Climate change now here to stay

Sir, – In response to Lyndsay Ward (Letters, April 27), it is climate change that is the issue, not the Greens.

We need to transition away from the extraction, refining and burning of fossil fuels as quickly as possible. They produce 90% of the excess CO2 and 69% of all excess greenhouse gases.

We produce around 50 billion (50 x 1,000 million) tonnes of CO2 equivalent every year – year in, year out. That is overwhelming the atmosphere – natural emissions average 200 to 400 million tonnes.

Climate change is no longer in the future, it is well and truly with us. We must transition as fast as we can. Every molecule of greenhouse gas that goes up due to fossil fuels adds to the problem. We have yet to see emissions fall, they are still rising.

We no longer have the luxury of delaying projects like the pylons and the wind farms. We are leaving a hellish world to our children and grandchildren.

You say you are not against climate change measures, then co-operate with those interventions that tackle the actual problem.

When you demand that everything goes underground, remember that for the poorest part of our society, that will increase their electricity bills as it is so much more expensive (five times).

When you demand it all goes offshore that reduces our resilience.

The attacks on Nordstream and the internet cables in the Baltic Sea show just how difficult it is to defend under-sea infrastructure.

When you demand that Scotland has done its bit, or others are worse, remember we still use fossil fuels.

You would not take kindly to me walking across your view and casually throwing down some litter because “I am not as bad as the litterbugs in the city”. The scientists are right. The physics of climate change is brutal and you cannot buck the laws of physics. Doing something about climate change and getting fossil fuels out of our lives is not only a necessity, it is the ethical issue of our age.

Lesley Ellis, Tarland.