The Guardian view on Gove's clean air plan: just hot air | Editorial

22. května 2018 20:00

Příroda

The environment secretary must not use simplistic policies to avoid the complex and difficult trade-offs called for in dealing with the air quality crisis that is ending thousands of lives prematurelyMichael Gove, the environment secretary, made his name during the Brexit campaign for quipping that "the people have had enough of experts" and likening economists who warned against leaving the European Union to Nazi propagandists against Einstein. Mr Gove knows how to attract an audience. Nor has he discarded his insight that the public, if presented with facts that contradict a deeply held belief, will ditch the facts. This week Mr Gove was at it again: making headlines without making policy. The cabinet minister produced a clean air strategy which purported to tackle a public health crisis by getting families to open their windows more often because "air pollution inside the home can often be higher than outside". This is true, but it smacks of the kind simplistic commonsense answer that Mr Gove favours because it avoids the knotty trade-offs called for in any policy, be it Brexit or the environment.The main contributor to the air quality crisis, one that sees thousands of lives ended prematurely, is road transport - a subject about which Mr Gove has strangely little to say. Instead, his plan envisages local authorities finding the cash, presumably by defunding libraries or other essential public goods, to pay for an army of local inspectors to check the dryness of the wood being sold on petrol station forecourts that is used as fuel for stoves. Given his policy's impotence, it would be absurd to say Mr Gove is taking the issue seriously. As lives are at stake, it is actually offensive. Continue reading...
28.3.

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