Join the conversation in Â鶹´«Ã½'s Letters section, where readers can share their thoughts and opinions on articles and see responses from experts and enthusiasts across a range of science topics. To submit a letter, please see our terms and email letters@newscientist.com
5 January 2022
From Ghillean Prance, Lyme Regis, Dorset, UK
Congratulations on your topical article on the Amazon's last chance ( 11 December 2021, p 42 ). I certainly agree with Carlos Nobre and Thomas Lovejoy that we are nearing the tipping point when the forest will be replaced by savannah. This is a call for concern and action. Two themes that were only mentioned …
5 January 2022
From Geoff Harding, Sydney, Australia
The dire situation of the Amazon presents a great opportunity for regeneration through carbon offsets funded by worldwide, highly polluting industries, such as airlines, cement and steel manufacture. Damaged parts of the forest could be purchased outright or the present owners paid to reforest. I believe small areas of the Amazon have been purchased in …
5 January 2022
From Duncan Cameron, Brighton, UK
You report that Pat Brown of Impossible Foods, a plant-based meat pioneer, has been trying to persuade British cattle farmers of the financial gain of moving from selling animals to growing trees and selling carbon offsets ( 11 December 2021, p 9 ). In the same issue, you report on the impending catastrophe in the …
5 January 2022
From Paul Vann, Kingsbridge, Devon, UK
The article on swapping livestock production for growing trees included a response from the UK's National Farmers' Union that wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement. This suggests to me that Brown is definitely right, though I would question whether we need a pilot. Let's just do it at scale. We are, after all, in a climate …
5 January 2022
From Philip Stewart, Oxford, UK
Michael Brooks, in his call for maths to play down Platonist influences, is too dismissive of the golden ratio ( 27 November 2021, p 25 ). It is the limit towards which the ratio between successive pairs of Fibonacci numbers converge. This sequence was invented to model the growth in the population of breeding rabbits, …
5 January 2022
From Chris Skillern, San Diego, California, US
Beyond simple arithmetic, people shun maths for key reasons, all straightforward and understandable: it is useless in their daily jobs, it is boring and intrinsically uninteresting, and advanced maths is very difficult to master and useful to only a relatively small subset of professionals. Sorry, but maths will never "belong to us all". Just like …
5 January 2022
From Ron Todd, Yate, Gloucestershire, UK
You say that nearly 200 countries have signed up to a protocol for AI ethics ( 4 December 2021, p 27 ). I would feel safer if the AIs signed up.
5 January 2022
The Hubble photos we showed you ( 4 December 2021, p 30 ) weren't of our solar system, but of much further away in the universe.
12 January 2022
From Denise Taylor, London, UK
Reader Charles Joynson suggests that to save Earth, we start mining asteroids for the metals needed for renewable tech ( Letters, 18/25 December 2021 ). Yes, let's, but not before we have ruined the seabeds! The answer to our ruinous depredations isn't to spread them, but to alter the way we live. Unfortunately, we seem …
12 January 2022
From Rachel Mckeown, Aberfan, Mid Glamorgan, UK
Colin Stuart refers to issues raised over naming the newly launched, revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope after a figure associated with controversy ( 11 December, p 36 ). Why not allow the public to have their say by opening a suggestion system, creating a shortlist and choosing a winner by a vote? This would increase …
