Letters archive

As an Irishman living in Germany and married to a German, I was interested in the graph showing that the teenage birth rate in Germany is roughly half that in Ireland (5 March, p 44). Why such a difference? The main difference that I have observed is the attitude of parents. For example, my 16-year-old …

The statistical physics economic model of Sudhakar Yarlagadda surely does not support the theoretical conclusion that poverty cannot be changed (12 March, p 6). This theory is clearly false because it flies in the face of numerous facts. The Scandinavian countries today have much less poverty than the US – which 30 years ago had …

Recent letters about cranky lighthouse keepers suggest that long space trips may prove psychologically impractical (5 March, p 33). Could a possible solution be a female-only crew? With a few notable exceptions, women generally coexist with less friction than men. They also appear to use less oxygen – for instance, women use 30 to 50 …

I've been waiting for someone better qualified than I to make this point, but they haven't, so here we go. The definitive work on land areas is produced by the one and only superpower. The CIA's fact book gives convenient area comparisons at www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2023.html for: Albania – slightly smaller than Maryland, United Kingdom – slightly …

Your article about hydroelectric dams leaves out an important fact about atmospheric methane (26 February, p 8). The greatest contribution to methane emissions – almost half – is from wetlands. These have a much more important effect on atmospheric methane than hydro power stations. The worldwide attempt to stop wetlands drainage is a greater danger …

John Athanasiou is quite correct that the quality of research input from the Los Alamos team trying to create artificial life will have a big effect on the success of the project (12 March, p 27). However, he fails to explore his thesis fully. If the quality of the research input is very good then …

I know we are eating more and more, but I find it hard to believe that 1.58 billion tonnes of food are transported by road annually in the UK (5 March, p 17). That is 26.3 tonnes per person, or 72 kilos of food per day per person. Unlikely, I think – or am I …

Thank you for publishing the essay by Jeremy Leggett on Michael Crichton's State of Fear (5 March, p 50). It really helped confirm my views on the subject, but I'm afraid not in the way Leggett intended. His article demonstrated clearly to me all of the ugly tactics that Crichton explains about the global warming …