Disasters and climate change

SIR – Your briefing on natural disasters discounted the possibility of a connection between global warming and weather-related events (“Counting the cost of calamities”, January 14th). You referred to a recent study from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, correctly noting its conclusion that the number of tropical cyclones is not likely to increase. What you did not mention is that the same report also says that the average maximum wind speed of tropical cyclones, which determines how destructive they are, probably will increase. Furthermore, last year's devastation in Thailand was the result of extremely heavy monsoon rains, not a tropical cyclone. Among its other conclusions the IPCC's report states that the frequency of heavy precipitation is also likely to increase.

The early signs of the relationship between climate change and weather are already being seen. As a recent article in Nature on the same subject puts it, “weather-related events are generally on the rise.”

Although there is no doubt that economic development is an important cause of losses from natural disasters, it is also becoming more clear that global warming is leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events, and that this trend will continue in the future.

Robert Dickinson
Climate Strategy Advisors
Menlo Park, California

Canadian energy

* SIR – Regarding your article on emissions that described Alberta's oil sands as “tar sands”, I would like to point out that technically there is no tar in the sands you were referring to, which more accurately would be called bituminous sands (“Greening the skies”, January 7th). In addition, the characterisation of oil sands as a “dirty business” disregards the fact that Alberta is the only Canadian jurisdiction to levy a carbon-emissions tax on its big industrial emitters, including the oil-sands business. With the majority of the world's oil reserves located in countries with poor environmental standards and questionable human-rights records, one could argue that Canada's oil sands represent the most significant strategic asset available to Western economies.

We released a report, Changing the Climate, in 2011 with important recommendations, such as better environmental performance, comprehensive carbon pricing and a Canadian energy strategy. We are pushing for these solutions to be adopted and expect progress in the near future.

That said, in the absence of a balanced debate these facts are ignored. Balance begins with removing bias from the terms of engagement and The Economist owes at least this much to the developed world, which stands to benefit substantively from Canadian oil sands.

Ben Brunnen
Chief economist
Calgary Chamber of Commerce

Parental custody in Japan

SIR – Regarding your article on parental access to children after divorce in Japan, I take issue with your conclusion that “a country that has long sought redress for the past abduction of a few dozen citizens by the North Korean state tacitly supports vast numbers of abductions each year at home” (“Child-snatchers”, January 21st). This juxtaposes parental access to children with the abduction of Japanese nationals perpetrated by the North Korean authorities, which infringes upon Japan's sovereignty as well as the lives and safety of Japanese people. Linking these two issues constitutes a blatant disregard for the facts and undermines efforts by the international community to rescue victims of abduction.

Moreover, Japanese judges are not hesitant to recognise parental access, despite what you suggest. Japan believes that it is important for parents who do not live with their children to have access to them even after divorce. The courts have generally ensured that parents without custody are granted access, from the viewpoint of children's welfare.

The government of Japan is deeply sympathetic to the suffering of children and families involved in parental-access disputes between Japanese and foreign nationals. The government puts the welfare of children first; it intends to conclude the Hague Convention as early as possible and is sparing no effort to ensure that this happens.

Hiroshi Suzuki
Embassy of Japan

Table talk

SIR – You wrote that a “grand bargain” with Iran “is still worth tabling” (“Not quite too late”, January 21st). Are we talking about the British meaning of tabling (to put on the table to discuss, to submit for consideration) or the American definition (to put on the table for later, to postpone)? I assume the sentence carried the British connotation, but how would Iranians read it?

James Potter
Charlottesville, Virginia

Remembering Ceausescu

SIR – You began your article on rioting in Romania with the observation that “Romanians are not often thought of as combustible folk” (“Anger management”, January 21st). You have a very short memory. Some 20 years ago Romania was the only communist east European country in which its leader, and his spouse, were rather combustibly shot dead.

Eric Merkel-Sobotta

Solar can shine in India

SIR – Your report on energy in India focused on the country's reliance on coal, pointing out that this was problematic because Coal India would not be able to provide enough of it (“The future is black”, January 21st). The article completely ignored the potential impact of solar photovoltaic cells, the cost of which is rapidly declining. By 2017 solar power is expected to be competitive with thermal coal plants that use more costly imported coal. The gestation period of large coal plants is six to seven years. The gestation period of solar plants is less than a year. Hence India can afford to stop investing in coal immediately and rapidly put up large solar PV plants beyond 2016.

