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Saturday's Letters: Supporting local farmers will help cut greenhouse gases
I WRITE to follow up the correspondence on eating less meat after my article of "Losing our appetite for meat could ease global warming" (Yorkshire Post, November 27), and my Brussels hearing on December 3, to which I invited Sir Paul McCartney, founder of Meat-Free Monday and Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the UN's climate change chief.
I am not a vegetarian, I just do not eat meat. This is a personal choice, but is also a healthy choice.
Vegetarians have 30 per cent less heart disease, 40 per cent less cancer and 50 per cent less diabetes.
A report sponsored by the Department of Health published last month not only confirmed the health benefits of less meat eating but also the results of the UN's 2006 survey Livestock's Long Shadow that livestock produces more worldwide greenhouse gases (GHG) – 18 per cent – than all transport (13 per cent).
My article highlighted the importance of particularly sustainable meat production, such as the traditional rearing methods employed in the Yorkshire Dales and Moors.
Eating locally-produced food not only helps our farmers but also decreases the GHG involved in transport.
Rather than making facile attacks on myself and Sir Paul, the president of the National Farmers' Union, Peter Kendall, might have used the opportunity (Yorkshire Post, December 5) to tell his membership just what commitments he is making on their behalf to the Government for the continued reduction of greenhouse gases from British agriculture.
From: Edward McMillan-Scott MEP, Vice President, European Parliament.
From: Kenneth Atack, Yearsley Grove, York.
THE word carbon is neither an abbreviation nor a synonym for the words carbon dioxide. However, it is now almost the norm for the word carbon to be used by the media, politicians, and, increasingly, the general public when they are discussing greenhouse gas emissions or climate change.
Carbon and carbon dioxide are different substances with very different properties – not least being that carbon is a solid whereas carbon dioxide is a gas.
I recently saw on TV a group of children, aged about 10, who were planting trees with the help of an adult. The TV interviewer asked them why they were doing this and all of them, including the adult, wrongly used the word carbon when explaining that the trees would absorb greenhouse gases.
The work of science teachers, who try to teach their pupils the importance of using correct scientific terms, is being undermined by the daily exposure of the population to the incorrect word "carbon".
Will we eventually find that chemistry examiners are instructed to mark as correct the use of the word carbon in answers to questions where carbon dioxide is the true answer, on the basis that the word carbon has passed into common usage?
Carbon itself can be formed (along with carbon dioxide) during the burning of fuels, especially coal, in the form of soot.
Try using the word soot in common, incorrect phrases where the word carbon is widely used: eg soot footprint, soot capture and storage and note how silly they sound.
From: Trev Bromby, Sculcoates Lane, Hull.
MORE than 100-plus world leaders attended the Copenhagen climate summit.
They flew in from all over the world, with their entourages, in planes and discussed, wait for it, cuts in greenhouse gas emissions – you couldn't make it up. One of those attending was a Mr G Brown, who had just given the go ahead, backed by his MPs, to build another runway at Heathrow.
Meanwhile, his MPs were arguing as to whether another runway should be built at Gatwick or Stansted. Not "if" but where.
While St Paul's, Parliament, Buckingham Palace et al are all floodlit, while undersea volcanoes, Krakatoa and flatulent cattle do their thing, I must remember to turn off standby switches. Diligently.
From: Terry Morrell, Willerby, Hull.
HOW things have changed since the 1700s when the Industrial Revolution started and factories and every house poured smoke in to the
atmosphere, something which has been considerably reduced?
I appreciate that we all need to avoid waste and recycle as much of our
precious resources as possible, but with a degree of hindsight and reflection, can anyone genuinely suggest that man can really influence the climate?
Bereaved child treated callously
From: Professor JA Double, Carlinghow Hill, Upper Batley, West
Yorkshire.
I READ with horror your front page story "You're barred" (Yorkshire Post, December15).
It simply beggars belief that an institution can be so callous where clearly the head teacher Jayne Clarke has endorsed a policy where bereavement is not an acceptable excuse for time off.
I have total sympathy for Samantha Watson and can fully understand why she may have been angry at the response she got from the school when she phoned to ask why her son had been barred from attending a disco as a reward for good attendance.
There can be no excuse for the action taken by the school, the tragic death of a parent of a primary school pupil must be a rare event and should initiate a very comprehensive package of support for the pupil concerned.
