It was uplifting to read the joint letter from the STUC and the business groups backing the Lewis wind farm proposal (Letters, 3 February). By contrast I was downhearted when I read the interview with Green MSP Patrick Harvie (your report, 1 February), who was unable to say whether he backed the Lewis project.
Mr Harvie seemed to be saying big business was imposing big solutions on people who were neither engaged nor sufficiently empowered to propose their own energy solutions, which, he suggested, should be decentralised.
However, people already have
a degree of empowerment through the planning process. A whole swathe of anti-wind farm organisations together with the ramblers, the RSPB, the John Muir Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage and sundry others have engaged quite energetically and sometimes effectively to block or stymie dozens of renewables projects in Scotland.
Nor does Mr Harvie mention that as a result of the consultation process Lewis Wind Power has modified its proposal to accommodate some local and conservation concerns or that the Western Isles Council voted in favour of the proposal by 18 votes to eight.
Unfortunately, we cannot always pick our battleground or allies and LWP is all about fulfilling society's pressing need for green electricity on a large (ie gigawatt) scale in the here and now rather than in the distant future.
If Mr Harvie is reflecting Green Party policies, then the Greens have taken their forces out of this particular battle for a sustainable future to pursue Schumackian illusions.
MIKE MARTIN
Broadfold Drive
Bridge of Don, Aberdeenshire I read with interest that the Green MSPs are in the top 50 most powerful people in Scotland (your report, 4 February). To what end have Patrick Harvie and Robin Harper used this unprecedented green power? I remember they emerged waving a piece of paper at the end of their talks with the SNP that lasted just a couple of hours after the election results in May.
They say they have successfully lobbied for a £4 million climate change fund. That would sound impressive were it not for the fact that the price for this concession is their support for a budget that authorises £500 million on the M74 extension and probably another half a billion on the Aberdeen western peripheral route. Not to mention a planning framework that includes big extensions at two airports. Obviously green power works in mysterious ways these days.
ROSS CHMIEL
Annandale Street
Edinburgh There is a fundamental issue of social justice which the green debate largely ignores. Just as the richest countries have – in proportion to their population – the biggest global impact in terms of carbon emissions, other pollution and resource depletion, so it is the wealthy within Britain who have the biggest impact. It is a function of their lifestyles, consumption and travel.
Yet the costs of going green will disproportionately affect the relatively poor – the fuel "tax" to pay for higher-cost renewable energy; increased food bills as the push for bio-diesel takes land away from grain production; and most proposed and actual green taxes and levies, eg on flights. The rich cannot lead green lives (in any meaningful and absolute sense) while those in poverty have little planetary impact regardless of whether or not they consciously lead eco-friendly lives. Truly it is the rich who cause the damage and the poor who pay the price.
R J RITCHIE
Cecil Street
StirlingThe full article contains 584 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
