Letters: Hot and bothered about climate change

ONCE again, Clark Cross (Letters, 20 April) is at the head of the queue of those not only denying that climate change is taking place, but also trying to pin the blame somehow on the Scottish Government.

I would like to invite Mr Cross, and any others similarly in doubt, to join me on the North Beach at Montrose. This provides the most graphic example that something is indeed happening to our world.

In the eight years I have lived in this area, the sea has eroded at least five metres – and in some places nearer ten metres – of sand dunes.

Each storm sees more of the splendid dunes disappear. So what? Well it just so happens that the dunes in question form part of the world’s fifth oldest golf course at Montrose Links.

Were our ancestors so stupid as to think they could build a world-class golf course on shifting sands? Of course not: the erosion which now threatens to destroy this wonderful golf course is a recent phenomenon.

So Mr Cross, something is happening, and if it isn’t a result of rising temperatures, which have the effect of raising sea levels, then perhaps you can explain what it is.

I know, it’s probably all Alex Salmond’s fault – all that hot air or something…

NIALL YOUNG

Seaview Terrace

Johnshaven, Montrose

CLARK Cross, states that “the planet has not warmed for 15 years and counting”.

I have no idea where he obtained this data, but the data from the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies shows that global average temperatures have increased by 0.15°C since the 20th century. This is despite the Sun going through the low solar irradiance period of its 11-year sunspot cycle.

DAVID FRENCH

Pleasance

Edinburgh

In RESPONSE to Dr Whittaker’s letter (21 April), I decided to plot global temperatures from 1995-2012. I found there to be a tiny rise of no more than 0.12°C over the 17 years.

This is very little movement, and the next few years will determine if Dr Whittaker’s pronouncements are valid.

In any event, an average 0.1C rise over 17 years equates to 0.6C over 100 years. A major acceleration is required urgently for global temperatures to reach anywhere near 3C within less than 90 years.

Alarmists do not like to mention Antarctica, where sea ice is increasing cancelling out any melt in the Arctic area. In addition, Arctic sea ice is currently nearly at the average for 1979-2000.

If the oceans were really warming up and glaciers melting then there would be acceleration in the rise of sea levels.

So, at this stage, the important global climate parameters are rather steady and should not lead to panic reactions. For this picture to change, there needs to be dramatic accelerations in global warming. There are no such signs at the moment.

JOHN PETER

Monks Road

Airdrie, Lanarkshire