Polly Toynbee is so right (The Tories railed against ‘green crap’. Why trust them to solve the energy crisis now?, 15 March), but it is unfair to describe those opposing gigantic windfarms and solar farms as “shire nimbys”. There are many environmentalists who don’t feel such massive industrialisation of our land and seascapes is necessary.
Insulting anyone who opposes ugly and often highly profitable developments in the name of progress by calling them nimbys has a long history – those fighting to save Covent Garden from demolition, Welsh mining communities opposing windfarms, communities saving swathes of east London from elevated motorways, and in Brighton it was local people who rejected the wholesale demolition of now thriving neighbourhoods through the creation of conservation areas. As Joni Mitchell said, “You don’t know what you’ve got till its gone”.
Let’s focus on insulation to keep people warm and lower their costs (and create skilled jobs), and on reducing carbon emissions and increasing energy security, not vanity projects for politicians and private developers.
Diane Ordish
Brighton
• George Monbiot is right that agricultural land should not be given over to biomass energy production, which may be carbon neutral long term, but still releases lots of CO2 when burned (There are solutions to the food crisis. But ploughing up Britain isn’t one of them, 16 March). Plus, as he says, we need that land for food. While Polly Toynbee, also rightly, excoriates the Cameron administration for shredding progress towards renewable energy, she complains that “local protesters … fight large solar farms”. And so they should, for the same reason Monbiot challenges biomass farms.
I’m all for solar panels (my roof is covered in them), but that’s where they should be – on roofs. There are enormous roofs on every warehouse, industrial estate and factory in the country, but hardly any are used for solar generation. Surely solar farms should use this large built acreage first before invading agricultural land?
Anthony Cheke
Oxford
• How ironic that Boris Johnson calls on the west to wean itself off its addiction to Russian energy supplies (Report, 15 March) the day after Polly Toynbee described so clearly how David Cameron spent a decade weaning the UK off renewable energy sources.
Francis Creed
Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.
