SIR, – Cows and other farm animals have been belching methane for hundreds of years, but their numbers have also greatly increased. The human population explosion has been accompanied by a farm animal population explosion. There are now about three farm animals for every human on the planet, so the amount of methane and other greenhouse gases being added to the atmosphere is at an all-time high.
Worldwide, the total greenhouse gas produced by farm animals is greater than that produced by transport, even including air transport, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). It should also be noted that, in the western world, many farm animals are fed mainly on grain and soya products which could, instead, be used as human food. Only a small percentage of these feedstuffs is converted into meat, milk or eggs.
To keep up the supply, vast areas of natural vegetation in the third world are being taken over for crop growing – not to feed the local people, but to put meat on the tables of Europeans and Americans.
If we in the relatively prosperous parts of the world were to cut back on meat and dairy products, we would cut back on greenhouse gases, free up primary (plant-derived) foods for those in the developing world – and we would be more healthy.
George D. Rodger, Howburn Place, Aberdeen.
SIR, – I have a message for Aberdeen City Council: wake up and smell the fumes. Your attempt to appease the green brigade has resulted only in a toxic cloud forming over your city. Get rid of those ridiculous bus lanes now.
With a road infrastructure designed to echo to the cries of “whoa” and “giddy-up”, you do not have the luxury of closing one of the lanes to accommodate the occasional bus. At peak times, you need to have the traffic moving as quickly as possible, not sitting blocking your arteries.
What is the point in having hundreds, nay thousands, of vehicles sitting burning up fuel, pumping fumes into the atmosphere when a lane is sitting empty waiting for the proverbial bus to turn up?
Sorry, must go, that’s us just inching forward a littler bit more.
Stewart Archibald,
Greenbank, Glenmuick,
Ballater.
SIR, – Ron Ferguson, in his column (Press and Journal, May 27), is right to call for justice for the people of Israel and Palestine before there is any hope of solving the land conflict there.
How tragic that Israel, now celebrating 60 years of its existence, has become an apartheid state, practising ethnic cleansing and ritual humiliation on Palestinian citizens, continuing to steal the land of Palestinians and building illegal settlements there. Until Britain and the United States stop their tacit support for these policies by Israel there will be no end to the violence and no peace in the Middle East.
Eleanor Fairclough,
Burn Road,
Inverness.
SIR, – I am outraged at the prospect of the proposed closure of the Mannofield Post Office, Great Western Road.
This office is a valuable asset to our community; it is well used, always busy and a lifeline to its customers, many of whom are elderly and unable to travel to alternative branches.
This proposal is ludicrous and makes no economic sense. I urge your readers to write to Postwatch Scotland and let them know the strength of feeling.
Graham Bennett,
Secretary, Braeside and Mannofield Community Council,
37 Braeside Avenue,
Aberdeen.
SIR, – I am doing an independent survey of the quality of care in nursing homes, initially in the Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire area. I would like to invite those who have, or have had, relatives or friends in long-term or respite care and wish to share their feelings on the care received, whether they were happy, unhappy, concerned or unconcerned, to contact me.
All correspondence can be sent to the address below and will be in strictest confidence and no part would be used elsewhere without the assured permission of the writer.
I am connected to no organisation. This is a purely personal survey on the care of the elderly in our society.
Carole Paterson,
St Andrews Chapel House,
Braemar.
SIR, – There is no doubt that climate change has always been a fact of life, and always will be. However, despite what governments and the media would have us believe, there is serious doubt in the independent scientific world as to whether CO emissions have anything to do with this, let alone any proof.
One thing that is not in doubt is the absolute godsend this is for many governments, with our own one determined to “take the lead” in persuading everyone to reduce emissions – read licence to increase taxation in the name of a plausible, acceptable cause.
There are always two sides to a story, in this case the IPCC – the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (Government sponsored/accepted) – and, I suggest, the NIPCC, the Non-governmental International Panel on Climate Change (independent). I would urge everyone to search this one out on the internet and read its side of the story.
I am all for more efficient use of energy and resources, but am becoming increasingly concerned about this CO paranoia, with its automatic and seemingly accepted connection to climate change.
The truth will eventually come out, but probably not until various “green” taxes are established – which, of course, could never be rescinded.
Sandy Dalgarno,
Fountainhall Road,
Aberdeen.