Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment

Stop billionaires blowing hot air on climate

Bill Gates  in New York, New York, USA on 21 September 2022
Bill Gates in New York last year. One reader blames the media for giving too much air time to the super-rich on the climate crisis. Photograph: Sarah Yenesel/EPA

Rebecca Solnit complains about billionaires getting publicity for some of their dafter ideas to tackle climate change (Billionaires are out of touch and much too powerful. The planet is in trouble, 20 November). But the only reason they seem able to influence us is because the media bend over backwards to give them publicity and (in some cases) promote what they have to say, usually just because of their wealth. I cannot be certain you will publish this letter, but if I had signed it Bill Gates or Elon Musk, I could guarantee you would.
Stuart Walker
Inverkeilor, Angus

• The Liverpudlian saying to someone who goes on and on – “don’t boil your cabbage twice” (Letters, 21 November) – reminds me of an Irish saying that could equally apply to Nadine Dorries: “Ah, come down off the cross and give someone else a go.”
Peter Stewart
Northfields, London

• Looking at the excellent picture of two people walking along the beach (Readers’ best photographs: A cliffhanger and lions in Crete, 22 November), I can’t stop worrying about whether the tide is coming in or ebbing. Perhaps this is exactly what makes this such a superb picture.
Roger Wilkinson
Leasgill, Cumbria

• Can I suggest that the updated version of The Twelve Days of Christmas (Letters, 19 November) replaces the absurdly aspirational “partridge in a pear tree” with “a recipe from 30p Lee”?
Liz McInnes
Rossendale, Lancashire

• Try this: “On the first day of Christmas the Tories gave to me / 13 years of austerity.” I’ll have a go at the second day tomorrow.
Ian Grieve
Gordon Bennett, Llangollen canal

• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and on our Saturday letters spread in the print edition.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.