I AM writing in response to the front page article in last week's editions of the Times about the proposed wind turbine in the rural village of Stowford. I am particularly unhappy about the comments made by the developer, who continued to make false claims that wind turbines are being put up for environmental reasons. The proliferation of these giant white elephants is nothing about green and all about greed. The developer, in this case, MUREX, stands to profit from community division. They treat our community the same as every community where they are trying to build turbines, trying to capitalise on promises of money and claims of benefits to residents. All this is hogwash. The devaluation of ordinary people's homes and the destruction of our beautiful environment cannot be offset for a couple of thousand pounds a year. MUREX is in business to make money; for individual landowners, their investors and themselves at the detriment to the local people, the landscape and our heritage. It's is not hard to understand the lure of money for farmers and other landowners, but unless we stop this turbine, it will be a monument to short shortsightedness for decades to come. This is our community, we all deserve better. Wind developers should be ashamed of themselves for pushing this project forward and the landowners who decide to host these monstrosities should think long and hard about what they are trying to do. The massive turnout of residents from Stowford and Lewdown against this proposed turbine is testimonial to the fact that the people in West Devon have had enough. Jacqui Wolstenholme Lewdown WELL done MABRAKE and LASAG for confronting these over-subsidised, over-blown, Quixotic, and meteorologically vulnerable proposals from Murex Energy for a 250ft windmill/generator that will produce, when the wind blows at the right strength,  just 0.2 megawatts per foot of tower (New wind turbine campaign launched – Times, September 4).  It is, of course, fiscally expedient (if disingenuous) for the director of Murex Energy, Steve Ellam, to ignore local issues and opinions and claim the moral high-ground with his 'mondial' mantra  that 'Global warming is a proven scientific fact'.  What he fails to identify, however, is that in or about 2008 it was estimated that Britain's prime agricultural land can sustain a population of just 30million, while its population today is 60 million.  This means that every acre of prime British agricultural land lost means that 10 acres of rain-forest has to be cut down to replace the equivalent food  production of a British acre to feed that surplus 3— and this even as 'global warming' is reducing available agricultural land globally by thousands/millions of hectares from coastal erosion and desert encroachment into formerly fertile and semi-fertile areas.  Clearly, the world needs 'food first', and that means protection of prime agricultural British land should be a global priority in its own right, against which proposals to desecrate and replace that essential and irreplaceable agricultural resource with fickle, irregular and unpredictable electricity supply on the back of  Whitehall's hot air and tax payers' money, is self-evidently a very poor deal. Far better, if Murex is genuinely interested in the moral high-ground, to invest its own 'energy' and money on genuine renewable energy projects that have no (or very low) collateral costs such as chair of MABRAKE, Gary Vanstone, suggests, including solar roof-tiles and panels on new and existing buildings, hydro electricity, and in particular in what has to be for our island the option of choice, a tidal hub generation, such as is currently being trialled off Cornwall, all of which sources come with a gross for net benefit. In the meantime MABRAKE and LASAG can count me as a supporter, and I wish them every success in their opposition to your insensitive and inappropriate proposal at Stowford. Lawrence Brodley Russell Street Tavistock IT was absolutely appropriate for the Stowford wind turbine protest to have your full front page spread last week. The people of West Devon are sick and tired of these industrial monsters popping up all over their beautiful countryside without regard to democracy or common sense. Like the vandalising Martian monster machines in 'War of the Worlds', they stride over our fields and ridges without regard to heritage, beauty or public opinion. The monsters have taken over Lifton, now they threaten to advance on Tavistock itself. Where? First at Ridgecombe, (Lifton) then on to Beckwell (Milton Abbot) then, glorious insult! to Ramsdown, (Milton Abbot again, planning application 01013/2014) and on to the very doorstep of Tavistock at Lamerton. Despite the complacency of a recent correspondent to your paper, yes, the Lamerton turbine will be seen from Tavistock, less than 3k away. Most of Whitchurch road will see the blades, while all of Deer Park, Milton Crescent, St Davids, Down Road will enjoy the delight of the hub as well with it whirling blades. Be sure Tavistock, this is a blight on you too, not just Lamerton. On Sunday, September 21, Lastag Action Group will fly a balloon to 250 feet all day near Lamerton church, weather permitting, so that residents in West Devon can judge for themselves just how intrusive this gigantic whirling subsidy pump will be. Chris Burchell Foghanger. Chair, Lamerton Against Solar & Turbine Action Group (LASTAG) QUITE apart from the possible visual impact on the environment, two questions arise in my mind from the report in the Times on the meeting at Lewdown Victory Hall about a proposed wind turbine at Stowford. One is the question as to how far it is actually true that human activity is the cause of global warming, and the other is how much difference covering the landscape with windmills and solar farms would actually make to overall carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere. On the first, Mr Ellam of Murex Energy, asserts that 'Global warming is a proven scientific fact'. If, as I assume, he is referring to the theory of anthropogenic global warming (AGM), many scientists would doubt that this is indeed proven, at least not in the simplistic way it is often understood. No-one disputes that CO2 is a greenhouse gas, nor that levels of it in the atmosphere have risen, but there is no simple direct correlation between CO2 levels and global temperatures — as others have pointed out, the last 75 years have seen rising CO2 levels alongside 30 years of cooling, 30 years of warming and 15 years of 'standing still'. On the second question, I note that Mr Ellam says, 'Renewable energy is the only way to combat global warming'. However, this is true only if global warming is caused simply and solely by rising CO2 levels, and if these are, in turn, caused simply and solely by human use of fossil fuels. Even if this were so, the change to world CO2 levels which would result from covering the UK with windmills and solar farms would be negligible. 'Doing nothing,' says Mr Ellam, 'is not an option'. Actually, it is – doing nothing is always an option, and it can often be a less dangerous and less foolish option than going down the 'we must do something' road! I cannot help thinking that doing nothing with respect to the Drax power station (ie continuing to use coal) would have been preferable to doing something — when the 'something' is bringing wood across the Atlantic to be burnt! Howard Curnow Lifton