ROSEMARY Goring (“Our good intentions on climate change have melted away”, The Herald , July 13), seems to have been living in an idyllic middle-class bubble during lockdown where walking, cycling, e-socialising and contemplating nature in the garden were a refreshing change from normal life. No mention was made of the thousands of businesses damaged or ruined. There was no acknowledgement of the livelihood, psychological, social or educational damage suffered by individuals, no global supply chain impact and no reference to the potentially ruinous amounts added to global debt and which have directly contributed to the rise of inflation to levels not seen for decades.

Ms Goring managed to miss all the downsides while lauding the positive effect that the suspension of normal life and work had on the environment. She is unhappy that there appears to be too little continuing effort to combat climate change and meet the pledges made at the COP26 virtue-signalling festival a few months back. One of the speeches made at COP26 was by the President of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who pledged to outlaw the use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers on environmental grounds. This has wrecked Sri Lankan agriculture, the economy has collapsed, millions of Sri Lankans are now dependent on humanitarian aid and the President has fled the country – probably on the same private jet that flew him into Glasgow. A similar ban on pesticides and fertiliser is now proposed in the Netherlands and is mooted for Canada. Does anyone want to see the agricultural sectors of these important food producers wrecked too? The Scottish Government also has plans to interfere with farming as noted by columnist Claire Taylor (“Question mark over the future of farming and food production”, The Herald, July 12).

Brian Wilson ("Energy crisis is as big as Covid and demands the same urgent action", The Herald July 12) drew attention to decades of poor government policy that has contributed to the parlous state of the energy market in the UK. Mr Wilson did not reference the clearly detrimental effects of demonising coal, oil and gas over this period and the introduction of unreliable, eye-wateringly expensive and lavishly subsidised wind and solar power as part of the energy mix. Every country that pursues renewable energy drives up prices and endangers electricity supply.

The chaos we already see in global energy markets is threatening security, prosperity and quality of life. If the global production of food enters the same distressed state, everybody reading this should be very concerned about virtuous and ignorant government meddling. Fossil fuels and their by-products have been fundamental to human evolution. Attempting to eradicate their use and allowing global energy and food production to be undermined as a result – by policy makers in Sri Lanka, the Netherlands, Scotland or anywhere else – is a phase of human history that we may never recover from. Political leaders have tried to influence energy use and botched that. Now they are trying to tell farmers how to farm and next they will be telling us what we can eat.

The signs are already there. People need to take notice.

Andy Cartwright, Glasgow.

WHY ANIMAL TESTING IS NEEDED

IF Fiona McSeveny (Letters, July 9) and Margaret Forbes (Letters, July 13) want to stop animal testing, they must first address the primary reason the practice still continues. Put simply, there is no viable alternative. The idea mentioned by Ms McSeveny that 90 per cent of drugs fail because animals are not a good replacement for humans is a myth; 90% of drugs fail for many varied reasons, including the fact that they are not actually any better than the ones we already have.

Some would say you can use humans but this forgets that animals are used at the very earliest stages of drug development. Ask a bunch of humans if they want to take a new drug that might not work and could have potentially life-threatening side effects and see how many agree. That is before the conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers come out of the woodwork.

I do however have some good news for animal lovers. The UK has the strictest animal welfare and testing standards in the world. The key point is the need to replace animals if an alternative is available, so if you find an alternative, please tell the animal testers and the Government as soon as possible. Until then, animal studies must use as few animals as possible and keep those animals in the best conditions available.

John Shanks, Glasgow.

TWO DOORS, ONE BIG PROBLEM

THE TV programme Two Doors Down is back on BBC Scotland. The content this week (July 13) followed a familiar pattern, with clearly defined characters.

The humour, as in the previous serious, could not be described as subtle, and appeared at times to be little less than crude. Elaine C Smith seems to be landed with dialogue which is not infrequently offensive.

Humour can become quickly dated, and some former radio and television series survive better than others. There will be some readers who may recall the days of steam radio (or wireless) and another extended Scottish family by the name of McFlannel, where the characters involved would not have indulged in behaviour or language such as portrayed in current television programmes.

Time to clean up the act, BBC Scotland?

Malcolm Allan, Bishopbriggs.

BELOW THE BELT

ONE of your headline writers seems to be a tad mischievous.

I read the letter (July 14) from Ian W Thomson suggesting “true Scotsmen” should be wary due to increased midge activity. He suggested ditching the kilt and wearing trews for a while.

Immediately under the writer’s name we had the headline “A different ball game”.

Stewart Falconer, Alyth.

A TEST OF MY METAL

REGARDING the correspondence on clippies (Letters, July 11, 12 & 13): in my youth I was a student at David Dale College in Bridgeton and a dodge was to board the tram as it slowed round Bridgeton Cross before heading into town. Unfortunately I had my metalwork samples in my bag as I attempted this manoeuvre. The weight swung me back off the platform and dragged me along the cobblestones.

I well remember the clippie looking down at me and saying: "Are you gonnae get oan or get aff?" Fortunately I was saved as the tram came to the tram stop, but not without a few bruises.

Ken Doran, Glasgow.