A better place we’re leaving them – Revel Barker

If I understand the plot correctly, the root of this mad idea that we will reduce emissions and create clean air within a given period is that we will leave Malta “a better place for our grandchildren”.

(Let’s forget, for a moment, that if the Maltese islands were totally emission-free, even uninhabited, and covered in green forests, it would not make one iota of difference to world climate while China and India keep pumping out smoke: we’re talking, here, about Malta at least contributing its bit.)

Define ‘a better place’.

Our grandchildren (or great-grandchildren) may well look about them and ask: “Is this what they call a better place? Because it is by no means as good as the place they grew up in. And now they are pretending that they tried to leave it better for us?”

They can look to old family photos and see the Maltese islands when they were, perhaps, at their best. Fewer cars, fewer people, less muck. More greenery everywhere, more space generally, no rush.

Far fewer tourists. Fishing and farming were the main industries. Everybody seemed to own a plot of land, somewhere, or a luzzu. Or both.

A few ambitious families went off to Commonwealth countries (or the US), earned...