This should be an article on the front page!

Jane Reynolds, Whissendine, UK

Surely weather patterns have as much to do with global warming or cooling,as how can anyone measure the output of the sun . Is it possible for the sun to produce a degree or two more heat in a given timescale and therefore give the impression we will all get hotter and hotter or conversely a couple of cold summers and the doom and gloom brigade suddenly predict another ice age? Surely the answer is we really don't know all the answers but until we do what a good excuse for the powers that be to extract even more taxes to be wasted on employing another strata of useless bureaucrats. I recently had to spend an extra £80 tax on two return flights from UK to Cyprus, , oh well , I suppose Blair and Brown deserve the massive pensions they will recieve on retirement, a little bit extra won't hurt. What about the millions of people who have little or no pensions ,and the raid on pension s by Brown , the global warming is another excuse for more tax, nothing else. stuart broady

stuart graham broady, woodford, uk

T. Mustin of Canada is perhaps fortunate that normal life expectancy will ensure he won't be around to test the validity of his assertion. Hopefully his descendants (if any) can do it for him, in a 100 years time: lauding his prescience or berating his stupidity.
Perhaps, instead of mass delusion, climate change scepticism will be home sapiens Chicxulub asteroid?

Occam, Solihull, UK

Mr Stelzer mentions both carbon emissions and deforestation, but fails to point out the link between the two, which is as follows:

The equatorial rain forests "breathe in" carbon dioxide and "breathe out" oxygen. They are nature's way of providing us with the air we breathe. Unless deforestation is stopped, there is going to be a massive global crisis arising from this issue.

Edmund Burke, Kingston upon Thames, England

None of these facts will matter at all in the near term; at this point in the "debate," reason is a detour. A century from now this whole insanity will be a latter-day chapter in an updated edition of "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds."

T. Mustin, Coronado, California

I never cease to be amazed by the fact that there is so much talk about cutting emissions from fossil fuels by so called "advisers", and yet so little action is taken. Technologies are here today which could be used NOW.

For instance, there is a transmission available NOW called Infinitely Variable Transmission (IVT) which would allow car manufacturers to reduce vehicle fuel consumption by up to 15% AND improve the vehicles performance by 10/12%. Is it used? NO! Why - I have no real idea other than the apparent intransigence on the part of transmission designers.

If you don't believe that this is available then go to the website of a UK company called Torotrak and see for yourself.

Neil , KL, Malaysia

Mr. Stelzer:

With all my respects, I didn't finish reading your article: too long and kind of boring and I am a 40 years old professional!

However it seems that you are against Al Gore and other people who worry for the environment?

I would recommend you to watch An Inconvenient Truth if you have done; then you might think differently...

Andres , Guayaquil , Ecuador

With patient thought... you will realise that you "don't stand a snowball's chance in hell" of altering the world's climate by reducing carbon emissions. Wake up and look at the bigger picture.

Kevin Cudmore, Auckland, New Zealand

There are some things that won't change until people's attitudes change, and other things that can be helped by sensible legislation. I don't think people who buy carbon credits display any change in attitude - that sounds like an entirely passive action prompted by the desire to ease environmental guilt without actually doing anything.

I think it's about time we made it compulsory for all new houses and business buildings to be fitted with some kind of solar panel. As the number sold rises, prices will fall, meaning the payback time will be shorter for existing home owners.

Sam, N Wales,

Somebody cut down the last tree on Easter Island. Whoever did it knew it was the last tree, because they could already see from one end of the island to the other. They knew that by cutting it down, there were condemning the island's population to slow starvation. But they went ahead and cut it down anyway. Because that's what human beings do.

Right now I'd say the really smart planners will be the ones basing their strategies on the assumption that we fail to arrest or reverse our growth in emissions....

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Let's try looking at some value for $$ instead of these ridiculous 'credits':


Since February 16, 2005, the Kyoto Protocol has cost US$ 323,777,787,290 while potentially saving an undetectable 0.003357696 °C by the year 2050.

Malaria cost US$ 283,675,641,890 in lost GDP and 5,828,000 lives over the same period.

[Source: www.junkscience.com (Steven Milloy)]

For further reading try work done by Bjorn Lomborg's 'Copenhagen Consensus' group with the UN - prioritizing solvable human issues. Personally, I hate wasted money and needless dead. Oh yes, you can add 5000 more of these tomorrow - thanks to Rachel Carson's brand of junk science!

Beth Geiser, Houston, TX

Once again our Governments have failed to legislate for the benefit and protection of the environment and will fail again until they stop legislating for the sake of the economy and not for the sake of the planet and the people who live on it (that'd be us). They keep legislating with the assumption that we all have to continue traveling, working, eating, building, in short consuming at the same rate as we do now. They know this is not sustainable but it would take too many unpopular choices to change all this and we all know how much Governments like popularity, even if holding on to it means self destruction.

Paolo, Dublin, Ireland