Letters archive

Clare Wilson reports that in Parkinson's disease many of the core symptoms are caused by the loss of automatic movements, that many previously automatic tasks require conscious effort, and that this could be the basis for early diagnosis ( 1 December, p 12 ). As a person with Parkinson's, the loss of automatic movement has …

Carbon taxes are probably a vital tool for weaning humanity off fossil fuels and onto clean renewables ( 17 November, p 7 and p 22 ). Unfortunately people rarely vote for more taxes, and unpopular taxes will probably increase climate change denial. A solution might be the carbon dividend, where revenue from a carbon tax …

We will pay fuel taxes when corporations pay all their taxes and stop hiding in tax havens Lea Leeloo takes issue with the idea that gilets jaunes protesters in France primarily oppose climate taxes ( 15 December, p 26 )

Paying Brazil to conserve its rainforest, as Craig Sams suggests, has obvious appeal (Letters, 1 December ). But it could easily go the way of Ecuador's failed Yasuni initiative. That country found oil under its Yasuni rainforest reserve but offered to leave it alone. In return, it asked the wider world for partial compensation for …

I was heartened by your report on the launch of Extinction Rebellion ( 10 November, p 4 ). In the face of government intransigence, I believe this climate protest group is the planet's best, last hope, and I would encourage all your readers to get involved. For my part, I am proud to say that …

Michael Le Page makes a number of important points about the role of household heating in carbon emissions ( 17 November, p 22 ). But surely the answer in the UK, at least in the next few decades, is to develop gas-powered heat pumps for domestic use. These are more efficient than gas boilers. As …

You tell us that seagrass loss off Kenya has added 7 million tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 30 years ( 1 December, p 15 ). That's about 230,000 tonnes per year. We are putting about 30 billion tonnes of CO 2 into the air each year, or about 130,000 times as much.

The Bank of England asked the public to nominate dead scientists to portray on the £50 note ( 10 November 2018, p 24 ). Is there something all too impersonal in the way we in Britain celebrate achievement in science? I nominated Benjamin Thompson (1753-1814), who was born in British North America and had the …

Chelsea Whyte asserts that 30 per cent of food is thrown away ( 8 December 2018, p 22 ). I asked around my friends and we all eat almost all that we buy. Aside from peelings, little is wasted. So who are these people wasting so much food? Do we need to reintroduce domestic science …

You say the average person in the US discards almost 3 kilograms of food waste per week. I weighed our food waste bin for a week and I can exclusively reveal that our household "wastes" 1.5 kilograms of food per person per week. This consisted, however, of vegetable and fruit peelings, banana skins, two rotten …