OPINION: Letters to the editor of the Newbury Weekly News
The doubtful appeal of climate science denial
I would love to accept the repeated claims on this page that man-made climate change is an ‘ideology’ and is not actually having an effect on basic human requirements such as food production, freshwater and safe housing.
However, even if I ignore the many reports of increasingly severe storms, wildfires, droughts, crop failures and sea-level rise, an online search produces other concerns about climate science denial.
Humans currently drill or mine a staggering 15 billion tonnes of coal, oil and gas every year, or almost two tonnes for each of the eight billion people on the planet, although this is not shared equally across the world.
Burning this amount of fossil fuels releases about 35 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
If it took millions of years for this carbon to be removed from the atmosphere by natural processes such as photosynthesis and the weathering of rocks, then it seems likely there will be unintended consequences when it is returned to the atmosphere in just a few hundred years.
Particularly as carbon dioxide, like other greenhouse gases, can absorb and radiate relatively large amounts of heat.
I would like to be reassured by evidence that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were higher during the plant-rich carboniferous period over 300 million years ago.
However, the energy being released by the sun has increased over time, and so higher carbon dioxide levels today would result in a much warmer world than estimated carboniferous temperatures.
It would be nice to think that we could rely on politicians and industry leaders to safeguard our future.
Unfortunately, the millions of pounds in political donations, and subsidies that are reportedly transferred between them, casts doubt on their motives for not sticking to collectively-agreed, science-based targets.
I am very happy to stand corrected if any of my concerns are shown to be wrong.
Finally, I now heat my home and charge my car using clean, convenient and cheap overnight energy from the National Grid and have been relieved to find that many of the claims made against heat pumps and electric cars are similarly not correct.
Dr Pat Watson
East Garston Eco Group
I never thought line would be electrified
I WAS very pleased to see your article in Old Memories Revived of the 100th anniversary of Colthrop signal box (Newbury Weekly News, July 11).
Never did I or anyone else at the time think of the changes that were to occur on The Berks and Hants Line in the 21st century.
When I prophesied it would one day be electrified I never really thought it would.
I just said that in a talk for interest.
So I never though I would see an electric train passing Colthrop signal box.
I and most others thought once this scheme was started the box would go, but no, it’s survived, still doing the same job as it it when built, in a more modern way.
Here is a photograph of an electric train I took soon after they began running in 2019.
David Canning
Retired signalman
Colthrop and other boxes on the line
Some anomalies with the UK’s voting system
The first past the post voting system has its merits.
Usually, barring a few recounts, the results come in quickly and are easily understood.
There is also a direct link between a constituency and its MP.
However, it can throw up some anomalies.
If the votes cast in the General Election had been so in a proportional system we would now be looking at a Conservative and Reform coalition government.
If those two could not agree then there might have been a chance of a minority Labour government.
Many continental countries use a proportional system and our own Liberal Party is in favour of it, but with their 71 seats I imagine we will hear a little less about proportional representation from them than in the past.
Chris Austin
Stroud Green
Looking for a Hollywood happy ending from now
What is it about General Election days and film titles?
The 2019 general election, was on Friday 13th and I remember waking up and feeling like it was very much a Nightmare On Elm Street.
It gave us Boris, Brexit, and all the subsequent buffoonery, and has been like watching Carry On Downing Street, except without the laughs.
The 2024 General Election on July 4 – Independence Day – brought in a new Labour Government.
I’m not going to hazard a guess at which film star the new Liberal Democrat Newbury MP Lee Dillon would be.
It would be nice if the next five years can be spent watching less of a tragedy unfold, and with MPs who can concentrate on getting us Back to The Future.
Johnny Corbett
Woolton Hill
