Family ties mean I am a regular visitor to East Cornwall and I always enjoy glancing through the Cornish Times to keep in touch with what is happening west of the Tamar. However, I was most dismayed to see the prominence given to the letter headed 'Are we going back towards Stone Age' deriding the efforts of county councillors and others towards tackling climate change. Your correspondent makes some important and interesting points, but if his conclusion is that the issues of energy use and global warming can be 'swept under the carpet', I fear he is living in a fool's paradise. The way in which carbon dioxide in the atmosphere helps regulate the earth's temperature was first understood by a group of scientists, led by the great French mathematician, Fourier, towards the end of the 19th century. What those pioneers did not foresee was the way in which population growth and industrialisation in the second half of the 20th century would turn their theoretical calculations into the fact of significant rises of carbon dioxide concentration, and relatively rapid increases in global average temperatures. As a result, we are faced with a challenge which will in the near future require technical and social changes far more radical than a few pence in tax on a litre of petrol. The most justified criticism of politicians is not that they are jumping on the bandwagon, but that they are not doing it fast enough, nor extending the thinking into all aspects of public policy. The letter is correct in saying that cars have become inherently more efficient over the years; unfortunately this benefit has been swamped by the increased volume of traffic and our appetite for larger, heavier vehicles such as 4x4s. Transport is not only one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions: in Europe it is the only sector that is increasing these outputs, and it is one where technical solutions are furthest away. The issue of increased coal burning in India and China is also significant, but we cannot expect developing countries to respond if we do not set an example and help create the long-term technical and 'lifestyle' solutions. Europe and America are responsible for getting the world into the hazardous situation it faces; the onus is on us to make the first moves. As the Stern Report highlighted, combating climate change and rising sea levels while preserving good standards of living is an opportunity as well as a threat. I would like to think that Cornwall can help grasp that opportunity, whether it be through developing low carbon energy sources, or simply making us wiser users of such a precious commodity as energy. Al Gore commented that the weight of scientific evidence on the facts and consequences of human-caused global warming is now so strong that the sceptics and the 'do- nothing' brigade are looking increasingly like people who still think the earth is flat. I would be sorry to see Cornishmen included in that category.

PHILLIP HINDE East Sussex