the public. And what bigger an issue is

there than the future of life itself?