Climate change is deeply political and needs action (1)
You say that “climate change is, emphatically, not a political issue” (Leader, 27 April). While agreeing with everything else you wrote, I must disagree with this.
We humans have devised numerous economic models by which to conduct our affairs. They can be divided between two broad headings: market forces and planning for need.
In practice, the vast bulk of our activities since the industrial revolution have followed the former model, supposedly steered by the “invisible hand” that economist Adam Smith proposes guides markets. In fact, it is almost exclusively devoted to the creation of return on capital investment. To do so, this model must treat Earth as an unlimited resource, and as a bottomless sewer and rubbish dump.
What the planet needs to now experience isn’t simply a standstill, but an actual diminution in current activities. The only fair and humane way to achieve that is by planning global production strictly according to need. There can be no doubt that to embark on the radical, revolutionary course of switching economic models, as humanity surely must, is a profoundly political matter.
Climate change is deeply political and needs action (2)
In view of your exemplary recent coverage on the depth and urgency of the climate crisis, I was shocked by your dismissive comments on the recent Extinction Rebellion protests.
To put the record straight: 1130 supporters were arrested, with many, many thousands on the streets, and the protests were entirely peaceful and respectful. The protests have achieved unprecedented coverage, as well as declarations of emergency by the UK parliament and the Scottish and Welsh governments.
Given the scale of the task, Extinction Rebellion can only succeed if it continues to grow into a huge mass movement. Whatever your circumstances, you can play a vital role. Your planet needs you.
The editor writes:
鈥� We had no intention of being dismissive of Extinction Rebellion.
Another view on the sounds of the aurora
David Hambling reports a proposal that auroral sounds come from corona discharges at an altitude of less than 100 metres (6 April, p 40). In the 90s, I was at Esrange Space Center, near Kiruna in the north of Sweden. One quiet, wind-free night, I heard an aurora. I told some scientists from the .
They later told me they had found an answer. Earth's magnetic field is modified in synchrony with the aurora. I wear metal-framed glasses and the arms were catching these changes in the magnetic field, creating the noise I was hearing.
To me, the sound was like ice crystals fluttering on the surface of the snow, and it wasn't coming from above as suggested in the article. The synchrony with the aurora was perfect, so I knew that the sound was being created near me and not at aurora level.
Panic over the climate is counterproductive
David Flint suggests that what is missing from efforts to reduce climate change is panic (Letters, 20 April). But panic is rarely helpful. It leads to short-term thinking and stopgap measures that can be counterproductive in the long run. Restriction and abstinence are knee-jerk reactions that aren’t long-term solutions. If they slow growth, this will hurt the poorest.
The solution to global warming will be technological. There is a huge amount of research into renewable energy, and investment is increasing rapidly. Once we have clean energy, we can perhaps consider climate engineering to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
Please don't call drive assist an autopilot
You mention the limitations of the drive-assist feature in Tesla cars (6 April, p 6). My biggest concern is that the company .
This will inevitably give people an incorrect impression of its capabilities. If someone is concentrating on reading, for example, then it would take them several seconds to re-engage and assess what needed to be done if the car tried to hand back control or, worse, if it made a mistake but did not announce it.
By this time, on most highways, the pending accident would already have happened.
Credit where credit's due for cell culture work
Colin Garner makes some good points regarding the need to educate doctors about prescribing antibiotics (20 April, p 24). But he does us microbiologists a disservice by stating that medical doctors culture bacterial samples to identify infections.
Microbiologists are the ones who do that. We can troubleshoot when doctors unwittingly choose the wrong antibiotic.
Colour discomfort affects many more people
Graham Cox raises the issue of how people whose perception of colour is different to the average for the population can be poorly served ergonomically (Letters, 13 April). This isn’t limited to colour blindness.
I have astigmatism. I lived with it uncorrected for many years, until my near sight deteriorated enough to require glasses. A significant proportion of my career involved analysing 3D seismic data using interpretation and mapping software. This often came with default colour scales involving a blue-white-red colour bar. With astigmatism, I can’t focus red and blue in the same plane. I used to wonder why I got headaches, until I changed the colour bar to something more amenable, which, fortunately, these tools allowed me to do.
Later, I attended an ergonomics course by a company whose corporate colour scheme and visual aids were bright red and blue, which was horrendous for me to look at.
No human traders need that kind of speed
Mark Harris asks us to imagine a trader in London wanting to access data from New York: if it were routed via SpaceX's planned constellation of satellites, it might reach her in 45 milliseconds. (4 May, p 44)
If that kind of speed were needed, the trader would be neither a “she” nor a “he”, but an “it” – an algorithm.
For the record 鈥� 18 May 2019
鈥� Strictly speaking, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared measles to be eliminated in the US (20 April, p 22).
鈥� It is with fungi and other organisms that do nitrogen fixation (27 April, p 8).