Man's puny efforts can do little to halt climate change

While I fully endorse your editorial view that "Climate Change is here", I cannot agree with your comments about Ofcom's report on the Channel 4 documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle.

Ofcom never referred to this programme as "flawed" – indeed it recognised that it was a serious contribution towards the debate about man's supposed power to mitigate global warming. 
Its only condemnation was that, by careless editing, the programme had "misrepresented the views" of certain of the pundits who spoke.

There was no denial that global warming was happening; indeed it has been a fact since the end of the last Ice Age.  There was a brief and small return to colder winters in the 1600s when ice fairs were held regularly on the Thames, but the general warming trend has continued, despite man's presence, since the days when the Sahara was a fertile grain producing area. 

What was put forward, however, was the finding, from an analysis of ice cores, that rising carbon dioxide levels were the result of global warming and not the cause. The engine of change was natural solar sunspot activity and nothing more.

We kid ourselves if we honestly believe that our puny efforts at mitigation can match the effects of natural phenomena.   "Carbon footprints" have become a cynical ploy by politicians to change fiscal policy.

 PHILIP RICHARDS (M), 27 Kingston Hill, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey KT2 7PW