Dear Editor,

In his recent correspondence to the WWN, Mr C Penney (published Friday, July 11) - clearly a Conservative! - took great pains to point out in careful detail, that the proposal to install a new railway station for Wellington, was pretty much exclusively due to the efforts of local Conservatives, which is simply not true; in fact, several successive MPs for Wellington, both Tory and Lib Dem, have had a hand in moving plans forward over the last 15 years or so.

And given that he points out that Wellington Conservatives as far back as 2009, were creditably keen for the effort to be non-party political, maybe it's time we all gave up this 'tit-for-tat' approach and just welcomed the fact that our new Wellington station - fingers crossed! - will soon be with us and open for business for all?

JF Pocock,

Wellington

The ocean is perhaps the Earth’s greatest asset, yet its critical role in sustaining our planet is often overlooked. As the largest carbon sink, the ocean has been able to store twenty-eight times more carbon than all land vegetation and the atmosphere combined, highlighting how it is an essential resource when reducing greenhouse gas concentrations.

The ocean also captures 90% of excess heat from human activity, mitigating some of the most serious effects of the climate crisis. Without the ocean, the Earth’s maximum temperature would be around 100 degrees (the temperature of boiling water) and the earth’s average surface temperature would be approximately fifty degrees rather than fifteen degrees.

Coastal ecosystems are also essential. Mangroves and coral reefs protect shorelines from storms which are intensifying due to the climate crisis, while over three billion people rely on the ocean for their primary source of protein. Once more, the sea offers vast renewable energy potential-the UK’s North Sea wind farms already power 4.5 million homes, demonstrating what’s possible when we harness marine resources effectively.

However, the ocean and its ecosystems are under threat. The ocean has become 30% more acidic since 1950, dissolving shellfish shells and disrupting marine food chains. The rapid melting of Arctic ice is weakening critical ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream and is crucially reducing the sea’s ability to store carbon. Alarmingly, scientists warn the ocean could eventually become a carbon source rather than a sink if current emission trends continue.

Protecting this fragile lifeline requires immediate global action: reducing emissions, safeguarding marine habitats, and transitioning away from fossil fuels. The ocean has fed and protected us for millennia-now it’s our turn to return the favour.

May Puckley, via email

The government’s strategy on solar is wrong – and the solar data that we are exposing is disturbing. The pipeline is now massively over target, with an area of farmland the size of Derbyshire set to be covered in solar panels running into hundreds of millions. The more solar capacity we install, the more we depend on an unreliable source of energy.

And we are highlighting that targets have been manipulated after lobbying from the highly commercial solar sector, not based on need. We struggle to get even 10% average energy yields on solar, so it’s much more logical to prioritise local solar schemes like commercial rooftop arrays or car park canopies instead of grid-scale mega schemes on good farmland. Now we could see these sensible schemes squeezed out while even more super-sized schemes get the grid connections.

With hundreds of thousands of acres of UK farmland set to get consent nodded through for a change of use, and many solar developers part of international groups or with international private equity backing, this rural land-grab is controversial and should set alarm bells ringing. We are sleepwalking into a colossal countryside land-take.

Professor Tony Day

Stop Oversized Solar campaign

Last weekend was great to attend the now three-day Trade Unions organised enlarged Tolpuddle Martyrs Commemorative festival, rally and march (a mini Glastonbury?) at this small rural village, near Dorset’s Dorchester (I’m sure the six martyrs of 1834 would welcome your look-up of their history.)

Good weather, big crowds, plentiful stalls, excellent musical gigs (finishing with well-loved Billy Bragg ) and great speeches from many Trade Unions leaders, made this whole annual “stand-up for your rights” celebration such a heart-warming experience.

The main themes for this year were “Jobs not Bombs, Welfare not Warfare” and “Climate Chaos and Global Warming Kills Everything”, with “Freedom for Palestine” close behind.. Somehow or another we’ve all got to rekindle our past years’ peoples heydays of street-level socialism based on our towns and large villages dominated by “co-operative stores, farms, factories and funeral services” where everyone knew their co-op dividend number (mine was 2944) and hordes attended local Co-op AGMs.

Staying alive,

Alan Debenham

Taunton