TOPIC OF THE WEEK: SCOTTISH ENVIRONMENT

I read with interest your article entitled 'Fortunes are blowing in the wind ...' (News, October 14). In the box headed "Wind energy factfile" it was stated that "there are about 750 wind farms in Scotland capable of generating up to 5,700 megawatts of energy, which is slightly higher than peak demand".

The article omits to mention how much actual energy is produced by the plethora of windmills littering our beautiful landscape.

According to www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk site, at 2.30pm last Sunday, 2.59 GW of energy was being produced by all of the UK's windmills, and that equated to 7.85% of demand.

Given there are around 9,088 windmills in total in the UK capable of producing 20.1 GW then it can be seen they are operating at 13% of capacity.

And given conventional power sources are needed to provide the other 92.15% of demand then one surely has to wonder what the point of windmills are.

MSP Maurice Golden is quoted as saying that "Community benefit was devised as a means of helping small, rural communities mitigate the after-effects of large-scale renewable energy developments. After all, it is only right that communities affected by wind farms receive due compensation".

Which is all very well but it us electricity consumers who pay for it.

Brian Bell

Kinross

In your article 'Scotland: the litter bin of planet Earth?' (News Focus, 14th October) you referred to the commitment made in January by Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham to reduce plastic waste in Scotland.

Twice since then I have asked Cabinet Secretary Cunningham to ban the deliberate release of balloons and sky lanterns in Scotland. The replies I received made it clear such a ban is not being considered.

Both these items pollute the environment and pose a risk to animals and birds on land and at sea. If they fell to the ground immediately instead of floating into the sky and coming down perhaps many miles away, the people releasing them could be charged and fined for littering.

Over half of our local authorities already ban balloon and lantern releases from council land but this does not stop such events being held on private property including hotel gardens, sports grounds and shopping centres.

Banning balloon and lantern releases would not only save the lives of animals it would reinforce the message that we must stop treating our environment as the litter bin of planet earth.

John F. Robins

Secretary

Animal Concern Advice Line

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION?

It is no surprise that the SNP’s proposed reforms of Freedom of Information processes, have left Scotland’s Information Commissioner unimpressed (‘SNP criticised over lack of clarity in planned FOI reforms’, Herald on Sunday, October 14).

The Commissioner recognizes a continued lack of “clarity” in the way that special advisers and ministers can apply their influence into when, whether and how, those seeking information are responded to.

The SNP has a reputation for a highly controlling approach to message management. Listening to any SNP minister responding to criticisms, it is clear that the determination to never accept responsibility for failings is simple hard-wired into their psyche.

So it is that the SNP hierarchy imagine that the freedoms to access information that apply to everyone else require some adjustment when it comes to revealing insights into their own performance. Such defensiveness, with spin doctors deciding which version of the truth is told, says much about the SNP’s approach to government.

Keith Howell

West Linton

THE ELEPHANT IN THE CLASSROOM

Your lead letter 'The current funding model is letting our children down' (Herald on Sunday, October 14) concluded that funding and staffing needs to be released to support the policy of school inclusion. That is only part of the solution, given the authors correctly identify the growing violence in schools.

Brexit is an utter disaster, but it allows Scotland to bring back corporal punishment in schools. When the belt was abolished, in 1987, there were already concerns about low-level disruption – homework not being done, answering back, swearing etc. Today, you can add pupils drunkenness, drugs, carrying a weapon, vicious cyber bullying and more.

As your lead letter points out, it's not only the teachers bearing the brunt; the schooling of the overwhelming majority of decent kids is being undermined.

Back in 1987, there was much talk about changing the atmosphere in the classroom, reducing class sizes etc, in an attempt to reduce disruption. But in reality there was no replacement for the belt.

Against that backdrop, academics imparted the advice that children who should be in special needs schools, should now be taught in mainstream. There was no talk of better funding or staffing or training – and, understandably, the politicians grabbed at it as a way to reduce funding.

