Editor's pick: My experience of coping with Parkinson's
Clare Wilson reports that in Parkinson's disease many of the core symptoms are caused by the loss of automatic movements, that many previously automatic tasks require conscious effort, and that this could be the basis for early diagnosis (1 December, p 12). As a person with Parkinson's, the loss of automatic movement has long been obvious to me. Acceptance of the need to replace or reinforce this with conscious effort has led me to very simple yet effective ways of dealing with many of the symptoms.
For example, when faced with a series of tasks – a situation that can lead to grinding to a halt or “freezing” – it helps me enormously to sub-vocalise a series of detailed instructions or a running commentary as I go along. I can largely overcome the problem of my handwriting becoming vanishingly small by naming the letters as I write them, rather than relying upon an unconscious subroutine to execute the whole word. I think of this as “linguistic scaffolding” for actions. It isa bit tedious to begin with but it is well worth persevering.
Making carbon taxes popular with credits
Carbon taxes are probably a vital tool for weaning humanity off fossil fuels and onto clean renewables (17 November, p 7 and p 22). Unfortunately people rarely vote for more taxes, and unpopular taxes will probably increase climate change denial.
A solution might be the carbon dividend, where revenue from a carbon tax is not kept by the government, but paid out equally to citizens to offset energy price rises. Middle and low income earners should gain most, since the wealthy consume more energy. Importantly, green energy would look more economically attractive. This proposal uses a free-market mechanism to fix a problem largely caused by free-market economics. But with emissions rising, maybe this small economic risk is worth taking before any high-risk fixes such as geoengineering.
In the US, conservative groups such as the and , hope to push this idea in the 2020 elections.
First class post 鈥� 22/29 December 2018
We will pay fuel taxes when corporations pay all their taxes and stop hiding in tax havens
Lea Leeloo the idea that gilets jaunes protesters in France primarily oppose climate taxes (15 December, p 26)
Maybe we should exploit rainforests 鈥� carefully
Paying Brazil to conserve its rainforest, as Craig Sams suggests, has obvious appeal (Letters, 1 December). But it could easily go the way of Ecuador's failed Yasuni initiative. That country found oil under its Yasuni rainforest reserve but offered to leave it alone. In return, it asked the wider world for partial compensation for lost income and jobs. Ecuador said this didn't materialise, and .
There is an effective alternative. In his book , biologist E.O. Wilson pointed out the big benefits that could be obtained by exploiting such areas carefully without clearing them, and even costed up the ideas. His figures suggested the long-term benefits far exceed those from short-term damaging use.
Flattening rainforests for beef and soya is bad enough; logging, mineral extraction, dam building and cultivating coca, biofuels and other cash crops are even worse.
Extinction Rebellion: the planet's best, last hope
I was heartened by your report on the launch of (10 November, p 4). In the face of government intransigence, I believe this climate protest group is the planet's best, last hope, and I would encourage all your readers to get involved. For my part, I am proud to say that I have been arrested twice for standing up for the future of my grandchildren and all life on Earth.
Please don't forget rural transport
Alice Klein quotes Mark Nieuwenhuijsen of the Barcelona Institute of Global Health in Spain reminding us that we have forgotten that cities are meant to be for people, not cars (27 October, p 22). Please don't forget rural areas. Pollution may be less of a problem here, but we don't have pavements or street lighting. Transport is necessary but not at the higher speeds often allowed on narrower rural roads. Walking or cycling with my children to their primary school was always a tense affair.
I have two radical suggestions to complement a ban on cars in cities. Firstly, a new national speed limit of 70 kilometres per hour (45 miles per hour) on all roads where lower limits don't already apply, except motorways and designated dual carriageways (divided highways). Secondly, speed limiters on all vehicles, set at 120 kph (75 mph). Perhaps then car makers would focus on the safety of those outside the vehicle, not technology for faster driving.
