Problems with North Sea turbines

LETTER - Allan Tucker (Starmail, May 2) claims we can build wind turbines in the North Sea, instead of having nuclear power plants.

Two facts about the North Sea in winter, the period of greatest demand for electricity:

Fact one - periodically the wind will blow so hard, the turbines will have to feather their blades, to avoid destruction. Blades feathered, means no electricity, so how am I going to keep warm, eat, etc on these days/weeks?

Fact two - the complete opposite is also a regular feature of the North Sea, absolutely no wind at all.

Regarding your reply to John Phillimore (May 3) true, global warming is taking place.

However, if you take geological time, which is much longer than a doom-monger's life span, the earth is warming up within a period of below average temperature.

So, our planet is only heading back towards its average temperature. It may well even exceed this figure. But then it has to, to maintain its current geological, average temperature.

So what is the problem? After all, the same evidence you would use to substantiate your view is the same evidence used to explain the recent retreat of the Sahel region in Africa. Don't forget, 60 million plus years ago the earth's atmosphere had a much higher CO2 concentration than it does now.

Michael Cole, Telford

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