(Lire en français)

     From 2005 to 2007, Philip Pullman wrote regularly to his readers on his website to discuss the books he was writing, the stageplay from the National Theater, the Golden Compass movie, or any topic of interest to him at a time when social networks were hardly existing. For non-English readers, Cittàgazze translated back in these days Sir Pullman's letters.
     Here you can access - again - to the original content of these letters...
     Enjoy!

NEW YEAR MESSAGE 2006

  Happy New Year to everyone. I should have put three messages here since the last one; so much for my resolve to put a new message up every month. I don't know how people fill their daily blogs - they must have a great deal more to say than I have.

  I've just about got to the end now of all the engagements and talks and lectures and so on that I was getting out of the way. No more for two years, that's the rule I'm going to put in place. 'The Book of Dust' will have my full attention, and everything else will have to wait.

  I've been thinking further about the global warming business and what to do about it. The problem is so large, the attitude of our political leaders so desperately foolish, the size of anything we ourselves can do so small - it all induces a feeling of helplessness if we're not careful. Yesterday I read something that James Lovelock, the Gaia man, said: he said the current state of things reminded him of what the 1930s felt like, when everyone knew there was a war coming and no-one knew how to prevent it, or precisely when it would come, or what to do. There was no hope around. But as soon as the war broke out, everyone was energised and began to work with courage and determination to win it. Lovelock is not pessimistic because he says the same thing will happen with regard to climate change. The people who think about it now are paralysed with fear or despair, because we can see the whole planet sliding into runaway overheating and irreversible destruction, but when it really begins to bite, he says, everyone will be galvanised with the determination to do something about it, and we'll beat it.

  Lovelock's recommendation for immediate action is that we adopt nuclear energy, on the grounds that it alone can supply the power we need without adding to the greenhouse effect. Apparently nuclear technology has moved on from the days when it required large amounts of expensive-to-extract uranium and then produced even large amounts of deadly poisonous waste. I don't know what the truth is about that. But if the green people spend all their time arguing about nuclear power while the planet heats up beyond saving, the only people who'll be happy about the stalemate are the enemy: the great army of the Stupid.

  So I'm going to listen very carefully to what people say about nuclear power. As Lovelock says, it isn't ideal, but it might be a way of dealing with the problem of energy supply without carbon emissions for a short while until we found a better way.

  Another part of this issue is aviation. Every clear morning (and there aren't very many mornings when the sky is clear) I look up and count the number of condensation trails I can see from my house. It's never less than ten, and sometimes as many as fifteen. That is far too many planes up there pouring out carbon dioxide right where it'll do most damage. Of all forms of transport, air travel is much the most destructive. Far too many people are flying about, and I can't believe that all those journeys are necessary.

  So I've decided that I'm not going to be one of them any more. From now on I stay on the ground. This means no long-distance travel unless I can find a ship going where I want to; no flying within Europe, and certainly none inside Britain. All unnecessary. I can't think of a single reason that would make it more important for me to go to the other side of the world quickly than to save all that fuel by going slowly, or better still by not going at all. Festivals? Conferences? The days when we could thoughtlessly get on a plane and fly across the Atlantic to deliver one lecture are over. Tours to publicise a new book? Only by ship and by train.

  In fact, aviation fuel ought to be ruthlessly taxed. Ninety-nine plane journeys out of a hundred ought to be made impossible. Critics of this position will say that I want to preserve the luxury of flying for a rich elite, and deny the pleasures of travel to ordinary people, just when it's become possible to fly for very low fares. Frankly, I don't mind who I deny it to, and I don't care what mechanisms we put in place to manage the very few flights the planet can afford. Do it by lottery if you like. Just eliminate 99% of those contrails. The damage is out of all proportion to the benefit. As for the grotesque absurdity of expanding Heathrow and other UK airports - tear up the idea at once.

  Enough of that. I want to think about Lyra and her new story, so I'd appreciate it if everybody would just stop destroying the world so I can stop fretting about it and get on with my proper work.

  Happy New Year anyway!