IT seems hard to believe that West Devon Council has turned down an application for a local wind farm at Lamerton given the threat that climate change is posing to us and our children. In addition to this, sources of energy are set to become scarcer and more expensive as time goes by. There are no technologies in the pipeline that will come anywhere near replacing fossil fuels as a source of energy and indeed the only really long lasting sources will be water, wind, wave and sun. We have to invest in alternative technologies while we still have some of the financial wealth the fossil fuel has created in order to try to avoid what could prove a very painful future. To refuse permission for wind turbines in this area shows that the council have not really put their thinking hat on as far as responsibility for the future is concerned. It?s not too late for them to change their minds. Dr Colin Bannon Stokehill Cottage, Crapstone RAY Quirke and Tony Milward both make interesting points in their letters in March 30 issue. Ray Quirke is right to regard science as a work in progress. Science produces theories that correspond to known facts, and as new facts emerge existing theories can be enhanced or amended. In the case of the ?Hockey Stick Curve?, the pattern and theory that describes exponentially increasing carbon dioxide levels and global temperatures, recently reported new research has fully supported the general pattern and rationale, but also introduced a minor amendment, certainly not discredited the theory as claimed. I will, however be interested for Mr Quirke to produce a list of the ?many, many real experts? whose voices are being drowned, and the basis for stating the 30% of atmospheric methane is produced by trees (unless he refers to the decomposition of all organic material after death). Climate experts are fully aware that man-made emissions are not solely responsible for climate changes, but they are responsible for the increasing levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. We know for a fact the amount of our emissions (by direct test, experiment and calculation), and we can correlate that directly with factual atmospheric changes. We know how those changes produce the greenhouse effect, and how that works from uncontested experiment, the climate patterns on other planets and the early history of our own planet (then subject to much slower natural changes which still continue). Tony Milward is obviously correct in pointing to the fact that population levels have a major impact on emissions, and more directly on other environmental damage, but it is as much about the consumption patterns and levels of those additional people as sheer numbers. That is why greenhouse gas emissions are increasing exponentially while the increase in the global population is slowing. Even Mr Quirke, whilst presumably in denial about man made climate change, appears to accept we need our own energy supplies, and logic suggests they should be sustainable, thereby ruling out coal and nuclear power as an option. There are a wide range of renewable technologies able to produce the sustainable power that we need, and although taken individually none will provide a magic bullet, together they can certainly (in tandem with greater energy efficiency) solve the problem. Some technologies like wave and tidal power need time to develop and demonstrate their potential and economics. But we don?t have the luxury of being able to ?wait and see? how they develop, and in the meantime we must make the most of the fully developed, understood and economic options that are available ? that includes commercial wind power, among others. Paul Baker. D A R E