Sir, – Before the chorus of climate alarmists deafens us crying “we are all doomed” over the geographically-patchy current wildfires in Europe, now evidently starting to die down, we should recall the year 1976 beset by the same hot and fiery scenario.
The French saying applies, “plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose” – the more things change, the more they stay the same.
By crying “doom”, in this case because of the wildfires possibly signalling catastrophic and worsening climate change, we must compare and contrast present with historical records of weather events.
AD 1976 represents a period of severe, hot weather, of course, but older records and personal experience recall and document many similar examples of uncomfortably- high temperatures.
News headlines used to shout “Phew, what a scorcher”.
The meteorological phenomenon of geographically-shifting atmospheric pressures, “high” and “low”, largely determines our weather.
Very high pressures over northern Europe and the North Atlantic explain our present hot weather.
In contrast Greenland, with currently low pressures, cold and snow, has balanced out the high pressure-associated hot temperatures to its south-east in northern Europe now “enjoying” the heat.
Therefore, long-term climate change cannot be inferred from briefer fluctuations in the weather.
The alarmists’ cries of “doom” from climate change, surely exaggerated, are, hopefully, very premature.
Charles Wardrop, Viewlands Road West, Perth.
Well-paid union barons should try living on a state pension
Sir, – All the media attention is about pay rises and we regularly see the well-fed union leaders making their case and, of course, wielding the big-stick strikes.
The train drivers only working weekends at their discretion – this is something that was allowed to develop over the years by weak management who thought appeasement was the way forward.
How wrong they were and the unions have exploited this working weekends option for years.
We no longer have a railway that is there for the public good but a dysfunctional transport system that is run for the good of the employee and not the user.
The situation has got worse in Scotland with the SNP taking the railways into public ownership, i.e. taxpayers’ money.
When the workers do come out on strike it is they that personally suffer not the union barons. No. Eat, drink and be merry is the order of the day.
Why the rant?
I have just received a notification from the pensions authority – along with all the other pensioners I have been given a rise of 25p a week, £13 a year.
Can we go on strike, where can we take action that would affect the public’s general way of life?
Maybe we can organise a civil disobedience rally – we’ll all take our zimmers out and block the highways, or put our bins out in the middle of the road?
I can guarantee that the union barons’ final pensions will be eye-watering – they certainly will not have to bother about a state pension.
Finlay G Mackintosh, Loch View, Forres.
CO2 ‘greenwash’ over burnt trees?
Sir, – Drax, which burns wood pellets to produce electricity, is not green.
The pellets come from 27 million trees in forests in the US and Canada and are shipped 4,500 miles to Immingham, creating 1.5 million tons of CO2 every year.
Drax is only 38% efficient so for every 10 trees burnt only four produce electricity.
Burning wood is wrongly classed as “renewable” because the trees cut down are replaced by saplings but they will take 50 to 100 years to suck up the CO2 that mature trees do.
Burning wood releases similar amounts of CO2 as coal. Drax is the UK’s biggest emitter of CO2 so why do taxpayers subsidise the plant by £839 million a year? Burning trees accelerates climate change rather than slowing it down but since Drax supplies 6% of UK electricity there will be yet another greenwash.
Clark Cross, Springfield Road, Linlithgow.
Wind industry cost blow for consumers
Sir, – Here we are in a heatwave, desperately needing electricity for air conditioning, for our homes, workplaces, hospitals, care homes, factories and returning schools, only to discover the entire wind industry is still on holiday.
As I write, more than 11,000 entirely parasitic, demonstrably useless, giant, industrial bird-mincers are currently providing the National Grid with a derisory 1% (1.18% to be precise).
Will hard-pressed bill-payers, suffering extreme hardship, now get an urgent refund of the annual £12 billion subsidy for poor or non-existent service?
George Herraghty, Lhanbryde, Elgin.
Sparks flying over electric car benefit
Sir, – I have been looking at various reports regarding electric cars and now I am of the opinion that it’s far too early for manufacturers to mass-produce new ones until such time as the infrastructure is in place in order to charge up the car.
Going to charge the car, rather than fill up with petrol or diesel, is an issue as many people are saying that it takes far too long to find a vacant charging point and is very time-consuming and expensive.
For a business, the electric car is a no-no as for many people with company cars going from A to B and back home is now going to be a very long day.
The best way forward would be to have a hybrid car which would cost less to run and have no charging to be carried out.
Due to my age, I am very glad that I will not be purchasing an electric car.
Gavin Elder, Prunier Drive, Peterhead.
‘Fishy’ energy costs in need of answers
Sir, – With Scotland’s, and the majority of the so-called UK’s energy costs being dependent on the UKCS and not Russia’s Gazprom gas at all there is something distinctly fishy about the exorbitant rise in energy costs which consumers have been forced into against their will.
When it’s a well-established fact that so many energy companies have failed prior to the war in Ukraine it’s clear to me that consumers are being made to bail out these commercial disasters by stealth by the government using the same mechanism which also forced the public into paying for the failed banks.
The government’s attitude to the public stinks, not least as it’s been hawking blatant lies about austerity and other subjects since the Tories took over from Labour’s failures, and this is no different.
There are significant vulnerabilities in the systems which have been exposed by this scandal. The allegedly “pro-business” party’s meeting with the energy industry is window dressing and as daft as OEUK’s nonsense about the unfair windfall tax.
Maybe they should consider the wider effect on the economy when people cannot spend their money or invest in their businesses.
Chumps championing pretend green schemes, local and otherwise, is pointless when what’s needed is fundamental change with truly joined-up thinking by grown-ups so that energy customers are never placed in such a dismal and desperate situation.
Ian Beattie, Baker Street, Aberdeen.
Professional eaters piece in poor taste
Sir, – At a time when a large part of the world is starving and many of our own population are struggling to feed themselves and have to use foodbanks, I wonder how many other readers found your article (Press and Journal, August 11) on the professional eaters distasteful.
Stuffing their faces to save £35 when most people are having to live on £35 a week or less is shameful in the extreme.
M Nicoll, Hilton Street, Aberdeen.
Wise granny saw the future
I can hear it so often through the thought processes of many on television, etc, that I wish I had listened to granny.
She was right because that “rainy day” has come and I am totally unprepared.
I am sure that nothing was further from my mind during the hedonistic years of the early century but these events come round regularly due to war, famine, etc.
The only must for the future is “spend what you do not save” rather than the opposite.
This letter is written from previous experience and not on judgement.
I Morrice, Balnagask road, Aberdeen.
Wind power a load of hot air
Over the last prolonged period of sunny, windless days I have observed the wind farm in Aberdeen Bay absolutely stationary – presumably contributing nothing to the national grid.
We can all remember the claims made by the fanatical green lobby who told us wind farm generation would be the replacement for horrible, dirty gas.
Who boiled my kettle for my morning coffee? Certainly not wind farms but power stations powered by gas.
James noel, Leggart terrace, Aberdeen.
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