I SUSPECT that virtually all rational human beings would agree with Norman
McNab (Letters, October 7) that “wild places are a priceless asset”, in
normal climatic circumstances.
However such circumstances no longer prevail. Given that an incomparable
and seemingly permanent (until recently) wild place is rapidly being lost
due to climate change, it seems very clear that drastic measures are
required to arrest this trend.
It is surely quite ingenuous, on a planet supporting seven billion humans,
rapidly growing towards 11 billion by the century’s end, to contend that
efficiency drives by the industrial economies of the world will solve the
problem on their own. In any case, energy use is not the cause of the
dilemma we face as Mr McNab believes. It is where we source this energy,
namely from fossil fuels, that is the culprit. The latest science tells us
that most of the fossil fuels which are in the ground must be left there if
we are to avoid runaway global warming.
There is only one way we can encourage human societies to voluntarily move
away from fossil fuels, and that is to provide them with a copious
alternative, namely from the plentiful renewable energy flux from the sun
which constantly illuminates the planet. In engineering terms the task is
eminently realisable. Renewable energy delivery systems if interconnected,
co-ordinated and managed at the continental level can provide a reliable
new source of electrical power. For example, in Europe a viable
high-voltage direct current (HVDC) super-grid, mooted in several recent
reports, would connect geothermal power stations in central Europe, solar
power stations in southern Europe, wind farms in western Europe, wave/tidal
systems off Scotland, Norway and Portugal and hydro-electric stations in
Northern Europe. This system would be backed up by massive storage
facilities based on compressed gas and hot water thermal storage using
cathedral-sized underground caverns, on massive battery farms, and on
pumped storage employing artificial lagoons constructed in shallow
sheltered bays, as planned for the coastal waters off Denmark. The
super-grid has to be geographically extensive to ensure continuity of
supply from diverse intermittent sources. The wind farms of Scotland will
not be “useless”, but will contribute to this super-grid.
Developments along these lines probably cannot be achieved through the
private sector and the market mechanism. It will require European nations
co-operating, directing and implementing infrastructure projects through
their public sectors employing generous budgets, which have in the past
been regularly directed toward useless foreign wars.
Of course, if humans could determinedly find a way to reverse the
population explosion, almost every difficulty which is undermining the
sustainability of the biosphere would melt away wondrously.
Alan J Sangster,
37 Craigmount Terrace, Edinburgh.
THE steps taken by Glasgow University to move its endowment funds from
fossil fuel industry (“University to end investment oil”, The Herald,
October 9), coupled with its recent development of a cost-effective method
of converting electrical energy into hydrogen (“New technique fuels hopes
for cleaner energy”, the Herald, September 12) constitutes a major step in
accelerating the promotion of renewable entry provision.
By making the breakthrough in efficient means of hydrogen production, with
its capacity to be used for energy storage, and in reallocating endowment
funds the university has proved that it is an establishment that, as
Friends of the Earth Scotland states, “acts on its green values rather than
paying lip service to them”.
If, as a result of the university’s double first in initiative and
innovation, funding can be reallocated from fossil fuel into developing, on
an industrial scale, its pioneering work on a potential cost-effective
method for storage of energy capable of being derived from renewables,
Scotland could indeed become a nation powered by 100 per cent by renewable
energy .
John M Doig,
25 Roman Road, Ayr.
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