Letters: Scientists find greenhouse gas theory holds water

Councillor Rose is in error to state that global temperatures have not significantly risen in the last 12 years.

The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the ten warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.

The difference between 2011 and the warmest year in the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) record (2010) is 0.22°F (0.12°C).

Please bear in mind a global temperature rise of only three degrees would prove disastrous to life on this planet. This underscores the emphasis scientists put on the long-term trend of global temperature rise

Director of GISS James Hansen says that the sun is not nearly the biggest factor in global warming. The fact that low amounts of solar activity between 2005 and 2010 had hardly any effect on  global warming, Hansen says, is more evidence that greenhouse gases are the largest culprit; that is, he supports the theory advanced by “nearly all climate scientists”.

Whichever way you look at it, it took millions upon millions of years to build up the captured carbon which we now use in the form of oil, gas and so on, and to release all that carbon into the atmosphere in a very short period of time, geologically speaking, cannot be good for the planet.

Keith McNeill, Claremont Bank, Edinburgh

Slow down, I spray, slow down

Can I ask motorists to slow down when they are driving through flood water so that they reduce the “bow” wave and avoid pushing water?

At the same time the council should resume regular drain cleaning.

CJR Fentiman, Polwarth Gardens, Edinburgh

Lack of effort is key to dirty city

A RECENT correspondent in the News asked why Edinburgh City Council found it so difficult to keep the city clean (July 6).

Then there was the story on Corstorphine turning into a slum (July 11). There was also a letter that day criticising the council. All this is even before the Festival begins.

So just what does the council find so difficult in keeping the streets clean, implementing planning laws, overseeing the utilities clear-up when the job is finished, instead of signs and barriers being left?

I think the problem is that they cannot be bothered. Why actually do what you are paid to do, which is get out of your office and inspect your area, when you know you can be as apathetic as you as you like and your senior management will do nothing?

It is basically a case of ineptitude and poor management. This is a council that is top- heavy in highly-paid management and directors.

In fact I challenge any senior manager or director in the council to walk around any number of locations with me and see how many failures we can find.

David Black, Kenmure Avenue, Edinburgh

Part-time army is a cheap solution

It can’t be a numerical coincidence that the government’s plan to downsize the professional army by 20,000 occurs as it expects to increase the Territorials by 15,000.

Is the Minister of Defence anticipating that three-quarters of officers and men they are about to make redundant will want to sign on again as part-timers?

It will mean that more than a third of army personnel will be earning a main wage from sources other than the Ministry of Defence.

Although I applaud the Territorials, and the firms which release them for duty, I think that’s what’s called getting a job done on the cheap . . . and at a date in the not too distant future today’s defence cuts will come back to haunt us.

It will take a brave insurance salesman to sell cover on the Falkland Isles from now on.

And David Cameron may well become known to history as the man who lost both Scotland and those sheep-infested isles in the South Atlantic.

David Fiddimore, Nether Craigwell, Calton Road, Edinburgh