I have to say I found Iain Gray’s column (‘No time to lose, we must act now on climate change’) somewhat superficial in its arguments.

If the IPCC’s dire warnings over climate change are accurate, it’s already far too late to stop it or even slow it down, given that many countries are still opening up new coal mines.

Even abolishing all of Scotland’s minuscule emissions would have no effect whatever on global weather, apart from which no substantive evidence of human-induced change has ever been presented.

The ‘Earth Hour’, as Iain pointed out, is merely symbolic, but his observation that “historic buildings around the world were plunged into darkness” has direct significance. Many of these buildings, notably our Houses of Parliament, have remained floodlit every night from the very start of the supposed threat to human survival.

Meanwhile, we were exhorted not to leave the telly on standby! I believe the expression ‘lip-service’ sums up the entire political reaction to the supposed danger.

Commendably, Iain makes only one party political move in stating that Labour will counter fuel poverty if elected, by freezing energy prices. Not nearly enough: they need to be greatly reduced for both domestic and business users. That should logically be achieved by removing the main cause of increases in recent years: the massive input of financial incentives central to the development of wind turbine operations and loaded on to user costs.

There is a well-established alternative view to that of the IPCC in the form of the Non-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, led by scientists qualified in the very fields applicable to the topic (remarkably, the chairman of the IPCC has no scientific qualification).

One of this group’s basic principles is that CO2, far from being a pollutant, is essential to life to the extent that we should actually increase levels. Some farmers already do so, of course, by pumping the gas into growing enclosures in order to stimulate growth.

Robert Dow Ormiston Road Tranent