Greenhouse gases essential for life

I WAS very surprised to read Mr Hawthorn’s comments (“Perfectly placed to power the future”, Opinion, April 5) referring to myself about patents, where I have never referred to patents or mentioned patents.

The Ratcliffe on Soar power station is due to be decommissioned by 2025, under a Government guideline of removing coal-fired power stations. This power station has very capably been delivering our electricity needs since the 1960s. If the UK now no longer needs it, not even for back-up energy generation or as an industrial heritage site other greener options could be considered.

Certainly not an experimental nuclear fusion site – that’s a no brainer. However the site was ideal in the 1960s for a power station, located close to the River Trent and the Notts coalfields. However, nowadays, the actual site on its own does not have many energy benefits, like the fantastic “inside mountain” location for the hydroelectric energy of Dinorwig Power Station in North Wales or the brilliant underground” geothermal energy of the Sarulla power station in Indonesia, so maybe it would be better to restore the Ratcliffe on Soar site to its natural state and plant plenty of trees for the environment.

Certainly we do need to provide better climate control in the world and in this UK. We do need the greenhouse effect and some greenhouse gases too, since without them the natural temperature of Earth in space, considering the Earth’s absorptance, emittance and albedo is a chilly minus-15 degrees Centigrade. It is the greenhouse effect and some greenhouse gases that have given us the temperatures around the globe that we enjoy today. Climate control is the key for a healthy climate balance, but certainly not to go overboard, removing all the greenhouse gases! Ivan Gould

Chilwell