Of course the motor industry will object, claiming restriction of personal freedom, but our grandchildren will probably look at our behaviour in cars in 2018 with horror.
Turn coal into gas to reduce its impact
The hosting of the UN climate change conference by the coal mining town of Katowice, Poland, and its sponsorship by coal firm JSW highlighted the economic dependence on coal in such countries (Leader, 8 December). I do appreciate the importance of ultimately stopping the use of fossil fuels, but suggest that an interim step for coal could be to gasify it rather than burn it.
The gas produced by this process can be stored and used as a smokeless means of generating electricity and, unlike coal, can be fired up or switched off rapidly to meet changes in demand. The cleaner exhaust gases produced should be amenable to the use of carbon capture technology.
More ways to deal with the home heating issue (1)
Michael Le Page makes a number of important points about the role of household heating in carbon emissions (17 November, p 22). But surely the answer in the UK, at least in the next few decades, is to develop gas-powered heat pumps for domestic use. These are more efficient than gas boilers.
As you point out, 85 per cent of homes in the UK are already connected to the gas network, so infrastructure is already there. We just need to adapt the technology, which already exists for industrial applications, for domestic use.
More ways to deal with the home heating issue (2)
Do solar panels not have their part to play in changing domestic heating to combat climate change? They may not be the most efficient energy source in northern countries such as the UK, but at least they completely substitute carbon dioxide-producing fuel. I have had 16 panels installed, and find that the saving in electricity bills is nowhere near the cost (plus loan interest) that I paid for them. If the government wants to help cut climate-changing emissions, it needs to help with this cost.
Slow thinking concludes that it may not exist
Madeleine Finlay discusses the presumption that there are two types of decision-making (17 November, p 38). My type 1 system (fast and intuitive) believes that type 1 and type 2 systems do exist. After reading the article, my type 2 system (slow and analytical) isn't so sure.
The pernicious effects of a vitamin being stored
Writing about diet supplements, Linda Geddes says that water-soluble vitamins cannot be stored (1 December, p 30). Vitamin B12 is water soluble, but it , mainly in the liver. The amount stored can be enough to satisfy the body's needs for years.
This is one reason why a vitamin B12 deficiency can be hard to diagnose. Even if somebody cannot absorb any B12 – for example in pernicious anaemia – levels in the body can decrease very slowly. Many people put symptoms such as fatigue, memory lapses and clumsiness down to increasing age. Often it is only when severe signs of harm arise, such as peripheral neuropathy, in which nerves are damaged, that someone visits a doctor. It is then often too late to completely fix the damage.
The ups and downs of a green Christmas (1)
Alice Klein and Chelsea Whyte say that even the fanciest fake festive tree is going to be sorry-looking in 20 years, the point at which they have an ecological advantage over real trees (1 December, p 22). We bought our fake tree well over 40 years ago and it is still very presentable, despite being lent to an amateur dramatic society for a performance of Pickwick. We have recovered its cost several times over by avoiding buying a tree each year. Everyone who wants a tree for Christmas should buy an artificial one and stop razing land best left to grow proper trees and store carbon dioxide.
The ups and downs of a green Christmas (2)
I'd be wary of wishing people a “Green Christmas“. An old proverb has it that “a green Christmas means a full graveyard”. Mild weather at Christmas will, in other words, be followed by a spell of killing cold.
Kenyan seagrass loss is a drop in the ocean
You tell us that seagrass loss off Kenya has added 7 million tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 30 years (1 December, p 15). That's about 230,000 tonnes per year. We are putting about 30 billion tonnes of CO2 into the air each year, or about 130,000 times as much.
We could talk about bees' milk as well as spiders'
At the end of an interesting article on spiders' maternal behaviour, you state that milk secretion is exclusive to mammals (8 December, p 20). Another non-mammal that certainly has glands that produce brood food and feeds this to its young is the honey bee. You can buy “honey bee milk” as “royal jelly”.