Take risk to climate seriously

While normally content to passively enjoy your letters page, I feel that I must offer some rebuttal to the heinously simplistic statements offered by Mr Fox of Broseley (January 26) regarding climate change.

He is right that in this particular system the water level will drop slightly. Unfortunately the majestic grandeur of the ice caps bear as little resemblance to a pint of water as the inmates of Big Brother do to reasonable right-thinking people.

In the pint pot scenario, all the ice and water form part of the same volume to begin with, so as the ice melts into denser water the net volume decreases and the level drops. In the Arctic there are untold cubic miles of ice above sea level, which are not part of the ice/water volume. If, or when, this ice melts then these billions upon billions of tons of water will be added to the ocean, raising the overall level. The same is true for the Southern ice cap, which, being land-based, is also removed from the ocean and would be an addition if melted.

Of course, nothing said by the Government should be taken without a pinch of salt, but in this case we don't have to rely on them. Too much evidence has been accumulated by other bodies for rising sea-levels and other climatic change to be debunked as propaganda.

Unfortunately Mr Fox's attitude is deeply unhelpful though not unpopular.

Humanity can ill-afford to ignore the challenges presented by climate change.

John Fothergill, Telford