Does Putin hold key to saving the planet?
Sir: David Stephen’s proposal (letter, 22 September) that this is the time to involve political scientists in dealing with the problem of climate change is surely the triumph of hope over experience. Those, like me, with a scientific background see the problem differently. Most of us believe that climate change is a fact. But what we are not sure about is whether it is already irreversible. The serious risk is that we may be at that point, unless new technologies can be devised. The safe response is to focus on the latter. But the scale of the effort required is as big as anything mankind has ever attempted. We need a commitment to and timescale for research into climate change and control of the type JFK set when he aimed for the moon. Which succeeded because of the ideological competition between the then USSR and the USA. I wonder if Vladimir Putin might leave his mark on history by setting such a challenge, and in the process show up the crass insensitivity of the Blush-style marke
