YOUR VIEWS: How to really get to magic Net Zero in just three years in Cairngorms National Park
If the Cairngorms National Park Authority wants to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions from within the Cairngorms National Park within the next three years (Strathy December 1, 2022), this can be achieved by importing more of the goods and services we consume and exporting more of what we discard.
This will increase not decrease our contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions is a global issue.
Britain currently contributes one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions from our activities here as a nation, but five per cent if we also take account of what we consume.
Over the last 30 years Britain has exported many of our most polluting industries and imported more of what we consume, with insufficient consideration for net greenhouse gas emissions, pollution as well as human and livestock welfare.
Between 1997 and 2018 CO2 emissions associated with UK imports from China increased by 64 per cent.
China now accounts for 28 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Today Britain imports 81 per cent of the forest products we consume. In the mid 1980s Britain was 78 per cent self-sufficient in the food, today this has declined to around 60 per cent.
Britain’s reliance on imported energy has doubled in the last decade.Research by Aberdeen and Stirling universities and the James Hutton Institute indicate that planting native tree species within the Cairngorms National Park may not sequester more greenhouse gases than is emitted in establishing these trees.
Research by Enviros on blanket peatland suggests that our damaged peatland is recovering naturally from acid rain and overgrazing in previous centuries without the need for mechanical intervention apart from drain blocking.
If we want to contribute to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, we need to produce more of what we consume here in the Cairngorms National Park, recycle more of what we discard, insulate our homes better, generate more renewable energy to replace our use of fossil fuels and manage our rural land to mitigate the impact of wildfires.
Jamie Williamson
Alvie Estate Office
Kincraig.
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Sledgehammer to crack Curleys Lane access nut
Highland Council official Murray Macdonald tells Newtonmore Community Council he proposes to ‘stop up’ Curleys Lane in the village.
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This is a sledgehammer to crack a nut, and a waste of limited council resources.
Off the Main Street, this area of Newtonmore has a poor network of single track roads without pedestrian side paths. Curleys Lane is a vital part of traffic routing around Newtonmore.
It serves parents taking youngsters to school; it keeps the area around the primary school and pharmacy safer.
Closing Curleys Lane would concentrate traffic on to the road through the golf course affecting the golf club’s viability. These concerns are inferred in your report. There are temporary traffic cones in place in Curleys Lane which appear to solve concerns. There is minimal heavy vehicle traffic.It is expedient to replace temporary cones with permanent bollards which allow domestic traffic to flow while protecting adjacent properties. No legislation, no red tape, no bureaucratic expenditure.
I am copying this objection to Highland Council – via Murray.MacDonald@highland.gov.uk
Gregor Rimell
Newtonmore.
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Time to abandon this stricken ship
With reference to the letter ‘Good ship Scotland’ in last week’s paper I wonder what planet your regular correspondent lives on.
It cannot have escaped ‘Captain’ Grant Frazer’s attention that any ship built by the Scottish Government will be at least five years late and over budget.
If the good ship sails away on fair winds it will no doubt come to grief on the sea of misinformation and founder in the maelstrom of false promises and failed projects.
Sadly Scotland is becoming best known for its weaknesses and disadvantages under the care of the current independence obsessed management.
John Allen
Kingussie.
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Build a ‘new town’ at Dalwhinnie using the timber of local forests
It was good to read of Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s support for development at Russwood, Newtonmore’s great success story, and interesting too, to see the emphasis on development of the usage of wood from Forestry and Land Scotland’s estate.
But perhaps we should be questioning the limited nature of support for the sector.
Heavy timber transporting lorries daily ply our fragile roads directed to wherever the current market dictates.
Would it not be better if much of that increasingly valuable material was used in supporting local development?
For years I’ve heard it said Scots timber is substandard and that our climate doesn’t produce decent building material.
But building research and businesses in Scotland and beyond are demonstrating the viability of home grown timber. It should be of great concern that currently Scotland imports a large percentage of its timber.
There’s a climate emergency, there’s a chronic shortage of housing and surely new buildings have to be sustainable.
Post-war housing crises were met by radical measures not least the development of new towns like East Kilbride and Livingston.
What about a new new town? What about a new town at Dalwhinnie? Radical action by Scottish Government at the centre of Scotland?
Is it not possible to show that climate, biodiversity, energy and housing are inter-related emergencies? Could we not have a community, a region invigorated by the provision of a diversity of truly eco homes?
Landowners could be persuaded to deploy their vast capital assets, yes for private gain, but more importantly to help address our multiple crises.
Surely we, in Scotland, have sufficient ‘levers of power’ to take radical action?
Of course, we have to monitor development’s effect but surely we have to be aware that whilst rewilding can be part of the necessary solution there is a crucial part to be played by the development of stronger more diverse communities.
Dick Webster
Campbell Crescent
Kingussie.
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The A9 will be dualled by Scottish Government
Tragically deaths on the A9 are the highest for almost 20 years, but please be assured by every utterance of the SNP Scottish Government that this road will be dualled.
In truth when the death toll was as high in 2002 the Labour and Lib Dem Scottish governments did nothing.
It was only later when the SNP got into power did they commit and start the A9 dualling.
This pledge will be honoured.
Obviously because of the Covid pandemic, not to mention the disaster of Brexit and a corrupt and dysfunctional UK government, this commitment could not be completed on time.
In fact the police, who point out that it’s not just the road but poor driving that cause accidents and politicians like Fergus Ewing, have assured the public that the A9 dualling is continuing and will be completed.
As for those self appointed ill-informed activists with their self righteous and harmful comments, they should listen and support the fully informed and elected people working to complete the task.
Grant Frazer
Cruachan
Newtonmore.
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A light bulb moment...
The article in the Strathy (December 1) regarding lighting the tunnel under the railway at Aviemore station gives rise to the question of how it should be done.
May I suggest that a micro hydro system be installed along with a battery system and low powered but bright strip lighting.
It should not be difficult to design such a system and perhaps be a shot in the arm for the Cairngorms National Park Authority whose efforts in this direction have been woeful if actually existing.
M Ross
Aviemore.
