Andrew W Montford, Author: The Hockey Stick Illusion

Sir

The timing of your call for action on climate change (Editorial, 19 October 2011) could hardly have been worse. Rather than dwelling on the theoretical dangers of climate change, you would perhaps have done better to note the BBC's report the same day that 2700 people die each year in the UK because of conditions linked to fuel poverty. For you to call for "governments to enact legislative and regulatory change to stop the building of new unabated coal-fired power stations" - actions that would undoubtedly increase the death toll still further -- therefore seems needlessly insensitive. For you to do so on the same day that the main pilot carbon capture and storage plant was scrapped, thus ending any realistic near-term hope of 'abated' coal-fired power stations, might been seen as somewhat callous.

Yours faithfully

Andrew Montford
Author: The Hockey Stick Illusion