{"id":4964,"date":"2022-10-10T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T07:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/?p=4964"},"modified":"2022-10-10T08:35:38","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T07:35:38","slug":"toby-litts-letter-to-terence-mordaunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/toby-litts-letter-to-terence-mordaunt\/","title":{"rendered":"Toby Litt’s Letter to Terence Mordaunt of the GWPF<\/span>Toby Litt<\/span>"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Dear Terence Mordaunt,<\/p>\n

all your working life, you\u2019ve been a man of the sea. As co-founder of the Bristol Port Company, it\u2019s the key element of your immensely successful business. But even before that, you were \u2013 as I understand it \u2013 a navigating apprentice in the Merchant Navy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure you must have found that an extremely demanding, practical training in the day-to-day work of shipboard life, and yet there must have been moments when you were able to stop and look out at the wide ocean.<\/p>\n

Even a calm blue sea, with nothing else in sight from horizon to horizon, is one of the most awesome visions any of us can have. You can\u2019t help but feel uplifted by its scope and power. It seems so far beyond human concern, beyond human influence \u2013 and yet it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"
Terence Mordaunt. Image: Bristol Live.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the years have passed since you became a master mariner, you must have noticed many changes to this same sea. You must have seen how, far from being a pristine wilderness, it is now \u2013 even far away from human cities \u2013 a place of floating plastic and oil slicks. Perhaps you\u2019ve flown over, or even visited, the Great Barrier Reef. For me, this bleached, dead underwater desert that used to be a technicolour wonder of fish and coral is one of the saddest sights. If anything breaks my heart, that does. But perhaps you were lucky enough to see it before it became so bleakly diminished?<\/p>\n

I know, from your involvement with the Global Warming Policy Foundation, that you take a robust attitude toward talk of climate change. In the recent past, you\u2019ve said you believe there\u2019s still room for doubt \u2013 the science may be misreading the facts. The year-on-year rises in sea-temperate may not, after all, be caused by human activity. The melting of the glaciers at the poles could possibly be a natural, cyclical phenomenon \u2013 or something we don\u2019t yet understand.<\/p>\n

The kind of utopian suggestions made by environmental protestors must seem to you ridiculous, and yet still worth your time and energy in opposing. That must be why you\u2019ve remained a Trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. You want to protect the possibility of corporate and individual enterprise. How could we \u201cJust Stop Oil\u201d, when it fuels the engine of our economy? What are the ships that cruise in and out of the Avonbury and Royal Portbury docks \u2013 the ships that bring employment to the local people, and food and goods to our shops \u2013 what are they going to run on?<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s look again at the sea \u2013 that immense inhuman power. It seems to be rising. As the glaciers at the poles melt, it will rise more. Yes, this will destroy communities on small islands far away, but it will also threaten the sustainability of the low-lying parts of the United Kingdom \u2013 including the Port of Bristol. If the Thames Barrier is broached, the waters may flood not only the Houses of Parliament but Tufton Street \u2013 where the Global Warming Policy Foundation has its offices.<\/p>\n

My hope would be that, with concerted human action, with our inventiveness but also with our restraint, we could avoid \u2013 or mitigate \u2013 this and many other disasters. But in order for that to happen, lots of people who have staked their reputation on this or that established value will need to change. They will need to step back from the moral and institutional positions they have occupied \u2013 because they are no longer a conceivable power for good. Because they have become a clear and active cause of harm.<\/p>\n

For these reasons, I\u2019m writing to ask you to think back to your first experiences of the sea, to consider the painful-to-behold changes of its recent history, and to imagine the terrifying possibilities of its future. And then, in sober response to this, I am asking you to step down from being a Trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation \u2013 an organisation whose time has definitively passed, and which I don\u2019t believe represents your deepest values.<\/p>\n

I am intending to publish this letter on the Writers Rebel website, and also to share it more widely. However, I have sent it beforehand in hopes of hearing back from you.<\/p>\n

I look forward to receiving your response.<\/p>\n

All best wishes,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Toby Litt<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Toby Litt<\/strong> has published novels, short story collections and poems. His most recent project, A Writer’s Diary<\/em><\/a>, has appeared every day this year on Substack, and will be published on January 1st by Galley Beggar Press. He teaches Creative Writing at Birkbeck College and is the editor of the Writers Rebel website.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CALL TO ACTION<\/strong><\/p>\n

We consider the GWPF to be the climate denial arm of the dark money and fossil fuel lobby network based in London\u2019s infamous Tufton Street, whose close connections to the government make it a significant obstacle to progress in addressing the climate emergency. If you feel the same, let the GWPF know by emailing\u00a0info@thegwpf.org<\/a> (FAO Terence Mordaunt), and cc\u2019ing us at xrwritersrebel@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Dear Terence Mordaunt, all your working life, you\u2019ve been a man of the sea. As co-founder of the Bristol Port Company, it\u2019s the key element of your immensely successful business. But even before that, you were \u2013 as I understand it \u2013 a navigating apprentice in the Merchant Navy. I\u2019m sure you must have […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from Toby Litt’s Letter to Terence Mordaunt of the GWPF<\/span>Toby Litt<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4968,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,1],"tags":[221,482,481,944,215],"yoast_head":"\nToby Litt's Letter to Terence Mordaunt of the GWPF - Writers Rebel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/writersrebel.com\/toby-litts-letter-to-terence-mordaunt\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Toby Litt's Letter to Terence Mordaunt of the GWPF - Writers Rebel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Dear Terence Mordaunt, all your working life, you\u2019ve been a man of the sea. 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