Letters archive

In your interview with Roger Penrose, he points out that "nobody knows where the fundamental constants of nature come from". The sheer improbability of their being so finely tuned for life has given rise to the multiverse hypothesis where, by a process you might call cosmological selection, life and consciousness only come to exist in …

Your article discusses the possibility of "loss and damage" payments by higher-income nations to lower-income ones suffering as a result of climate change. I fully support such reparations, but suggest they should be paid by fossil fuel firms( 19 November, p 8 ). These companies continue to plan expansion and further damage, have made huge …

Almost all coverage of climate change ignores the horrendous reality that we will not and cannot manage this challenge. This is because we won't make major sacrifices for future generations, whose interests have little to no place in our institutions, especially our legal systems( 12 November, p 7 ). It is in neither the political …

In your article on daylight saving, you suggest that by making daylight saving permanent in the US, excess human and deer deaths caused by the annual shift in clocks could be eliminated. This is possibly true, but I think eliminating daylight saving altogether would be a healthier and more sustainable option. It is very likely …

Two recent letters have advocated using red LEDs for street lighting. There are two reasons not to do this. First, sodium lights are being replaced by LEDs because LEDs can give a white light that helps people to see things better at night, especially in their peripheral vision. Second, our eyes aren't as sensitive to …

I read your report on problems with compostable plastic. A friend of mine tried to compost such plastic and found it didn't break down. I suggested adding some mealworms to his compost and the plastic was soon eaten. This is scalable, and perhaps the adult mealworms could be turned into pet food at the end …

How is it that fusion research gets so much positive PR? I know that any research programme requires an element of optimistic taking of chances, but this whole field has the aroma of a lost cause about it - and yet we are still throwing money at fusion projects( 22 October, p 38 ). How …

You report the view that drought may have started the industrial revolution and the move away from water power. I don't buy it. The switch to steam didn't need a drought. Water power required a factory near a rivere. Steam power allowed factories anywhere, with flexible and expandable layouts. Once the economics became similar, no …

Building a curtain across the Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland – a suggestion to slow it melting – is estimated to take a minimum of 30 years and be expensive. A quick, albeit unsightly, fix would be to sink two or more large ships across the front of the glacier, which would block the influx of …

I totally agree with Fred White that we should get as much energy as we can from solar panels, but in playing down the potential role of biofuels, he misses two important points( Letters, 19 November ). Firstly, biofuel, once produced, is available day or night, rain or shine. Secondly, producing biofuel from algae rather …