Green hype?

I WELCOME Carolyn Taylor’s criticism ( Letters, 12 April) of my “pessimistic” outlook on climate change control. Had such discussions taken place years ago at government level, we would perhaps not be in our current sorry state.

I, of course, think I am being realistic rather than pessimistic. There is practically nothing that Scotland can now do in this regard – my goodness, the SNP aim is to take total responsibility for North Sea oil, and at an increased production rate.

We should simply be aiming self-interestedly at security of internal non-fossil fuel energy supply, which of course is maybe not that much different, except for the lack of hype and being decades too late for the other aim.

My experience of wind turbines goes back about 40 years. The same criticisms applied then as now. A wind farm with fossil fuel back-up, as we have now, is like the “green” politician walking to work with the chauffeur-driven limo carrying his briefcase in tow ( a not unknown experience). I long ago pointed out the future huge waste disposal problem that seems to have only recently been officially recognised. Extracting the Pentland Firth tidal energy is on the scale of our total existing hydro (80-plus power stations). Can anyone convince me that this will be fully operational within 20 years? Has the effect on marine ecology been properly investigated?

Our energy minister has again implied that Scotland has renewables potential equivalent to 25 per cent of Europe’s energy needs (your report, 12 April). The continent’s average electricity requirement alone must be at least 500 gigawatts (peak, say, 1,500 
gigawatts), the existing cross-channel interconnector is of about 3 gigawatt capacity and Scotland’s renewables “installed capacity” is now just about 
6 gigawatts. Need I say more ?

DR A McCORMICK

Kirkland Road

Terregles, Dumfries