ALTHOUGH Councillor Salim Mulla's letter (LT, April 16) was about wider issues, he touched on a few minor points which need looking at.

He mentioned rice prices rising because of, among other things, cold weather in Asia.

Indeed, China and other countries in the region have just experienced the worst winter in living memory.

Ironically, China and India are being leaned on by western countries to slow their development because western scientists are liming that such development is warming the world up.

After the winter they have just experienced, Asian countries probably believe, quite logically, that the earth could do with a bit of warming.

Crops in general should be doing quite well if it's true that there is an over-abundance of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

One of the first scientific facts a child learns at school is that plants need carbon dioxide to grow. So have any gardeners out there been aware of a very noticeable surge in plant growth?

Despite scientists' computer modelling (which is the only evidence for global warming) science has to answer whether plants thrive on carbon dioxide - or not.

A CULVERHOUSE, Cavendish Street, Darwen.