What David Hampton forgets is that, although the Earth is constantly bathed in solar radiation above cloud level during daylight hours, we can easily capture only the part that filters through to us as an intermittent boost to low-grade heat for domestic and other hot water supplies. That’s the easy bit.
To boost electricity supply is a bit harder and more expensive, and wastes a lot of the incoming sunlight. To provide a reliable, storable and abundant supply of grid-distributed electricity in this way on a national scale is – so far – simply a pipe dream, as most engineers know.
As for Eric Alexander’s call for a ‘People’s Climate March’ on September 20-21, has he forgotten The Flood and Great Ice Ages of pre-historic times? Not much man-made carbon dioxide around then – or much mankind, either. — Roderick Taylor, Abbotsbrook, Bourne End
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