CONGRATULATIONS on last week's Climate Change Special. Climate change is real, its impacts are happening now and are going to get worse. As your focus on the Isles of Scilly suggests, we simply cannot isolate ourselves; its effects will rebound, in one way or another, on all of us.

Inevitably, wildli fe is also bearing the brunt. Earlier this month scientists published an indicator showing that climate change is affecting common bird species across Europe and that most of these impacts are negative.

Seabirds around our coasts are suffering a famine that is decimating their chicks and threatening their survival, almost certainly because of rising ocean temperatures. Wading birds are struggling in southern England with early grass growth and rock-hard soils. In North America, pine beetle attacks are devastating vast areas of temperate forests. The natural world is sick. The effects of climate change are being felt all over the planet, from the UK to the tropics and Poles.

Yet it needn't be like this. Climate change is a massive problem but one with clear, identifiable solutions. We still have time to fix it and we also have the means.

We can take practical steps to insulate our houses properly, drive efficient cars and use the waste heat we generate in power stations to heat houses and businesses. We can invest in clean power sources like wind and solar and develop new technologies like wave and tidal energy.

We can respect the Earth's natural stores of carbon – our forests and peatlands. Treated well, these ecosystems are our salvation; treated badly, they become vast sources of dangerous emissions from burning timbers and damaged soils.

All we need to do is act. We must tell our politicians it is time to face up to climate change. Citizens need to give them "permission" to make these changes. Say that you want modern energy-efficient homes; say that you want investment in green energy, say that you want to protect the world's forests and peatlands. You want our political leaders to be heroes – and you want them to act now.

Mark Robins

RSPB Regional Policy Officer Exeter

Rethink rates and tax

WITH so many clubs, pubs and shops closing, isn't it time the Government and councils took a second look at the way business rates and council tax are raised?

The system for levying them may have worked adequately in the past, but with the downturn in trade smaller businesses and shops are being pushed to their absolute limits.

One of the casualties is our local club, with most of last year's profits, £7,000, going in council rates, and with this year's rates higher than ever, its future looks pretty grim. Also, spare a thought for our local post office, where council tax is the difference between staying viable and going under. Another casualty is the pensioner having to withdraw £1,000 a year to pay council tax.

Surely the time has come for a radical change, with the rates being charged on a person's or firm's income and on their financial ability to pay, and not on the size of the property.

Otherwise many more businesses will have to close, and I doubt any businessman in his right mind will fancy reopening them in the present climate.

I am an 80-year-old ex-businessman, retired 20 years, so I have run my race. But I am really concerned for the future of our country, hence the letter.

D F Schmid

Exeter

No case for cull

IN WMN Farming (March 11), Anthony Gibson's article on bovine TB shouts loud and strong for a badger cull.

Nothing he says proves the case for a cull, nor does he provide proof that the badger is the carrier rather than the victim of bovine TB. Has he proved that the public want a cull? No, he hasn't.

If he is so convinced that badgers are the cause of the spread of bovine TB, could he explain why the Isle of Man has bovine TB it cannot control?

I have been in touch with the IoM Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, which confirmed that there are no badgers on the island. They are not a native species.

Perhaps it is the polecats, the mink, the fox, the rabbit, or all the other wildlife that are carriers – would Mr Gibson advocate the killing of them all ?

Peter Peach

Axminster

Beaver fever

MANY arguments are being highlighted against the reintroduction of beavers into this country, but it surprises me that I have seen no mention of the unpleasant disease giardiasis.

This waterborne disease is found worldwide, particularly throughout the USA. The parasite lives in the intestine and is passed in the faeces of animals like cats, dogs, cattle and certainly beavers. In fact, in north America it is known as "beaver fever" because of the wide colonisation of these animals and the effects on the surface water of streams, rivers and lakes.

The irony is that water purification, especially in remote places, is often only necessary because of the presence of beavers. It could be said that allowing beavers to colonise is moving into uncharted waters. I hope Natural England will also consider waterborne diseases in its investigations of the impact of this species.

Alan Flack

Okehampton

Insist on returns

I AM writing about councils saying they have shortfalls due to free bus travel. I often travel from North Devon to Exeter using my bus pass and can't understand why they only issue single tickets instead of a return ticket.

It has always been more expensive buying a single ticket each way rather than a return ticket.

If councils insisted on return tickets they would save money Although the bus company would not make so much, it's better than having empty seats.

Sheila Kerslake

Torrington

Wayward words

HAS anyone ever noticed the pronunciation of the following?

"Pleece" instead of "police"; "fatoe" instead of "fatal"; "hospitoe" instead of "hospital"; "uz", instead of "us"; "animoes" instead of "animals"; "drawering" instead of "drawing". Many TV presenters do this regularly.

C Courtier

Plymouth