Sir, – Your article, Split over tenement cladding programme (December 24) quoted Dundee City Council housing convener John Alexander, in response to the concerns of Dundee Civic Trust about applying external wall insulation to stone-built properties.
He stated that “the external wall cladding does not adversely impact on the shapeof the tenementbuildings”.
The distinctivecharacter of thesebuildings, however, is not so much their shape but their beautifully crafted stone construction that makes them stand out as an important part of the city’s architecturalheritage, lovingly created by the former DundeeCorporation.
Dundee Civic Trust is all for the insulation of these properties but is asking that the council reconsider how this is done rather than press on and commit further to this clumsy externalcladding and destroyforever the appearance of these fine buildings.
While the programme of works appears to be irrevocably committed in respect of more than 300 properties, it is surely not too late to think again and save the remainder of the 1,200-plusproperties scheduled for this “treatment”.
Nick Day. Chairman, Dundee Civic Trust, 13 Whinny Brae, Broughty Ferry.
Folly of banning fossil fuels
Sir, – Walter Attwood (December 31) wants us to stop using fossil fuels.
This will stop theclimate changing, he says. If not, our children will be “impoverished”, he claims.
The reality is that fossil fuel has powered the industrial revolution, which enabled the mass deployment of healthcare, sanitation, heating, lighting and industrial-scale food production.
Before these things became reality, as many as half of children diedin infancy in someEuropean countries.
Every pound that we spend requires resources which come from the ground, especially energy.
Without those resources, money is just numbers on pieces of paper.
Government data states that, on average, UK oil and gas has had the energy content of 1,300 TWh (terawatt-hours) annually since 1975.
By contrast, wind and solar power generated just 30 TWh in 2014.
This suggests that, in an all-renewable future, there would be huge energy shortages and, therefore, catastrophic shortages of goods and services.
The main reason for the promotion of a low-carbon future is that it generates wealth forcertain people.
This year, a “green” trade body admitted that $1,500 billion is spent annually on this war on carbon.
Indeed, Mr Attwood has admitted he receivespayments for his solar panels.
Mr Attwood repeats the tired cliche that we need to do it for our grandchildren. I suggest that they will hate us for banning fossil fuels.
Geoff Moore. Braeface Park, Alness.
Britain laughing stock of world
Sir, – Walter Attwood of Friends of the Earth (December 31) has a grasp of meteorology, but a poor understanding of the huge cost of reducing CO2 emissions in his own country.
There is no need to read scientific reports as he suggests. They are irrelevant. Does he not understand that most countries have no intention of reducing their CO2 output at all, and the largest, such as China, have merely agreed to consider reducing them in 2030.
Meanwhile, poor daft Britain has bound itself to futile targets that will cost ordinary people dearly, and for no effect at all.
We must be thelaughing stock of thereal world.
Malcolm Parkin. 15 Gamekeepers Road, Kinnesswood, Kinross.
Weather not linked to climate
Sir, – Walter Attwood attacks Dr Lindsay and me because we daredto question his greenreligion.
He says: “The human race needs to work together to reduce the speed at which we are pushing greenhouse gases into theatmosphere”.
My previous letterwas quite explicit inthat China, India anddeveloping countries will increase their emissions.
China, India, Brazil and Indonesia are responsible for 41% of global emissions and China and India have stated that they will not reduce their emissions until after 2030.
The Paris conference allowed countries tocreate their ownvoluntary plans.
The emission reduction promises are not legally-binding and as they stand will onlycut greenhouse gasemissions by about half of what is considered essential.
Mr Attwood is fond of scientific reports, well here is one from the US space agency Nasa.
It said that the effects of the current El Nino weather phenomenon could be as bad as those in 1998.
This year’s El Nino has been linked to the worst floods seen in 50 years in Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.
El Nino has been cited as a factor in UK floods.
Not once did the words climate change or global warming appear.
Clark Cross. 138 Springfield Road, Linlithgow.
We do not want atheist schools
Sir, – In his New Year message, Free Kirk moderator David Robertson refers to “Scotland’s Christian state education system” and claims that “a monolithic, one-size-fits-all state education system is failing”. Does this mean that it is a Christian system that’s failing, or is it the state itself that Mr Robertson sees as Christian?
He claims that “a more militant secularism seeks to remove all traces of Christianity” from the education system.
The Scottish Secular Society, however, wish to do no such thing. We believe Christianity should be studied in schools as an important cultural influence, as should other major religions, but we think it inappropriate that supernatural beliefs, lacking evidence, are presented as fact in publicly-funded places of education.
Making all state schools secular would not prevent Christians raising their children as Christians, just as Hindus are not prevented from raising their children as Hindus by a total absence of Hindu state schools.
To Hindu parents, Scottish state education is monolithically non-Hindu, but not anti-Hindu.
If that is not a problem, why should a monolithically non-Christian system be problematic, especially when churches are widely available and free.
A secular school, which does not promote religion, is not an atheist school, which would actively promote disbelief in gods. The Scottish Secular Society do not want atheist schools.
Robert Canning. Vice-chair, The Scottish Secular Society, 58a Broughton Street, Edinburgh.
Taxi drivers’bad behaviour
Sir, -In your article (December 28) Chris Elder of the Unite union complains that the recently introduced Dundee taxi marshals have, to date, pinpointed many shortcomings and offences by the city’s taxi drivers, particularly at the temporary rank in North Marketgait.
As a regular driver of Dundee’s roads I would say that such action is long overdue, having been neglected for years by the authorities.
The way that a significant proportion of taxi drivers behave at ranks in Dundee is unacceptable and brings discredit to their profession.
At Nethergate, for example, taxis use the bus stops opposite, sometimes double-parked, as a waiting area before turning on to the rank itself.
They often block the road until they manage to squeeze their way into the line of taxis, bumping their cars up on to the pavement in the process.
All of that impacts adversely on the flow of traffic and the safety and comfort of other road users, particularly elderly bus passengers who are required to enter the roadway and walk between taxis to reach a bus.
Any observer will also see taxi drivers standing chatting in the roadway rather than use the pavement next to the rank.
I know a number of taxi drivers in Dundee who do not use the ranks because they deplore the actions I have detailed, and for fear of being tarred with the same brush as those who do not abide by the rules.
Although they are by no means alone, the two ranks highlighted often resemble a scene from the Wild West.
It is fitting that Dundee has introduced marshals who will,hopefully, bring thecowboys to book.
Jim Shaw. Hill Street, Dundee.