Carbon offsetting

8 Februrary gave children one day of fun in the snow this winter. Schools closed because teachers couldn't get there. 60 years ago snow fell somewhere in England every day from 22 January to 17 March. At an Oxford primary school that year classes took turns learning to skate on a frozen tennis court every day for three weeks. What experience of snow will today's youngsters have over the next 60 years? Climate change could either make snowmen even rarer, or the already accelerating melting of the Arctic and the Greenland ice-cap could stop the Gulf Stream, making winters even colder as well as flooding the Thames estuary. Will their parents' generation reduce their carbon footprint right now for the sake of their children's longer-term future? Driving less and/or smaller cars? Much is made of carbon offsetting - paying a little bit extra to compensate for the carbon emitted - when what is needed is to reduce the carbon used. Otherwise we are back into the days before the Reformation when rich Christians bought indulgences so that they could sin with impunity. How about consciously deciding to fly less or not at all by signing the Flight Pledge www.flightpledge.org.uk

Canon Christopher Hall