Climate change

The true purpose of her letter was to oppose European-wide action to tackle climate change.

Climate change is caused by man. That is a fact. Thousands of scientists contributing to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) accept this as fact. All governments, including the incoming Democratic administration in America, accept this as fact.

The hundred or so individuals who signed the “Manhattan Declaration” opposing this view have been shown to have based their conclusions on discredited research.

While we all as individuals must do everything we can to reduce our carbon footprints, and local and national governments must pursue policies that achieve the same, the success of any action to reverse climate change will require intergovernmental co-operation. We can only solve this problem by working with our European neighbours and governments across the globe.

It is this internationalist approach that really annoys Ms Bull, as she sits in her Little Englander bunker.

Councillor Mike Barker, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Darlington, Darlington.

CHARLOTTE Bull gives us a stream of red herrings (HAS, Dec 1). She talks of “Al Gore’s group”

as though the IPCC were part of Al Gore’s personal office rather than, as the acronym states, a collection of thousands of acknowledged experts from around the world on all matters relating to meteorology and climate.

She claims that her nongovernmental panel of 100 distinguished scientists (who are they?) have the truth. Why should we believe her particular panel when all of the evidence points in one direction: there may be short-term fluctuations but the overall trend is for global warming, to a greater or lesser degree, and that some areas may actually cool slightly.

Even George Bush accepts climate change, even if he is not prepared to do anything about it.

Eric Gendle, Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough.

OUR planet’s climate is anything but simple. All kinds of factors influence it, from massive events on the sun to the growth of microscopic creatures in the oceans.

Yet despite all the complexities, a firm and evergrowing body of evidence points to a clear picture that the world is warming due to human activity increasing the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

If emissions continue unabated, the warming will too.

What really does not help is for the real issues to be muddied and discredited by misinformed arguments and wild theories.

Charlotte Bull’s letter (HAS, Dec 1) was extremely misinformed.

Tom Picken who works for Friends of the Earth’s international climate team described it as “utter nonsense”.

He continued: “The Manhattan so-called scientists have very few relevant qualifications between them. By contrast, thousands of the world’s leading and distinguished scientists (most of whom specialise in climate) have come together through the IPCC and made the firmest possible conclusion that climate change is happening and is caused by greenhouse gases due to mankind.”

He also thought the grosslyexaggerated figures about the costs of the EU collectively fighting climate change to be dangerously misleading. The figures come from anti-European think-tanks like Open Europe, and they have no regard for the relative costs of failing to tackle climate change early, which is estimated to be up to 20 per cent of global GDP later, instead of one to three per cent if we act now.

Kendra Ullyart, Co-ordinator, Friends of the Earth Darlington OF the countless sources of evidence which contradict the theory of man-made global warming, one of the most interesting is activity on Mars.

For the last 40 years Mars has warmed by the same amount as the Earth. There is no human activity on Mars but if there are Martians polluting away up there, the global warming theorists must think they are not as green as they should be!

Rodney Atkinson, Stocksfield, Northumberland