First-hand experience tells me that your leader comment and Rob Edwards's two articles should ring serious alarm bells (Hundreds of Scottish reservoirs a flood risk due to climate change and Ice cap melt a threat to millions, News and A portent for the future, Editorial, December 17). In the 1950s I shepherded the west end of Strathfarrar and witnessed the building of two of the largest dams in the Highlands, Mullardoch in Glen Cannich and Monar in GlenStrathfarrar. Added to a smaller dam in Glen Affric they form a hydro project covering the largest catchment area in Scotland. These three dams are of spill-over design. Downriver, 30 miles east, all this area's water must pass through the Aigas and Kilmorack dams, neither of which is spill-over.
In November 1966, heavy snow lay on the hills. The temperature rose by 10 degrees in a matter of hours. At 11pm, I was in the Aigas dam, sluices wide open and generating at full capacity. Mullardowch dam was spilling, out of control. A major flood saw the vibrating Aigas dam with two feet of safety margin. Wisely at midnight the dam keeper and I headed for the high ground. Strathglass was cut off, many sheep were drowned, a new bridge below Kilmorack dam was partly swept away and a section of the A9 flooded. However, by 2am frost set in and the Monar dam didn't spill, thus, luckily for Beauly, avoiding the possible inundation of Aigas dam.
A hundred years hence people will see the results of many follies: skyscrapers surrounded by water, for instance. Damming doubled Loch Monar in eight months, leaving the shepherding home and much wildlife habitat under water. It prompted consideration of the wider issue and 50 years ago I wrote: "Survival is rate of change versus rate of adaption. We are modifying the planet at a rate beyond the adaptive capacity of our species, perhaps our own."
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Though Scotland leads in some areas of sustainable lifestyle, individual action is lacking. Awareness grows slowly. Our comfort zone is shrinking fast.
Iain R Thomson
Cannich
MISSIONARIES AND THE SLAVE TRADE
In her report on Malawi, Vicky Allan’s somewhat grudging comment about missionaries ending the slave trade – “and to some extent that is true” – understates the case (Life and death in remotest Malawi, Sunday Herald Life, December 17).
David Livingstone did advocate the introduction of commerce and Christianity in the form of Christian settlers to bring an end to the East African slave trade. However the missionaries who penetrated into Central Africa in response to Livingstone’s call were incapable of putting an end to the trade.
The Arab and Swahili-run slave trade in Malawi (or Nyasaland as it was then known) was subdued by Harry Johnston, who was initially an agent of the British South Africa Company.
The company was itself set up by Cecil Rhodes under a charter granted by Queen Victoria. After 1894 the UK provided a grant in aid to pay for the administration of Nyasaland, and in the following year Johnston defeated the Arab slaver Mlozi at the northern end of Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi).
Richard A A Deveria
Aberfeldy
Personal responsibility must be taught at school
While agreeing with Angela Haggerty that "we demand social responsibility from our social network masters", nevertheless I think that we as a society must also foster personal responsibility (Why social media is ripping apart the fabric of our society, Comment, December 17).
To this end, home and school should focus on three Rs – rights, responsibilities and respect – both for yourself and others.
E McDermott
Bothwell
ABORTION AT HOME PILL IS ABHORRENT
The willingness of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) to mount a legal challenge against Scottish Government plans allowing home abortions is to be praised and I wish them every success (Challenge over home abortion, News, December 17). That the Scottish Government is even contemplating allowing women to take the abortion pill at home is horrific.
The truth is children will be killed with greater ease and efficiency, but children will still be killed. Abortion pills will not change the grisly reality of abortion.
Not only children, but women will suffer from the abortion drugs. RU-486 presents considerable medical risk. Then there are the psychological ramifications. Several medical appointments will be needed and women must live with what happens after taking the pills for at least a full week; this is an appalling psychological ordeal.
Even if a “safe” child-killing drug was developed, the tragedy would not be minimised. There is no clean way to kill children, and there is no way that child-killing can leave any society unscarred.
Martin Conroy
Cockburnspath
THE HUMBLE SHALL INHERIT AUSTERITY
Your newspaper purports to be in favour of an independent Scotland. Yet you have the good grace and open mind to print the excellent letters from ardent unionist protagonists: Carol Ford and Keith Howell (Look out behind you, it’s the Brexit pantomime, Letters, December 10). Their logical and well-reasoned letters highlight how stupid it would be for a dependent country such as Scotland to govern itself.
If Scotland became independent, the final curtain would fall on the “British imperial state”; the British political establishment would lose their status and standing in the world and that fine democratic institution, the House of Lords, would probably have to be wound up and disbanded.
The SNP and others who campaign for independence are not just a nuisance who cause annoyance and discord when our great leaders, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, David Davis etc are doing their utmost to secure our release from being a mere constituent nation in the Franco-German controlled EU trading bloc.
Meanwhile we, the general public, who are only disposable subjects in an increasingly autocratic monarchist state, must be grateful to humbly accept our continuing austerity, while our glorious political masters strive to re-establish Britain’s standing as a “world power”.
J Quinn
NOT SUPPORTING INDEPENDENCE ISN’T EXTREME
Richard Walthew dismisses those who don’t support independence for “lack of ambition” (If it takes a hard border, so be it, Letters, December 17). He seems happy to pursue independence at any cost, including if necessary putting up barriers between us and our nearest neighbours. Meanwhile many like me who before the 2014 referendum were not politically active, now find themselves labelled “ardent Unionists”. What a strange world when simply wanting to avoid the people of the UK being torn apart is portrayed as an extreme position.
Keith Howell, West Linton