Understanding and Wisdom

Madam: Well, again, a quiet and unassuming article, “Meet the Kafkas” (January-February 2024) does in a few pages what many an academic tome cannot do in hundreds: start with one’s own scraps of knowledge, and with slight gestures, move one on and into a sense of real understanding.

Something similar occurs with “All the Mornings of the World”, where Joe Dolce’s gentle style lets an apparently simple story take its course until leaping quantum levels at the end into something very close to enduring wisdom. That approach is quite common in culture interviews in the heavily-resourced French, German, Italian media—which may do as well but none better than Dolce.

These articles are hallmarks of the very best anywhere, in any language. They are depth charges that resonate long after they steal your attention.

John Goodman

An Irrational Pursuit

Madam: In respect of climate change many aspects are undeniable; the Greenhouse Effect has been established science since the 1950s, and we would have to be Homo insapience to assume our modern world comes without a cost, a stake in the climate.

But even in Al Gore’s now famous documentary, he was talking a hundred years in the future. The activists must have decided this wasn’t scary enough, given none of us alive today will live that long. So we have hysterics instead of actual planning.

The solar panels promoted today, mainly made in China, are not so efficient, using just the visible light spectrum and losing 1 per cent efficiency each year. The Space Station panels using infra red are twice as effective but so far unaffordable; this will change as costs come down in time and other designers search for solutions.

Many uses of fossil fuel are outdated, such as the creation of charcoal in many Indian villages with little other power. And Chinese power plants could benefit from better technology, better coal if we wanted to share it.

The basic idea that the wind and sun are free is nonsense, there is no such thing as perpetual motion. And batteries and panels in their billions mean major recycling, the scale of which we are hardly considering let alone the massive loss of mainly arable land.

Biden in the US supports all this because his almost Ivy League degree was in finance, and that’s where the money is now, in renewables. We support it here because science has been compromised. When it all falls through the floor the money men will know first, and jettison it.

Jack Mitchell

God and Israel

Madam: In the January-February edition, Quadrant published a letter I had written about God’s having given Israel her land forever. I stated that this truth should settle the matter for those who believe the Bible.

In the March issue, another reader, Steve Christie, disagreed with my point of view. He stated that it goes against the Bible, and is the outlook of “the US Christian Zionists” rather than “traditional Christianity”. He then suggested that Quadrant “explore this topic in depth”.

Mr Christie and I obviously have vastly different opinions, but I agree with his suggestion. This matter is important. The subject of Israel’s position according to the Bible not only is a subject of debate in Christian circles, but also has the potential to greatly affect how individuals view the current conflict in the Middle East—as well as those conflicts that will follow.

Rebekah Meredith