Ms Smith, come off whatever you're on. Another dose of emotive claptrap is peddled to frighten us all into wasting the nation's resources in pursuit of the hopeless task of reducing worldwide carbon emissions.

The opening sentence of the leader article (CM, July/August, p5) suggests that "the debate about what we have got to do is over".

Try telling that to the scientists who passionately argue that we mere mortals can do nothing to affect the natural cycle of the earth's climate that has been established over millennia.

Considering how small our industrial economy is compared to that of the emerging nations the last thing we need is a lemming-like dash to raise our costs and cripple our future by making this nation even more expensive.

How much energy are we wasting in manufacturing sealants, extra insulation, extra systems and components, carting them about, installing them, testing the buildings for leaks and then insisting that we spend more money to ventilate the damn place because we need fresh air?

Can we return to some common sense? Let's start with the fact that EVERY building site skips more metal in a week than my household can save in a year.

If we wish to preach sustainability let's stop taking so much product to the tip. Let's employ local industry, local agriculture, and local shops but please, let's not bump up our costs in the pursuit of a doubtful scenario.

I am not going to follow the dictat of a government that attempts to make me carry the burdens of the planet when the rest of the planet couldn't give a four X what I'm up to.

It's not carbon some people need to come off; it's the clouds in cloud cuckoo land.

Grahame Wiggin

Source

Construction Manager