Global warming

Carolyn Taylor (Letters, 25 August), supporting noted broadcasting scientists, regards Lord Lawson’s Global Warming Policy Foundation’s climate sceptic lobby’s claims as inadmissable, having been “fact-checked” by environmental experts and found inaccurate.

There are at least three points at issue here: does the climate change, as we all do agree; are “greenhouse gases” a major culprit as “man-made” climate-changers; and what should/can we do to improve global climate prospects?

The disputed, hypothetical, unprovable adverse roles of CO2 etc are based on computer models, risking dependency on “Garbage in, Garbage Out” errors, in the far-from-completely understood variables influencing the global climate.

If Carolyn Taylor accepts our tiny proportionate contribution (<2 per cent) to world CO2 output, looks to the skies where aircraft fly and notes the impractical policy to replace road vehicles’ internal combustion engines with electric motors, she will surely agree that debate is vital in formulating rational policies.

Discussion and debate must not be suppressed or we risk avoidable further folly, which Nigel Lawson’s foundation’s contributions can help us avert. (DR) CHARLES WARDROP Viewlands Road West, Perth