Sir, – Finn McRedmond performs an impressive high-wire act to get the reader from the new weight-loss drug Ozempic to the idea that technology and markets will take care of climate breakdown (“Ozempic: We may be on the brink of solving a decades-old crisis with a single medicine”, Opinion & Analysis, June 22nd). Neither end of this wire is supported by a firm platform.
This family of drugs (semaglutides) are about the only weight-loss drug on the market. The reason for this is that most previous drugs, though initially approved as safe, went on to show serious and unacceptable side-effects when taken in the general population and were withdrawn. Far from being “reflexively against” this drug, the medical profession and the general public have embraced Ozempic with an uncritical fervour that speaks to our desire for a quick solution. The long-term effects of Ozempic are unknown. We have no data beyond 16 months, at which stage average weight loss turned to gain in some trials. The weight loss offered is modest, the commitment to the drug life-long and expensive, the consequences unknown.
So why would Ozempic give us hope that innovation driven by markets, that is companies motivated by profits to give consumers new products that they desire, will solve climate breakdown? Ozempic shows us that people will discount long-term harms if it allows them to live their desired, thinner life now. Hard truths about changing the systemic social factors (such as poverty, inequality and poor environments) that drive people’s weight more than diet are much less attractive.
We have all the technology we need to solve the climate crisis right now.
New Irish citizens: ‘I hear the racist and xenophobic slurs on the streets. Everything is blamed on immigrants’
Jack Reynor: ‘We were in two minds between eloping or going the whole hog but we got married in Wicklow with about 220 people’
‘I could have gone to California. At this rate, I probably would have raised about half a billion dollars’
Ballsbridge mews formerly home to Irish musician for €1.95m
We lack the ability to push back against the self-interest of companies that use their profits to invest in undermining science and political will, helped along by consumers’ strong desire to avoid uncomfortable changes. “Cautious optimism” through faith in technology companies is a useful tactic for people who want us to lull us into rejecting radical changes to the way we live (here in Galway radical means a cycle lane). There is no magic skinny jab for climate breakdown. – Yours, etc,
Dr RM HILLIARD,
Claddagh,
Galway.
Sir, – Finn McRedmond notes that Boris Johnson has discussed his unsuccessful experience with appetite suppressants but concluded that they could be used to tackle the obesity crisis.
Mr Johnson had the opportunity while UK prime minister to introduce legislation to transform the obesogenic food market that contributes to the UK’s leader-board position in the pan-European obesity league. Instead of introducing restrictions on junk food advertising, due to come into force in January 2023, it was delayed by the prime minister and has now been further delayed by Rishi Sunak until 2025, by which time a new parliament is likely to be sitting following the next general election.
Former Conservative leader William Hague criticised the UK government for delaying measures to tackle unhealthy eating, branding the weakening of the anti-obesity strategy, under pressure from MPs, as “morally reprehensible”.
Lord Hague did not mince his words, suggesting that the government caving in to lobbying from the food industry “is intellectually shallow, politically weak and morally reprehensible”.
As he steps away from parliament, instead of spouting a lot of nonsense about Cassius and Julius Caesar, Mr Johnson could use his independent and lucrative platform to advocate for legislative change for a healthier global food market.
The conversation needs to move away from blame and moral failure.
Governments need to have the moral courage to mandate for huge changes in the unhealthy global food market we are subsumed by that is destroying the health of all citizens, particularly children and low-income groups who are most vulnerable. – Yours, etc,
Dr CATHERINE CONLON,
Ballintemple,
Cork.