Letter: Coal madness

Since Scotland is virtually unique among developed countries in having renewable sources of energy adequate to meet the energy requirements of its whole population, it now seems absurd that we should be contemplating building a new coal-fired power station to burn imported coal in Ayrshire. This project makes neither economic nor ecological sense.

The problem of climate change is evidently due to the loss of the equilibrium between carbon dioxide produced by respiration together with combustion of finite resources of fossil fuels, and the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by photosynthesis by plants. All life on Earth, from whales to viruses, depends on the maintenance of this balance.

The only logical way of now restoring it, would involve a population policy and the progressive abandonment of combustion as a major source of energy. Shunting surplus carbon dioxide from one part of the biosphere to another cannot possibly be a long-term solution to the global ecological problem. This would simply create an impossible new problem for future generations.

DR DAVID PURVES

Strathalmond Road

Edinburgh