Letter: So much hot air

Sir: Currently acceptable "global warming" theories are interesting if not entirely supportable by all the available evidence.

Only if one is particularly selective and politically correct does the temperature graph on your front page (2 November) add credence to the idea that human activity is responsible for profound changes in world- wide temperature and weather patterns. The graph shows the year 1106 to have had the second warmest summer since 1000, and 1601 the coolest.

Would it be possible for you to arrange for an "environmentalist" to explain to us all the reasons for the very hot years at the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th centuries, and the very cool years in the early 11th and 16th centuries - and what measures they would have suggested for remedy at those times?

Only the congenitally ignorant would suggest that "global warming" is a man-made phenomenon. Without global warming, none of us would be here.

PETER VINTNER

London SW19