THE "pause" in global warming for nearly two decades is continuing, and bearing in mind the UK's tiny proportionate contribution to world greenhouse gas output and the unprovable, unproven basis for these gases' impact on climate changes, it is surely justified now to repeal the Climate Change Acts (2008,9)
We are in national debt, hugely, and continue to overspend, well beyond our earnings. Uncounted millions, spent after Westminster Parliament votes which surely reflected "group-think," and well-meant but ill-considered policies seeking to minimise global climate changes have had no beneficial, measurable effect; the earnings of research workers concerned with climate change do not help the national debts, despite the substantial "green taxes" for the exchequer.
Wind and seawater-powered electricity generation, with attempts to limit CO2 output, have caused more harm than good, including financial and terrible land and seascape damage, yielding but little usable power, only intermittently. The recent policy announcement to end fitting motor cars with internal combustion engines, but overlooking the engines of lorries, many trains, ships and aircraft cannot be more than a token, futile gesture.
That applies both to any impact on cardiorespiratory disease and on climate changes.
The ancient Greek, Socratic saying that "those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad" could arguably apply to our human attempts to influence the world's climate; the UK is really too small a greenhouse gas emitter to matter, especially without any worldwide agreement to cut CO2 and the like.
(Dr) Charles Wardrop,
111 Viewlands Road West, Perth.
ALAN Sangster (Letters, August 14) joins a long list of cabinet ministers, managers of renewable facilities and university staff who outline the necessity to install wind, biomass or solar generators without stating the cost to the Scottish consumer.
The Neart na Goithe wind farm comes with £5 million per MW installation fees, hence 84,000 MW of renewable generation comes with a £420 billion price tag. Not a single renewable expert can explain how 2.5 million Scottish consumers can ever repay this bill without a massive increase to the 40 per cent of Scots living in fuel poverty since electricity is three times the price of domestic gas.
Can we hope Andrew Wilson will answer the cost conundrum in his soon to be issued Growth Report?
Ian Moir,
79 Queen Street, Castle Douglas.
ALAN Sangster poses the future of electricity generation as renewables with storage. It is certainly true that technology improves with time. But I find it difficult to envisage storage as ever providing for current electricity requirements except for hydroelectric power. Even then hydro in the UK can provide a top-up for only an hour or so before depletion.
Mr Sangster ignores the obvious carbon-free electricity generation, and that is nuclear. As indicated, most useable technology improves with time both in efficiency and safety as a result of research and understanding. Liquid salt reactors with fail-safe facilities using thorium that leaves little waste that anyway decays in a century is an obvious choice. We already know it works well. Known thorium reserves are sufficient for many thousands of years. Well before that, hopefully, fusion is tamed and takes over.
To replace the present generating capacity of Torness or Hunterston by wind requires at least 1,500 turbines occupying 70 square miles of land compared to the quarter square mile these power stations currently occupy. Turbines are known hazards to both birds and bats and to landscapes that people find up lifting and replenishing. I regard the use of wind as an atavism along with burning wood in power stations, something that should have disappeared with commercial sailing ships.
In my view the environmental target should be for mankind to occupy only half the useable land and leave the rest to nature so that we continue to benefit from the services the natural world provides. That would help reduce the obvious damage we have inflicted on both plants and animals. The continued spread of wind turbines, usually counter to local opinion and commonly overruled by government, means we have a political class that cannot see the wood through their ideological trees. The attitude seems to be that land exists merely to exploit as wished instead of recognising the priority of curtailing our influence upon it and using the most efficient means to do so; in this case nuclear power.
Professor Tony Trewavas,
Scientific Alliance Scotland,
7-9 North St David Street, Edinburgh.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel