YOUR VIEWS: There are already millions of trees but little parking

How many trees are there in Rothiemurchus Forest, and in its linked areas including Abernethy?

Doubtless an answer could be forthcoming from an agency or two, all of them funded by the taxpayer, or in part by charitable trusts and so on.

Most likely would be an average number per hectare or acre. Surely the answer in whatever form would give a total in many millions?

Over the last year or so I have witnessed a firm of contractors making a fine job of putting in place crushed rock along the roadside verge at Loch Morlich, presumably to give a firm parking surface.

Now they are digging it all up. Who’s paying? This seems an utter waste of money.

It is a permeable layer through which water may seep to feed the roots of the relatively – and I emphasise the word relatively - few trees along the bank of Loch Morlich.

Those trees, even if they were to die off, would be no great loss in the greater scheme. Views to the loch would open up, glimpses of the water and the background of Cairngorm and corries would then become widened for fuller appreciation.

Yet I do not believe that the trees would succumb without a fight. In many cases, my guess is that the roots of those trees nearer the loch will already have sought out a plentiful supply of water.

Now there is talk of making the beautiful Hayfield into an ‘overflow’ car park in the Strathy 18th May 2023. This field, beloved of families for picnics in summer or sledging in winter, if it could see and understand, would see the writing on the wall.

It is likely to end up as a surfaced carpark with boom and pay system. What a tragedy. Yet the parking problem would not be solved even with this addition, for the cars come in their ever-increasing thousands to the whole area.

So, what’s the solution to coping with this year-round invasion of cars to Glenmore?

In the latest Strathy there is also the headline, “New improved bus links to Cairngorm’ are announced. That’s surely a step in the right direction.

However, I would humbly suggest that the problem of transport links should be thought of together with extensive parking facilities on the outskirts of Aviemore.

The problem of visitor parking extends to include Aviemore itself, and all the areas between it and Cairngorm.

Just as in some American national parks, a shuttle bus service linking extensive parking facilities at the entrance to Aviemore and serving bus stops in the village and up towards the other ‘tourist honeypots’ could be the long-term answer.

Keith Brunskill

Cairnview Road

Aviemore.

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Blame lies with Highland Council for sorry saga by Loch Morlich

I wish to correct the impression given in last week’s Strathy front page article (entitled ‘Traffic carnage warning’) that environmentalists were responsible for the removal of new parking bays on the side of Loch Morlich.

The reporting of this ‘loss’ of parking was closely linked to Councillor Bill Lobban’s words: “It is imperative that all partners understand that reducing the overall number of parking places in Glenmore is totally unacceptable”.

What needs to be made clear is that Highland Council (with the part funding from Cairngorms National Park Authority) proceeded in 2022 to construct these so-called parking bays illegally.

The council was later forced to concede that:

• planning permission should have been obtained but had not been;

• damage to protected sites had occurred;

• there was a failure to assess environmental impacts; and

• the council had breached their statutory biodiversity duty.

Forestry Land Scotland have stated that these works caused significant damage to multiple mature and veteran Scots pine.

These remnants of Caledonian forest lining Loch Morlich were saved from the massive felling through two World War, but are now threatened by inappropriate development of car parking spaces.

At least the council did admit to their mistake and is undertaking the remedial works, but it has taken a year for this work to begin.

Additionally from the concerns and comments of various councillors, and FLS, it would appear that little or nothing has materially happened in the last year to solve the car parking pressures in Glenmore.

If the council and CNPA, with the assistance of FLS had acted appropriately in 2021/2022, we might not have been in the crisis we appear to be now in and the money spent on the aborted works (at least £120,000) and their necessary remediation (cost unknown) would have been saved.We all need (and expect) better of our public authorities.

Gordon Bulloch

The Dulaig

Grantown.

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‘Ludicrous’ paper at odds with IPCC view

Your correspondents, Charles Wardrop and Clark Cross, provide misinformation on climate related issues in their letters (Strathy, 18th May).

Mr Wardrop claims that a 2023 paper by Lightfoot and Ratzer (Laws of Physics Define the Insignificant Warming of Earth by CO2) shows “The impact on climate control of rising atmospheric CO2 is very minimal, almost negligible”.

No, it does not. That is not true. This ludicrous paper, written by a retired mechanical engineer and a computer scientist, reports the already well-known fact that the water vapour content of the atmosphere increases from the poles to the equatorial regions.

The paper claims a slight increase in ‘heat content of the atmosphere’ due to that change in composition. But that metric, heat content, has nothing to do with the properties of CO2 and H2O as greenhouse gases.

The L&R 2023 paper has no relevance to CO2’s contribution to global warming, and the multiple independent lines of evidence, showing the importance of CO2 in that respect, remain unchallenged.

Mr Wardrop also claims: “There have been no significant increases in satellite-monitored planetary temperatures for more than two decades”.

Again, that is not true. The two main satellite global measurements of lower troposphere temperatures are RSS and UAH. They both report increases in temperatures from 2003 and earlier that are statistically significant (at 95% level) for all such dates to the present, with the sole exceptions of RSS from 2002 and UAH from 1998 that are not quite statistically significant. Global land/ocean, land only, and ocean only temperature series all show similar statistically significant increases in temperature. Mr Wardrop’s claim is simply false.

By all means let us base our policies on ‘modern science’, as Mr Wardrop suggests. But that provides no comfort, with even the conservative IPCC becoming increasingly alarmed, and with the veteran climate scientist James Hansen and colleagues, having conducted an analysis of Cenozoic (last 66 million years) climates, about to publish a paper warning that present atmospheric CO2 levels are already enough, if sustained, to cause eventual warming of 10°C above pre-industrial temperatures, along with 60 metres of sea level rise.

That, Mr Wardrop, is what modern science produced by competent climate scientists is saying.

Clark Cross’s letter, concerned the future of global coal consumption, implying that it would continue to increase. In contrast, the International Energy Agency, in ‘Coal 2022’ states:

• “higher coal prices, strong deployment of renewables and energy efficiency, and weakening global economic growth are tempering the increase in overall coal demand”.

• “In our forecast, global coal demand plateaus around the 2022 level of 8 billion tonnes through 2025.”

• “Coal consumption in China grew strongly in 2021, but growth is expected to remain relatively stagnant at an average of 0.7 per cent a year to 2025, largely because of the increase in renewable power generation.

• “In the 2022-2025 period, we expect China’s renewable power generation to increase by almost 1 000 TWh, equivalent to the total power generation of Japan today.”

Similarly, the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, 2022, states: “China remained the main driver of solar and wind capacity growth last year, accounting for about 36% and 40% of the global capacity additions, respectively.”

Claiming, as Mr Cross does, that China has no intention of reducing its consumption of cheap fossil fuels, is doubly false. The intent is there and coal is not cheap.

Roy Turnbull

Nethy Bridge.

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Harmful CO 2 emissions do not simply stop at UK's borders

Our climate has changed in response to factors such as the sun and our atmosphere as well as changes in the earth such as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

Over the last century there has been increasing concern that man has been influencing our climate with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Charles Wardrop (letter to Strathy 24 th May) claims the “… earth’s climate is controlled by the sun, cosmic rays, water vapour and clouds.

"The impact on climate control of rising atmospheric CO2 is very minimal, almost negligible.”

This would infer our efforts to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy options, restore peatland, or grow more trees to absorb more greenhouse gases is a waste of time.

Charles Wardrop may be convinced by this claim by some scientists, but many are not. CO2, greenhouse gas emissions and particulates in our atmosphere produced by volcanic eruptions and man’s activities do influence our climate locally.

More speculative is the impact of these net emissions globally.

In a few years’ time if we find that greenhouse gases are driving climate change; will we be too late to avoid catastrophic consequences?

Clark Cross (letter to Strathy 24 th May) claims the UK only contributes 1.13% of global emissions, that is only by our activities within the UK.

If we take account of everything the UK consumes, we contribute around 5% of global emissions. This is because we have offshored many of our more polluting and greenhouse gas emitting industries.

Clark Cross is correct that some countries have increased their use of coal and other fossil fuels. If we have built our economy and improved our standard of living by using fossil fuels, can we complain about developing economies raising their standard of living by doing the same?

We import a growing proportion of what we consume based mainly on price. Today we import 81% of the forest products and 40% of the food that we consume.

Britain’s reliance on imported energy has doubled in the last decade. Brazil does not replace the Amazon rain forest with beef and soya because they want these products for their own use.

It is because we want these products cheaper than we can produce them here in the UK. We consume produce from other countries who have less consideration for livestock or human welfare, pollution, biodiversity, sustainability or greenhouse gas emissions than we are willing to tolerate here in the UK.

The UK along with Germany and Spain contribute to more deforestation through the goods we import than we grow in our own countries.

Deforestation contributes up to 20% of annual global emissions, about the same as all the world’s lorries and cars. 77% of what the UK imports in fruit, vegetables and cereals come from countries that have a greater environmental impact than our own.

The UK imports much of what we consume from China. China now accounts for 28% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

This is over 7 times their emissions in 1980. Between 1997 and 2018 the estimated CO2 emissions associated with UK imports from China increased by 64%.

By importing so much of what the UK consumes from sources whose standards we would not tolerate in the UK, we contribute to environmental damage elsewhere in the world.

The UK is part of the problem. By producing more of what we consume more sustainably within the UK we could be part of the solution.

Jamie Williamson

Alvie Estate Office

Kincraig.

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Party leader's 'disdain' for his own country is incredulous

Scotland has always been perceived as a junior partner in the 1707 Act of Union.

And in this “Union of Equals”, it was only in the latter part of the 18th Century that Scotland derived any benefit; otherwise being known as North Britain or simply England.

Such disempowerment bred a lack of confidence in Scotland’s proven ability, ignoring its attainments in the fields of discovery, science and the arts.

Enter stage right the Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton. This Scot, born and educated in England, apparently does not acknowledge Scotland’s historic nationhood.

This kilted Scotsman’s ignorance and disdain for his own country, is incredulous; when in a recent Oxford Union debate, on whether Scotland should be independent, actually stated that Scotland “can never and should never exist again”.

This follows Lord Frost, who brokered the disastrous Brexit deal, calling on Westminster to “roll back devolution”.

Perhaps Scotland is regarded as only a romantic myth!

In truth the inability of Westminster to accept Scotland’s status as a nation is becoming laughable. Scotland’s Saltire is one of the oldest national flags in the world and still in use today.

Also, with a few movements in either direction, the present border between Scotland and England has been in place since the Treaty of York in 1237.

Finally it’s completely false to say that the Union of 1707 ended Scotland’s nationhood.

The legislation past then, by both sovereign parliaments, secured in law Scotland’s nationhood by retaining its separate state church and separate legal and education systems along with its ability to trade.

The fact is, from the early 800s, Scotland is one of the oldest established European nations, pre-dating England’s emergence into nationhood by 200 years.

In poetic terms it was Hugh MacDiarmid who distilled the very essence of our ancient nation, in The Little White Rose of Scotland that “smells so sweet and breaks the heart”.

Grant Frazer

Newtonmore.

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Focus on real culprits

Lorna Slater MSP has said Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme could be scrapped on 1 June since the company set up to administer it is close to running out of money especially as Ms Slater delayed the scheme until March 2024.

As expected she is blaming Westminster for not arriving at a decision on whether to exempt the scheme from UK-wide trade rules. Should she axe the scheme there is certain to be a flood of compensation claims.

It is a fallacy that the DRS will reduce bottle and can litter since all 32 Scottish councils have excellent facilities. Focus should be on the takeaway litter being thrown out of cars, the vapes and cigarettes being discarded in streets and the large-scale dumping of rubbish in laybys and on farmland.

Clark Cross

Linlithgow.

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