IN light of the recent addition of the green tax' levied on the air transport industry by this Government, I think it is time for a little considered thinking on the whole global warming debate.

Anyone who watched the BBC TV series The British Isles, presented by Alan Titchmarsh, would have been made aware of the fact that in geological time Britain has been both a tropical paradise and buried beneath an ice sheet.

There can be no doubt the climate of the planet changes. There may be a change happening at the moment. However, to maintain that the cause of this is human activity is a step too far.

When America has several devastating hurricanes in one year, environmentalists tell us how this is a sign of global warming and we must change our ways.

Where are they the next year when there is a relatively calm year? We hear all the time - "this was the wettest/hottest/driest year since records began."

These records cover what, a couple of hundred years?

How do we know that when we last slipped into an ice age that the climate didn't react in the same way that it is now? The simple fact is that we don't. We can't. We haven't been around long enough to understand the climate and how it changes.

However, all this talk of devastating climate change unless we react with great speed does hand all Governments a nice little earning opportunity.

Taxing fuel and taxing cars off the road has become the norm, even when there is no alternative in public transport. We do not all live in big cities separated by a single transport link, where we all work in the same areas, and can travel in the same direction.

We live in a country of little towns and villages, with small industrial estates and technology parks, which cannot be serviced by public transport. A fact which seems to have been overlooked by the Government's transport policy.

The Chancellor has looked to the skies with envy for some time now, desperate to get his hands into the pockets of the airlines. A green tax is the perfect solution. Who would argue with principle, given the devastation that will be wreaked upon the earth if he doesn't act? Trouble is, a £5 levy won't stop people using air travel.

Tax doesn't reduce carbon emissions in any way, how could it? Making people pay more for something does not stop it. It just makes it more expensive.

It does provide a nice little earner, based on the feeling it's the right thing to do for the planet. However, if there are no benefits to the environment from this tax, how can it be justified?

The Green debate is moving on to a dangerous area for our finances. It has now been recognised there is money to be made in seemingly justifiable green tax revenues. The benefits for the environment?

You'll have to work that one out for yourselves.

MR J STONE, Besant Close, Blackburn.