The fact that this did not happen shows total incompetence of the part of the headteacher and staff. No apology can ever make up
for this.
Gervase is just the tonic
From: Mrs Maureen Hunt, Woolley, Near Wakefield.
THANK you, Gervase Phinn, for giving me a little taste of the joy of Christmas. It's so easy to get snowed under with all the Christmas preparations, which become more onerous and daunting as the years
roll by.
Having just put up my rather complex Christmas tree, I sat down for a rest and a cup of coffee, not knowing the pleasure which awaited me.
Your article, Christmas Crackers (Yorkshire Post, December 12), was delightful. I chuckled all the way through, finally laughing out loud.
It takes something funny to make me laugh when I am alone.
Whoever would think that it would be better for adults to perform the nativity play, when it's so much fun with children?
I loved your tapes and I enjoyed every minute of your performance at our beautiful little theatre in Wakefield a couple of years ago. It's great that you are now writing every Saturday in the Yorkshire Post magazine.
In this turbulent and stressful time we are now living through, we need all the humour we can get. Yours is the gentle variety which is the tonic for today.
Cheques and balances
From: John Davies, Head of Business Law, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
THE UK Payments Council has decided to phase out the use of cheques as a valid method of payment by 2018.
The cheque has been a widely-used payment method for the past 350 years, and although use is now in decline, four million cheques are
still written every day in the UK.
This decision to withdraw cheques has been driven by the big banks, who stand to save over 1bn through the removal of the cheque, but they have failed to consider the consequences and inconvenience to those who still rely on cheques for payment.
Many small businesses and sole traders use cheques as the central means of managing their finances and cash flow, which is central to their operations.
The removal of cheques as a method of payment will be extremely detrimental to this sector and to the wider economy unless a viable and cost effective alternative is introduced.
While I accept that the modern world has presented many more efficient means of money transfer, we need to develop a safe, cheap and easily accessible alternative to cheques which are suitable for those that rely on them – and I look to the banks to develop this technology well in advance of the public withdrawal of the current system.
Over here, Gordon
From: Terry Duncan, Greame Road, Bridlington, East Yorkshire.
FOR goodness sake, what is our Prime Minister playing at? He has sunk this country into the greatest debt this century.
Then he appears like a genie out of a lamp in Copenhagen, and in Afghanistan, promising millions of pounds left, right and centre.
He is no longer Chancellor of the Exchequer. He is just Gordon, the Prime Minister, who was second lieutenant
to dodgy Tony Blair when all this mess this country is now in was created.
He is no longer a world leader. He has made Britain bust.
Who gave him the authority to spend taxpayers' hard-earned cash without the voters' say so? It is time he stopped wandering around the world and realised his problems are on his doorstep.
The present Chancellor of the Exchequer decides where our money goes – or does he?
Cemetery cash query
From: C Giddings, Springwood Drive, Copley Lane, Halifax.
I NOTE (Yorkshire Post, December 16) that Leeds City Council is to raise burial costs from January.
Apart from the obvious concerns at the increases it would be interesting to know where the fees from burials go, as the council does not appear to spend them on caring for its cemeteries.
The present state of Lawnswood, especially the older parts of the ground at the rear of the chapel, are an absolute disgrace.
Enjoying my own company
From: Brian Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.
I AGREE with Susan Towle that loneliness is underrated ("A solitary disagreement", Yorkshire Post, December 16). Maybe because I was an only child I always found it hard to reconcile my love of team sports with the necessity to spend long hours among my perfectly agreeable team mates. The idea of boarding school, which I was spared, fills me with terror.
Existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was spot on with his famous observation that "Hell is other people". Hope my wife doesn't get to read this.
Future of TV
From: Kevin Maguire, Hanover Street, Batley.
NEXT year, I qualify for an OAP television licence. In four years' time, digital TV will be here, so there will be more quantity but no quality. It seems not long ago that the Beeb and ITV produced excellent drama and documentaries and in-depth debates. Will local programmes be lost? Whether you watch Calendar or Look North, they are excellent for those who live in this area.
Cards criticism
From: Barry Foster, High Stakesby, Whitby.
DON'T people like John Watson (Yorkshire Post, December 16) have anything better to do with their time than to criticise Prince Charles for his choice of Christmas card? He has a perfect right to send what he likes, as all of us do.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
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