Explosive issues

this is pseudo-scientific nonsense. Yes, the Amazon produces a lot of oxygen, but it uses the same amount of oxygen in respiration. Plants use respiration to convert nutrients from the soil into energy

As Western greens rage against Brazil for daring to use its resources as it sees fit and suggest sending in military forces to take charge of the Amazon, we once again see the imperialist mindset that drives much of their thinking.

(DR) JOHN CAMERON Howard Place, St Andrews

of money from Edinburgh’s residents – the cherry picking of uplifting garden waste out of the council tax payment and making us pay an additional fee is a clear demonstration of this. They are not just at war with the motorist but with the city’s residents at large.

Oh, for the days of Mr Eric Milligan.

BRIAN HUGHES Lower Granton Road, Edinburgh A site near Blackpool recording an earth tremor has led, for the time being, to the suspension of fracking operations.

The incident might seem distant but it raises three as yet unanswered questions over fracking in Scotland. Reading that the UK’S national earthquake monitoring agency, the British Geological Agency, has a non-disclosure agreement

with the fracking company Cuadrilla hardly reassures an otherwise puzzled public.

What approach would insurance companies adopt over buildings and house contents damaged as a result of fracking operations? Or do we think the fracking companies would foot the bills for any consequential damage?

What effect might fracking operations have on our drinking water quality when we were reading about blue water problems arising in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, at a school built on land once used for disposal of waste including lead and arsenic?

Is Scottish Government policy on fracking operations firm and clear or resting on a shoogly PR peg?

JIM CRAIGEN Downie Grove, Edinburgh

object to the ONR’S decision in the strongest terms.

(PROF) LYNN JAMIESON

University of Edinburgh and Convener, Scottish CND Radiation Risks Working Group

(DR) RICHARD DIXON

Director Friends of the Earth Scotland

(DR) IAN FAIRLIE

Consultant on Radiation in the

Environment

ROSS GREER MSP

PETER ROCHE

Editor, UK Nuclear News

DAVID SMYTHE

(Emeritus Professor) University of Glasgow

(DR) DAVID TOKE

Reader in Energy Policy University of Aberdeen

ARTHUR WEST

Chair of Scottish CND

ELIZABETH MCCLARDY

LINDA GRAINEY ALANNAH MAURER

Local residents