Bids to suppress questions on climate change are against very nature of science

That the BBC allowed Lord Lawson to voice an opposing opinion after after Al Gore and others had spoken on climate change matters, has raised furious objections.

Most alarmingly, the popular science presenters, Professors Brian Cox and Jim al-khalili have declared that such opinions as those of Lord Lawson – which are quite widely held in the scientific community – should be, in effect, suppressed.

The science, they say, is known, and should not be questioned.

The whole edifice of scientific knowledge is based on questioning. That is what science is all about. If a question cannot be answered, or a fact contrary to hypothesis is raised and cannot be answered, the theory must be, in some fashion, in error, and a satisfactory answer produced. This is a process which is, in principle, without end.

Our knowledge of the manner in which global climate changes are brought about is largely in question.

Certainly it has not enabled, after more than 150 attempts, the construction of a mathematical climate model which enables climate change, even a decade ahead, to be calculated with anything but a significant divergence from actuality.

The present disgraceful attempt to suppress discussion is little different from the years of “house arrest” and prohibition from the discussion of heliocentricity, imposed by Pope Urban VIII on the scientist and scholar Galileo in the 17th century. The Earth was the immobile Centre of the Universe, said Urban – the theological texts settled the matter. But assertion does not override actuality, as Marie Curie observed: “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is to be understood.” RICHARD PHILLIPS

Wickham Heath Newbury, Berkshire New report A Green Journey to Growth said Scotlandlondon travellers switching from plane to train have saved 681,064 tonnes of carbon over the decade to 2015 (your report, 21 August).

This report was prepared by Transform Scotland, who must produce statistics to justify their existence and grants.

It is ironic that only a few days before this report was published Edinburgh Airport announced plans to further extend the terminal at a cost of £50 million.

The airport also expects its annual passenger numbers to increase by 3.5 million to 16.5 million over the next three years.

Transform Scotland have been ominously quiet about the well-publicised decision that the Scottish Government intend to reduce Air Passenger Duty (APD) by half and then abolish it completely as part of efforts to boost the Scottish economy by, it estimates, £1 billion.

Virgin Trains, one of the main contributors to Transform Scotland’s running costs, has warned that if APD was abolished it would lose about a third of the Edinburgh to London passengers.

Transform Scotland only picks the bits that puts them in a good light with its sponsors.

CLARK CROSS Springfield Road, Linlithgow