I DON’T know how much Alan Simpson ("Eco zealots won’t be able to attain a vague goal that can’t be defined", The Herald, July 21) bothers to read or listen to the statements of climate activists before he castigates them, but from my understanding the demand of Just Stop Oil and affiliated groups is pretty simple – no new oil and gas.

Protestors are aware, as Mr Simpson dutifully pointed out, that we still need oil as part our energy mix for years to come; what they rightfully denounce is what climate scientists know only too well: new oil and gas fields are incompatible with the Paris Agreement and will see us obliterate the 1.5 degrees safeguard within a matter of years.
Admittedly, beyond this clear demand for no new oil and gas fields the wider ambitions of climate activists can be vague and when hard-pressed they can often be a bit fuzzy on the details of what a sustainable future would look like. The truth is they are not politicians, they are ordinary people (for the most part) and they don’t claim to be perfect.

We can’t expect ordinary members of the public to have all the answers when it comes to the gravest challenges of our lifetime but what we should expect is for them to voice their discontent at the absolute insanity of new oil and gas projects in a world hurtling towards ecological collapse. Legitimately expressing this discontent includes the forms of civil disobedience proven to be effective by the suffragettes. These methods may be the only ones capable of breaking us out of our collective inertia around climate breakdown, especially when all other avenues such as writing letters to MPs, leafleting and signing petitions have proven futile. Micro alterations to the ways in which we consume such as the ones Mr Simpson lists simply aren’t going to cut it either.

We need to put adequate pressure on governments to take bold and decisive action. As much as I’d like to comfort myself with Mr Simpson's assertion that disruption isn’t necessary because "governments get it", a quick look at their track record on cutting emissions suggests this just isn’t the case. Two tragic facts spring to mind: global emissions have increased after every COP, and the UK Government has failed to meet its own net zero targets every year.
Omie Murray, Glasgow.

Read more: Eco yobs won’t be able to attain a vague goal that can’t be defined

Open University serves Scotland well
I WOULD like to congratulate Dr David Limond on his daughter’s recent graduation ("Lecturers are complicit in varsity malaise", The Herald, July 22) but I was disappointed to read the misinformed reference to The Open University (OU).

The Open University in Scotland is recognised in statute as one of the 19 universities and higher education in Scotland and is funded by the Scottish Funding Council. For more than 50 years The OU in Scotland has delivered high-quality, personalised, supported distance learning to students across Scotland. With more than 21,000 students in 2021/22, the OU was the fourth-largest university in Scotland in terms of total student numbers and we provided higher education to more Scottish-domiciled students than any other university or higher education institution. We are proud to be Scotland’s national widening-access university with students in every part of the country from Shetland to the Scottish Borders.  

We’re proud to be the only university which operates across all four "home nations" in the UK and in Scotland, to be making a significant contribution to the country’s economic growth and societal wellbeing.
Susan Stewart, Director, The Open University in Scotland, Edinburgh.

Deaf to the ding
I READ the letters from JB Drummond (July 21) and Clark Cross (July 24) with a sense of both irritation and amusement.

I'm a motorist, cyclist and pedestrian. My car has a horn, Beep Beep, my bikes have bells, Ding Ding, and when walking I can shout "Excuse me!". I use all these means of warning as appropriate.

Curiously, some pedestrians seem offended when dinged. Others respond and are polite, as indeed I always try to be. Sadly, there's a significant proportion who are deaf to the ding, sometimes in a medical way but usually because they're too focused on their phones or have headphones plugged in. Sometimes they're effectively blinded by their phones. It's just another risk factor I and other cyclists have to deal with.

On the issue of lack of police action, I suspect it involves lack of numbers and a belief that there's more serious stuff needing their attention. Indeed there is.

Roads are dangerous places. I'd prefer them to deal with the significant number of drivers now running red lights and other law-breaking on the roads.

Can't we all just be a little bit kinder to each other?
David Banford, Dumfries.

Fond memories of Tony Bennett
I NOTE with sadness the death of another "great" in the form of Tony Bennett ("‘I heard bagpipes and I ran into the Highland Games. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life’", The Herald, July 22). However, the news  also brought back lovely memories.

My brother Terry was a lifelong fan and was a former painter and decorator and later a fireman, both trades which seem to attract singers. Terry would finish a shift at 3pm and go on to perform at local retirement homes. It was with a degree of chagrin that his most frequent call-backs came from the Paisley Institute for the Deaf.

When Terry was about to turn 80, my wife and I got him a recording session with a professional studio and had a lovely couple of hours watching him record I Left My Heart in San Francisco, now a prized possession of all extended family.

In 2014 we took him and his wife Catherine to the Royal Concert Hall to see Tony Bennett and fulfill one of his life's ambitions.

I recall the occasion when Tony closed the Glasgow Jazz Festival in George Square with 10,000 people in the audience.

The orchestra got a bit ahead of their star singer, only to have a Glasgow punter in the front row shout: "Come on wee man, keep up!".
Brendan Keenan, Glasgow.

Heat exchange
I SEE that after a Thames Travel double-decker bus caught fire (and well done to the driver for getting all the passengers out) the bus company has described this as a "thermal incident". Would they call a collision a "kinetic/static interaction"?
Brian Chrystal, Edinburgh.