Dear Chancellor Merkel …

[submitted on the web site of the Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel. And for Posnan read Poznań]

Dear Chancellor Merkel,

I hope that by the end of the talks in Posnan you will have decided to support the enviromental proposals in full, showing the strong leadership that you have in the past.

I feel strongly that the opportunities for 'green' industry and social practice will soon outweigh the interests of industrial polluters. I believe that the proportion of the labour market and economic influence that is held by those polluters will rapidly get smaller in all European countries, not just my own.

I also feel that polluters in every country should take on the economic burden of their pollution. The polluters are the only ones who will benefit through their pollution; everyone else will suffer. It sets a very bad example if the most technologically advanced and wealthy countries do not enforce this policy. Other European countries, and the rest of the world, are fully aware of such double standards.

The population of countries such as Germany have the expertise, the manpower, the economic capacity and the political will to change the way we all think and act on environmental issues. Please do not let the short-term interests of the minority stand in the way of a better environment for everybody. A recent survey shows the majority of Germans want to make this change: 'According to an Avaaz YouGov Opinon Poll (5-8 December 2008) 85% of Germans agreed that "Germany should show leadership in securing a strong climate agreement for the EU despite the economic downturn"' (http://www.avaaz.org).

I think in particular of the populations of countries such as Bangladesh who are under threat of significant flooding if sea levels continue to rise, and of the Chinese whose country is industrialising rapidly and whose descendants do not deserve to inherit an industrial wasteland. In Europe we have experienced the degradation that unregulated industry creates and we have rejected it. Please take the next step and make it clear to the world that you strongly support an economy based on environmental respect and regeneration, not environmental destruction.

I know that I am adding my voice to those of many others. I write to you as I have written in the past to the political leaders of my home country, the United Kingdom. Thank you for making this an easy task!

Yours sincerely,

Ben Weiner