This left a stressed teacher, with a class of 30-plus kids, devoting all their time to a disruptive minority – a situation that could only be justified if the aim of schooling is babysitting.

And so here we are today, with your parents from East Lothian writing a letter which resonates across Scotland and which explains why every overworked, stressed and threatened teacher I know refers to the Curriculum For Excrement. Teachers today are voting with their feet in alarming numbers, but you cannot solve a problem till you acknowledge you have one.

The Scottish Government admires the schooling and achievement in South East Asia, but they have corporal punishment and disciplined classrooms.

John V Lloyd

Inverkeithing

DEPORT HIM NOW

When will politicians actually do something useful instead of talk talk talk?

Anjem Choudary, a British Islamist hate preacher, was released from prison this week after having served less than half of his five and a half year sentence. This will mean a huge security operation costing £2 million a year. Since he is only 51 years-of-age that is going to cost a lot of taxpayers' money.

He preaches terrorism so why is he being protected? He and his family should be told that his British citizenship is being revoked and there will be no police protection and that he had better find a country willing to take him and fast.

Politicians need to step up to the mark and change the law so that people such as him will serve the full sentence, be stripped of their UK nationality and then deported.

Not too hard surely?

Clark Cross

Linlithgow

A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO ENERGY

Although the recent report on climate change by the IPCC paints a bleak picture, our carbon-based future doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom.

Whatever action we take, every pathway to limit global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius involves the use of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technology such as bio-energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS).

The waste-to-fuel sector could hold the answer. Humans will always produce carbon-based waste from things like food, farming and sewage. Think of waste as an infinite resource, not as an inevitable overhead.

Instead of burning waste to produce electricity, which can be produced more cleanly using solar and wind, we should use waste to produce hydrocarbon fuels, offsetting carbon in the process.

Breakthroughs in synthetic-fuel production technology from anaerobic digestion mean we can now use the carbon and methane in everyday waste to make high-grade transport fuels, such as petrol, diesel and jet fuel. Using the 31.8 million tonnes of biodegradable waste produced in the UK every year could displace over two billion litres of fossil fuels annually.

Matthew Stone

Chairman, Renovare Fuels Ltd

London

SOBERING THOUGHT

As a former journalist, I understand Susan Swarbrick’s desire to pen witty phrases. But with her article on Going Sober for October (Voices, October 14), she misses the mark.

If she doesn’t like the social media posts placed by those doing this charity drive, then she can simply not view those posts. That is her right.

Susan is wrong to assert that she is not decrying Macmillan Cancer Support, because that is exactly what she is doing.

Many Scots indeed have a tempestuous relationship with alcohol, so giving it up for a month is not like “giving up a daily coffee”. It may be an important first step to recovery, as well as a financial shot in the arm for cancer research.

If Susan is struggling to fill the page, then she may wish to choose look elsewhere for topics rather than being unkind to people trying to do something good for themselves and for others.

J. D. Cant

Town Town

WE NEED YOUR HELP

In the next few weeks many of your readers in Glasgow will be receiving a letter, asking them to take part in The Big Bowel Survey about bowel disease.

Please could we ask them, through your letters page, not to throw it away, but to complete the form and return it to the charity Bowel & Cancer Research. We need their help.

Here are few facts to highlight why:

:: Bowel cancer is one of the easiest cancers to cure, but remains the second biggest killer after lung cancer;

:: Inflammatory Bowel Disease affects more than 250,000 people and is incurable;

:: Chronic conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, constipation and incontinence will affect almost everyone at some stage in their lives.

The aim of Bowel & Cancer Research is to help change those statistics. This survey will give us invaluable information about how much people know about bowel cancer and other bowel diseases, thereby helping us to direct our research funding in the most productive way.

Only by talking about bowel disease and raising awareness can we achieve of our aim of changing lives and saving lives.

Deborah Gilbert

Chief executive

Bowel & Cancer Research