Action needed not attacks on climate science

YOU have carried a number of letters and columns denigrating both climate science and energy policies designed to address what it is telling us, including Bernard Ingham’s column (The Yorkshire Post, October 22) and David Chambers’s letter of October 24.

All imply that it is obvious that current climate policies are too demanding. Yet the latest science shows that rising greenhouse gas emissions are dangerously destabilising the climate. While it cannot predict when and where specific extreme weather events will occur, it does tell us that the risks from a whole range of forms of extreme weather will continue to grow substantially. Thus, their collective impacts will gradually become much more severe.

The world’s governments have considered the best evidence available and agreed to aim to limit global warming to two degrees – not necessarily a safe limit but one designed to be realistically achievable. What they have not done is dismiss the science that demonstrates such a clear need for radical and hence politically difficult action.

A mix of only gas, coal and nuclear power stations will not allow us to achieve reductions fast enough. Renewables are contributing a significant share to our energy mix and the technologies are improving, with prices coming down. With better political support, they could develop more rapidly.

From: Ron Firth, Campsall.

HOW pleasing and reassuring it was to read the relevant extracts from the Adam Smith Institute report on the inefficiencies of wind turbines, their unreliability and unsuitability to be considered as anything other than a very minor contributor to the supply of energy to the UK and a very costly one at that (Ben Southwood, The Yorkshire Post, October 29).

For far too long, the DECC and wind farm developers have been attempting to convince us that scientific studies have proved beyond doubt that wind energy is by far the best and cheapest way forward. I am sure that, even this detailed report from such a highly respected institution, will have difficulty in persuading Parliament that they have been paying far too much in the way of subsidies to developers. The damage done to the local environment, threat to wildlife, properties and the health of local residents far outweighs any benefit derived from these turbines.

From: Dr Bev Wilkinson, White Grove, Roundhay, Leeds.

ENERGY Secretary Ed Davey’s latest offerings convey to me the character of a man severely rattled when confronted by opposing views to his own.

Could it be that the man so critical of the vast weight of expert opinion is indeed himself unfit for purpose in the vital role of directing the nation’s power supply?

From: Rick Sumner, Hornsea.

I WAS very interested in the article by Ben Southwood (The Yorkshire Post, October 29). For years, I have been arguing the case against the imposition of intrusive and inefficient wind farms across the East Riding.

There are two facts which seem to have been ignored. First, when we have high pressure in the winter, it brings very cold weather. Second, when we have high pressure, there is little or no wind. Ergo, wind turbines are quite useless in the winter when we need power to keep ourselves warm. We have the technology to develop clean coal burning now but there seem to be a lot of people in high places who would rather freeze than use the coal which we have in abundance under our feet.

From: Karl Sheridan, Selby Road, Holme on Spalding Moor.

THE recent admission by the National Grid that it is highly likely that we will have to endure power cuts this winter sums up the Government’s whole approach to our country’s energy requirements. Irrespective of the pain that we as consumers are having to go through as regards the increasing cost of energy, the Government is still continuing with its egotistical plan to make this country the world leader in green technology.

Fair pay and extortion

From: William Snowden, Baildon Moor, Baildon.

IN a challenging letter, Derek Dawson posed the question “I wonder how much pay it would take to get such as Mr Snowden to work down a mine?” (The Yorkshire Post, October 20).

Well, as someone who had the work ethic instilled into him from an early age, the answer is “a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay”. By any measure, a 35 per cent pay rise (which the miners demanded, and received in 1975) was both exorbitant and extortionate. No, I did not “work down a mine”. But if I had, I know one thing: I would not have danced to Arthur Scargill’s militant tune down the crooked path to self-destruction.

Gaza concert a success

From: Sue Cooke, York.

I WOULD like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the singers and musicians who travelled to Ripon Cathedral to be part of the recent “Come & Sing” performance of Handel’s Messiah. The concert, under the musical direction of Ampleforth’s Alistair Hardie, was a great success. We raised over £4,500 for the work of Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and their projects in Gaza.