<i>IoS</i> letters, emails & online postings (22 February 2009)

If the price of natural gas rises sharply, it will become economical to mine the methane hydrates that are abundant in the deep oceans (“Threat of gas price rise as reserves run dry”, 15 February). Worldwide, methane gas amounts to about 10,000 billion tonnes or, in monetary terms, about $1.25m per person on Earth. I believe that this methane gas can be retrieved through opencast mining. At depths of two or more miles there is not much animal or vegetable life on the sea bed, so there would be little damage to the ecology. The density of methane hydrate is about 0.9 of water, so the methane hydrates will rise, where they can be trapped by moveable giant overhead shell roofs and then collected by ships or submarines. This process can also be used to retrieve methane gas escaping from areas of permafrost, where the methane poses a serious risk to global warming, because as a greenhouse gas, methane is some 22 times worse than carbon dioxide. The burning of this methane will release 27,600 billion tons of carbon dioxide – and there are various solutions to this problem which will have to be deployed.

Professor Carl T F Ross

University of Portsmouth,

Portsmouth

Visiting the UK and spending an evening at a pub, I was appalled to see several patio gas heaters going full blast. Astonished, I said North Sea gas was finite and that the reserves should be used frugally. I was greeted with blank faces. One of my companions was a barrister. If such “educated” people can be so ignorant of the imminence of the peaking of oil and gas supplies, I see little hope for the UK. The UK is only about 60 per cent self-sufficient in food, and that is with an agricultural system that is heavily dependent on fossil fuel. The last time Britain was self-sufficient in food was 1800, when the population was 10 million. The UK is approaching an unprecedented energy and therefore food crisis; politicians seem to be oblivious to this.

martinhanson

posted online

In the recent good times of easy money and high employment and equal opportunities, women have been able to manage getting a house and raising a family without having a husband (“Wedding bells to wedding hell in one generation”, 15 February). Marriage has never really been about anything more than economic necessity, and hard times are upon us. Look at ducks and their assorted domestic arrangements: from shelduck in long-term pairings in difficult environments, to wham-bang-thankyou-ma’am mallards with no shortage of food or territories. I always wanted to be a shelduck but I seemed only to attract mallards.

jaffgyp

posted online

I am 26 and about to get married (for the first time) and cannot believe that young people in a loving relationship would deny themselves this pleasure. Without even trying, my partner and I are spending a fraction of the cost of “an average wedding”, and that includes a church ceremony, reception on a boat and a two-week honeymoon in Cuba. Surely the escalating cost isn’t the primary factor in people’s decision not to get married? Some people simply don’t want to get married.

Margaux82

posted online

Saying “I divorce thee” three times

is for men only. As a woman, you would have to prove that your husband was impotent, and you’d need a male witness to testify to it. As sharia is being offered to North Pakistan to appease Islamist fanatics, you should be careful what you wish for.

Nancy Blake

Kingston upon Hull

Why do you call Paul Moore a whistleblower (“Blame Brown for financial meltdown, says whistleblower”, 15 February)? He has sat on information about the pending financial crisis for years while collecting his hush money from his former employer, HBOS. It is only now that it is too late that he is going public. He has the air of a bitter man seeking revenge, rather than a hero seeking truth and protection of the general public. Of course it is a good thing that he is speaking out now, but maybe he should first follow the example of his erstwhile bosses and apologise to the public for his misdeeds. A touch of humility would be no bad thing. He is part of the problem, not the solution.

zaphod_ez

posted online

The number of non-violent criminals imprisoned is a travesty against them, their families and the public coffers of a bankrupt state. (“Cash crisis forces California to free 55,000 prisoners”, 15 February). I support their release; it is not a solution to build more prisons. However, the release of people into an economy that cannot offer them work is risky and sad.

vdeva

posted online

I grew up in the Sixties, and can assure you that the majority of us were no more interested in constructing things from toilet rolls and sticky-backed plastic than today’s children seem to be (“Blue Peter: A sinking ship”, 15 February). There were only two channels. We had no choice.

davidjc

posted online