Anthony WEEDEN (yet again) selectively misquotes, as is his hobby.

In my letter I referred to the date in history when scientists first discovered the greenhouse effect “would be a real problem”.

Mr Weeden lectures me on the date the greenhouse effect “was first observed”– rather than the date it was first observed to be a problem. Spot the difference?

Today’s engineers have already succeeded working out how to supply our needs from renewable energy; our letter-writing old-guard really do need to get some CPD. Many have been living off-grid for decades. The challenge is political will, not technological ingenuity.

Most children understand that “non-renewable” means “finite” – i.e. energy we cannot keep on burning. So whether our fossil-and fissile-fuelled armchair cynics like it or not – failure to power humanity entirely from renewable energy, ultimately, and by definition, is simply not an option. As well as being free clean and eternal, it’s also all we have!

Hence we’d be smart in UK to start to build the green infrastructure of the future. We can safely ignore the directions that dinosaurs would offer us – about the way forward.

Today’s engineers understand renewable energy. As indeed do all but a small vocal handful of yesterday’s. – David Hampton, MA (Cantab) CEng CEnv