Sir, - I am not quite sure what a "Natterer Who Dines" is, the phrase having been coined by Kevin Myers in his Irishman's Diary of April 3rd. However, judging by the tone of his piece on George Bush's U-turn on the Kyoto agreement, it is a person who concurs with the vast majority of expert opinion on the emission of greenhouse gases and their contribution to global warming. For someone who admits, tucked away in the middle of his tirade, to not having "a clue about whether global warming exists, and if it does, what is causing it", Mr Myers would do well to heed the warnings of those with a little more than his cereal-box knowledge on the subject (preferably those not in the employ of Mr Bush and his cronies).
It is clear that he agrees with Mr Bush's openly capitalist slant on ecology. Not once does he suggest that human COs2] emissions don't harm the environment; he merely suggests that to ask the Americans to try to lower their emissions would be "an assault on their standards of living". Does Mr Myers believe the whole world should suffer, that future generations should be endangered, so that Americans can live in the manner to which they have grown accustomed? Bill Bryson points out in A Walk in the Woods that "on average the total walking of an American these days adds up to 1.4 miles a week, barely 350 yards a day". This consists mainly of walking "from car to office, from office to car, round the supermarket and shopping malls". He adds: "for 93 per cent of all trips outside the home, Americans now get in a car."
I do not include the above quotes as an attack on Americans, many of whom support the Kyoto agreement, but merely to illustrate how illogical are Mr Myers's comparisons are between Europe and America. He asks his readers to envisage similar cuts in COs2] emissions as the Americans have been asked to make. This defies reason, as such cuts are not necessary. It is like asking a man who weighs 13 stone to lose seven stone in sympathy with a man who weighs 25 stone and is losing the same amount.
It seems bizarre to me that the man who wrote so well in defence of the small towns of Ireland, highlighting their transformation into "socially dead commuter dormitories", who lamented the "ravishment" of local environments by insensitive developers only four days previously, should be so strident and myopic on a global environmental issue. In the earlier article, Mr Myers mentioned that he lived near Ballymore, the focus of much of his concern. Again, I have no idea what a "Natterer who Dines" is. But it seems to me that Mr Myers might be deserving of a more pervasive appellation: NIMBY - Not In My Back Yard. - Yours, etc.,
Paddy Monahan, Castle Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3.