Madam, - Gus Legge (July 4th) points out the need to discuss the "crisis facing energy production and how we are going to face it", and rightly so.
The rise in the price of oil to $60 a barrel should be warning enough of the shape of things to come.
World oil production is fully stretched and is likely soon enough to reach an all-time peak level of output after which it is must decline, never to recover that peak.
While alternative power sources have their place, they have serious limitations and it seems clear that they will not be able fully to make up the shortfall. Unfortunately, the answer is not blowing in the wind.
The British government is beginning to show signs of considering a new generation of nuclear power stations. We should begin to think along the same lines, as it is getting rather late in the day to begin to address these issues.
Although Mr Legge does not mention nuclear power it is, despite all its obvious drawbacks, the only large-scale power-generation technology available to meet energy needs for the next 50 years or so until better alternatives (perhaps solar energy) can be developed into practical solutions.
Love it or hate it, nuclear power already provides about 16 per cent of the world's electricity and that percentage is likely to grow. The debate is already overdue. - Yours, etc,
JOHN STAFFORD, Chesterfield Grove, Dublin 15.
Madam, - As Gus Legge points out, petroleum availability is indeed peaking globally, and must decline, as it did in the US in the 1970s. American acceptance of this fact is at the root of the US's disastrous military adventurism in oil-rich areas.
The responsible way to handle the decline globally is to ensure that the remaining fossil fuel is used as capital, not for consumption; in other words, to adapt our infrastructure and way of life to sustainability, especially in food production, which is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. Agriculture needs to go organic, fertilised totally by recycled material, and food supplies need to be localised as far as possible.
We simply need to learn to live with less energy and more intelligence.
How to do this needs to be at the top of the research agenda. If we fail to adapt, a global population crash is inevitable. The "growth" concept needs to be re-defined in terms of quality of life, rather than as a crude economic yardstick. - Yours, etc,
ROY JOHNSTON, Belgrave Road, Dublin 6.