Saving nature is down to every single one of us
Thank you for your comprehensive article “A rescue plan for nature” 20 February, p 34. The focus was biodiversity loss, but it could equally have been on climate change or pollution. These are all symptoms of the problem of our consumption, compounded by a growing population.
While the focus remains on the symptoms and we wait for others, such as governments, scientists and economists, to solve them, we shall continue to pour fuel on the problem. Only the poorest limit their consumption to their needs, while the rest of us enjoy satisfying our wants. It isn’t someone else’s problem to solve, it is my problem and it is your problem too 鈥� it is our problem to solve. And solve it we must, before we destroy the only planet capable of sustaining us.
I applaud UK's approach to coronavirus vaccines
Despite calls to put global interests above national interests when it comes to coronavirus vaccines, we should wave a flag for the UK’s approach (6 February, p 12).
While it is well ahead in terms of vaccine supply compared with many countries thanks to its bilateral deals, it is giving 拢548 million to the COVAX programme to assist lower-income countries. Meanwhile, the UK’s Oxford/AstraZeneca consortium is providing doses of its vaccine on a not-for-profit basis until the pandemic is under control.
The UK’s early orders for vaccines enormously helped producers to have the confidence to expand their programmes, even though products weren’t approved at the time 鈥� quite a gamble by the UK. No doubt any spare doses will go to other parts of the globe.
Don't eat fish on the grounds of suffering (1)
Graham Lawton wrote a typically interesting analysis of the environmental and sustainability issues around his decision to abstain from eating animals and birds but eat fish (largely for minimum environmental impact) (13 February, p 36).
I also aim to minimise damaging the planet while trying to lead a fairly normal life. I, too, haven’t gone down the path of veganism, preferring a smidgen of animal protein in my diet. But I have abandoned fish on animal husbandry grounds.
There is a long-standing cultural belief that sentience and ability to suffer decline in the order fur, feather, fin. Standard “acceptable” harvesting processes have evolved to suit. I keep reading of research indicating that fish are at least as sentient as birds and as liable to distress and pain. Viewed through this lens, “normal” fishing practices look barbaric.
I wouldn’t eat chickens that had been killed by being swept up in a net and left hanging there until they suffocated. I suspect most people wouldn’t either.
I get animal protein from tiny portions of animals and birds humanely and sustainably farmed and killed. I use these to flavour much larger portions of vegetables. Bon appetite!
Don't eat fish on the grounds of suffering (2)
Lawton’s article paints a dire picture, but offers few solutions. The contents section of the following issue shows a photo of an offshore wind farm above that of a fishmongers display. The connection between those two images is notable.
In the 1990s, I spent three years investigating the regeneration of fisheries by placing artificial reefs in areas where fishing is banned. The general conclusion was that this would generate fish stocks that migrate into fishing areas.
It seems a no-brainer to not only make offshore wind farms no-take areas, but to deploy artificial reefs there to provide structures that allow fish to feed, breed and thrive.
Just one planet will do for an alien megastructure
Craig Hutton writes that to build a Dyson sphere, a civilisation would have to raid a vast number of star systems for materials (Letters, 20 February).
However, according to my rudimentary maths, just one small planet may do the job. Mercury is almost entirely made of metal. If you flattened it into a sheet and then made it into a sphere around our sun at Mercury’s orbital distance, then the resulting foil would be around 85 times as thick as the foil in my kitchen.
I wonder what any civilisation would do with such a vast power source. If you tap a star’s entire output, it is enough to move whole planets. Two possibilities come to mind: a game of intergalactic snooker or… a death star.
Electric vehicles are a gain even without a green grid
Nick Baker makes a good point about the carbon footprint of electric vehicles in the absence of sufficient renewable electricity Letters, 6 February. However, anything that reduces carbon emissions can be considered green(ish).
Steam-powered electricity generators are far more efficient converters of chemical energy into mechanical energy than the internal combustion engine, so the switch to batteries in cars reduces emissions even when the energy to charge them is produced by gas-fired power stations. It also eliminates non-carbon exhaust emissions, such as NOx and particulates. The efficiency becomes even greater if waste heat from the power station is used for district heating, thus reducing emissions from domestic boilers.
If carbon capture and storage ever becomes widespread, it will work on power stations, not cars.
Could conflict explain the mystery of Stonehenge?
It is suggested that Stonehenge may be a Welsh stone circle that was transferred to Salisbury plain 20 February, p 16. However, the researchers overlook one explanation for why this may have happened: that the Salisbury plain people were successful in a war with the people of the Preseli hills in Wales and decided to mark their victory by stealing the Preseli ritual centre. This would also explain why Preseli people were interred at Stonehenge: they were forced by the victors to do the work of moving the stone circle, and in some cases this killed them.
Try two swats if you really want to get a fly
Following up on readers’ tips for beating pesky flies Letters, 13 February. If you swat a fly simultaneously from two different directions, its on-board computer experiences data overload and the fly remains fixed to the spot.
For the record
Researcher Haruka Osaki at Kyushu University in Japan is female (20 February, p 17).