This will enable existing capacity to be used round the clock, and therefore increase power generation. Beyond 2017 solar energy costs will continue to decline, making it competitive at some point with low-cost coal as well.

Nadir Godrej

SIR – India's power-distribution process is the biggest hindrance to meeting energy demand. India recently had the capacity to produce 185 gigawatts of electricity, but the peak time supply was 118GW, which fell short of demand by some 10%. The latest “Electric Power Survey of India” states that the inefficient transmission and distribution process “loses” about 30% of electricity, compared with 6% in America and China.

Amit Ananpara

Artistic freedom?

*SIR – You called the shelving of the Stop Online Piracy Act a “victory for the pirates” (“Stopping SOPA”, January 21st). But SOPA is ill-conceived, as long as it grants holders of intellectual property an ability to compel third parties to action. Violation of intellectual property is a problem, but the “emergency” underlying such measures fails to exist.

People fail to respect copyright, and this is often blamed on the internet, but consider today's intellectual-property regime: a push for ever-increasing terms, attacks on fair use (sampling is nothing new, as the cantus firmus and parody masses of the Middle Ages and Renaissance demonstrate), bullying in lawsuits against individuals (a college student's life savings is far beyond a reasonable penalty for file-sharing), and laws making it illegal to play a legally purchased DVD on an open-source operating system.

Rather than enacting hasty laws to protect a system that people feel justified in violating, we should consider a better approach to intellectual property. Granting artists a limited monopoly on the use and reproduction of their works gives them time and financial incentive to enrich our culture with new creations. In this vein, copyright terms should be shortened, as the current term of 70 years or more provides no incentive for new work and impoverishes culture by interfering with the way in which art builds upon art.

The definition of a derivative work should be tightened to include adaptations while exempting new works that borrow from existing sources. Incentives or compulsory licenses should be put in place to encourage publishing companies to move to new distribution and pricing models. Inexpensive sources of digital music like Amazon's MP3 store have already done more to curtail illegal downloading than all the recording industry's lawsuits combined.

Adam Emerson
Ann Arbor, Michigan

* SIR – Stopping online piracy is a bad idea for the millions of people who like to steal music. As a moderately successful songwriter and one-time recording artist, I am angered and disillusioned to know that for every 20 songs downloaded, only one is paid for. Fellow songwriters who once supported themselves and their families by pursuing their craft are left without income, their lives shattered.

Stealing songs off the internet is no different from stealing a piece of clothing from a department store, or a print from an art gallery. Why do so many people believe that singers and songwriters should not be paid for their work or protected from theft?

Rob Crosby

Plane accounting

SIR – You noted the rise in leasing aircraft by airlines, but did not mention new accounting changes that could affect an airline's decision on whether to purchase or rent a jet (“Buy or rent”, January 21st). The proposal is that the distinction between a “finance lease” and an “operating lease” be erased from the accounting lexicon. This will remove the beneficial effect of operating leases in respect of debt covenants, as they will no longer allow for a favourable debt-to-equity ratio when compared with finance leases. This change should therefore eliminate a short-term incentive to lease rather than buy aircraft.

Tom Boden

Inconvenience stores

SIR – Oh dear. Your article on town-centre retailing has forced me to confront my shopping profile (“Nation of shop critics”, January 21st). Within a ten-minute drive of my home there is a proper high street with butcher, greengrocer and other small shops, but inconvenient parking. There is also a supermarket with almost everything I need and plenty of parking. I extol the virtues of the former and shop at the latter. And if I need to buy books I'll click on Amazon, where parking availability is not an issue.

Should I feel guilty or just accept that this is the reality for city-dwellers in 2012?

Trudy Payne

Fifty, fit and miserable

SIR – Reading about how near-starvation diets and vigorous exercise can boost longevity (“Worth all the sweat”, January 21st) brought to mind a remark by Clement Freud: “If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving you don't actually live longer—it just seems longer.”

Thellen Levy
San Francisco

* Letter appears online only