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Letters to
the Editor - May 2007
Air travel is killing planet
The Country Diary (March) item regarding the flatulence
of cows is really a red herring to draw the attention away from the
main cause of global warming – the aeroplane. I have been pushing
this argument for about eight years but it is only recently that those
who should know about these things have grasped the nettle and admitted
that aeroplanes do contribute to greenhouse gasses. Concorde – may
this aerial muckspreader never fly again – used ninety tons of
fuel to cross the Atlantic and another ninety to return. This means
that most of one-hundred-and-eighty tons of a hydrocarbon with its
attendant impurities was burned in the sub-stratosphere taking oxygen
from the atmosphere for combustion. All this for the transportation
of one hundred passengers each way. Nearly a ton for each of them.
When a hydrocarbon is burned the main products are heat, carbon dioxide,
water and the bi-products of the impurities – one of which is
sulphur dioxide. This combines with the water vapour to form sulphurous
acid which may fall as acid rain or combine with other combustion bi-products.
This was fourth-form chemistry when I was at school. The carbon dioxide
produced by cars is largely dealt with by surface vegetation and probably
does not significantly increase the greenhouse effect as long as the
world’s forests are not decimated. I understand that other passenger
aircraft use about seventy-five tons of fuel for the same round trip.
The only way that this sort of pollution can be decreased is to return
to surface travel, which may be slower and less convenient but it may
save the world. Politicians should not be allowed to fly; they should
set a good example.
D Duke, Highbridge
The point of no return?
Following Robin Page’s article on predation
in February there were interesting letters from Peter Wheble and H
Wooldridge in your March edition on the same theme. Science has proved
Mr Page’s views on the loss of hedgehogs to badgers. A study
by Oxford University, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology (1994
63 pp. 851-860) concluded that legal protection of badgers ‘may
have serious consequences for the survival of the hedgehog in rural
areas. Badgers and hedgehogs both make extensive use of pasture fields
to forage for invertebrate foods but badgers are able to eliminate
hedgehogs in areas where they encounter them’. From being an
uncommon and treasured part of British wildlife the badger population
has reached pest proportions in some areas. Not only are they carriers
of bovine TB but also they burrow under country roads and farmers’ fields,
damage ancient monuments and trash crops and gardens. They are now
a serious threat to bumblebees and ground-nesting birds. The problem
has arisen because the badger population is no longer controlled by
more powerful natural predators – wolf, lynx or bear – which
formerly existed above them in the predatory hierarchy, and now they
are no longer controlled by man. Similarly, the sparrowhawk suffers
no serious predation in lowland Britain and is causing great losses
among those songbird species which are particularly vulnerable to its
hunting methods. Just as the reintroduction of wolf, lynx and bear
would be unacceptable in lowland Britain, so would goshawk, pine marten
and eagle owl be unwelcome for the natural control of the sparrowhawk.
These major predators would pose a serious threat to small farm animals
and domestic pets – and in some circumstances to man.The conclusion
must be that badger and sparrowhawk numbers should be limited in a
sensitive and humane manner, by man. As Peter Wheble put it: ‘how
long can excessive predation be allowed to go on before other species
pass the point of no return?’
Gavin Morris, Somersham
Cold, hard winters
Humphrey Phelps’ articles often remind me of
when I was living and working on a mixed farm in the Trent valley in
South Derbyshire between 1941-45 and onwards. I particularly remember
the cold, hard winters when as a strong lad I had to break the ice
on the Trent and Mersey canal with a sledgehammer to let the cows drink.
We milked cows by hand and you were a good milker if you could milk
eight cows an hour. I also remember some good summers when hay was
swept into stacks in the field to a stationary baler or loose back
to the hay barn. It was always hard physical work, as was the corn
harvest in the days of heavy horses, stooking, carrying and eventually
threshing. This could be for 4-5 days at a time, needing seven hands
along with two men with threshing tackle, usually having extra help
from your neighbour – and we returned the favour. With quite
a few workers and a great variety of crops there was never a dull moment
and a lot of fun. We looked forward to the help we got from Irish workers
who assisted with the sugar beet and mangolds, while prisoners of war
helped on a daily basis, hoeing, lifting potatoes etc. The Army from
a nearby camp and of course the Land Girls also helped out. Today’s
climate in farming bears no comparison to these wartime years and its
hard work, heavy horses and occasionally a few early (now vintage)
tractors. The future hope is that farming will soon recover from the
mess that politicians have led our industry into.
R W Emery, Griffydam
Wasteful and rotten policy
It’s a strange world we live in. While over
one third of its people go hungry the EU pays farmers NOT to grow food
or leaves it to rot. More than 325,000 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables
were taken off the market by EU bureaucrats last year alone. This mountain
of farm goods would have been enough to feed the city of Birmingham
or Manchester for three years. Instead it was dumped to keep prices
high for farmers. Brussels agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer
Boel admitted that the total of this waste last year was 325,487 tons.
Of this the vast majority was from Continental farmers. Less then one
per cent came from the UK (yet another reason to come out of the EU?).
Brussels chiefs have admitted this was done under the Common Agricultural
Policy (CAP). We are being encouraged to eat five portions of fruit
and veg a day to help reduce the risk of heart disease and cancers,
yet these vast amounts are left to rot. CAP is not taking the health
of the people into account when it decides which products and prices
to support and is this good for the farming industry in the long run?
I think not.
Ron Bird, Leighton Buzzard
Singly special
I had heard my late mother mention Gypsy Smith many
times (March). She lived in London in the early 1920s and said that
when he preached you could hear a pin drop. At that time he was the
only non-ordained person to preach in St Paul’s Cathedral.
Carol Goff, Exeter, Devon
Don’t attract the rats
Never put cooked food, raw meat or fish into the
compost (April issue). Some places, I understand, can process waste
food. But until that happens in your area, keep it out of your compost.
Jean Coulson, Polstead by Colchester
Bird numbers
I have something of a contrary experience. I live
in the middle of five acres in the middle of nowhere in north Devon.
I am in a very exposed position with no nearby trees, but two bird
tables outside a front window regularly entertain up to fifteen blue
tits and twenty-five house sparrows besides several great tits, greenfinches,
chaffinches and coal tits; also the occasional sparrowhawk flits by
and has his way ...and good luck to him I say. I attribute this comparative
abundance partly to the use of a magpie trap in season and also the
absence of squirrels.
Christopher Price, Umberleigh
Raptor rage
Here, until about three years ago, my garden was
alive with greenfinches, blue tits, great tits, dunnocks, chaffinches
and the like but now there are none to be seen. Sparrowhawks are regular
visitors and I deplore the RSPB’s protection and encouragement
of these birds and other raptors.
Norah Titley, Angmering, west Sussex
If only...
Your editorial (March) rightly states that not everyone
always agrees 100% with your two most distinguished columnists, but
even on those rare occasions when I find myself taking issue with something
which either writes I still acknowledge that they are speaking with
sincerity and from experience. If only some of the others who give
us their views on country matters – such as many politicians – could
be said to be doing the same!
Martin Broadribb, by email
Durham Derivative
I was amused by Wendy MacLeod-Gilford’s nonsense
tune (March). My father taught me a little ditty which went, as I remember
it: Coynamara, Coynamara, Coynamara Candi, Rim Strim Stramadiddle Aravalla
Rimtim, Ring Num Bulatina Kymee. This was nearly eighty years ago and
I still sing it to myself. We lived in West Hartlepool with no Welsh
connections that I know of.
Rosemary Hopkins, Sheffield
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