Letters to the editor

The CO₂ vacuum cleaner pioneers from Zurich-Oerlikon

Interesting! All industrial processes generate waste heat, so in industry the filter-regeneration phase comes for free. The problem arises when with best intentions industry tries to dispose of the resulting pure CO₂ gas (which will have to be compressed for delivery – another energy-consuming process). Makers of carbonated drinks are indeed possible customers, but in their place I would want to be the driver of the project, and this turns around the marketing process logic. The other applications appear to be years in the future.

Eric Winkler, Great Britain

I also think that we humans should try to be as environmentally friendly as possible. This is why I support all measures to reduce CO₂ levels in the atmosphere. The best proven method is “terrestrial carbon dioxide removal” through reforestation. New forests absorb vast amounts of CO₂. However, it is now clear that there is little interest in this effective and inexpensive alternative, simply because it is not a moneymaker. I am certain that the motives behind all this CO₂-related hysteria are mainly economic. Instead of planting a few trees, businesses like the one in the article prefer to make huge amounts of money developing gigantic and environmentally harmful CO₂ vacuum cleaners.

Reto Derungs, Dominican Republic

Drought in “Europe’s water reservoir”

My suggestion to solve the problem and many other climate-related issues: fewer cows. Of course, this not only applies to Switzerland but even more to the European Union. Why not give some of our countryside back to Mother Nature?

Hans M. Hilber, Leinfelden, Germany

Julien Wanders: an African running style

Thank you for your wonderful article on this budding athlete, who is as young as he is promising. Above all, he seems highly motivated in his lifestyle choices, which entail immense sacrifices. We are all rooting for him, hoping he will succeed and reach the top!

Philippe Derolland, France

The legitimate banknote and the famous counterfeiter

Muy bien hecho Valaisans! This is just the safety net that “small fish” need to protect themselves from the excesses of that monstrosity called globalisation – both today and in the future. In my opinion, David Crettenand and his friends should be awarded the Nobel Prize for Antiglobalisation.

Walter Lieber, Colombia

The forerunner of the Swiss Economic Circle (WIR) originated in the Austrian state of Tyrol, where, based on Silvio Gesell’s Freigeld theory, the municipality of Wörgl issued “stamp scrip” – a local currency designed to be circulated and not hoarded. They used one-, five- and ten-schilling banknotes that lost one per cent of their value each month, hence these banknotes were spent much quicker. One of the secrets of “money” is the speed at which it circulates. Stamp scrip helped to increase the speed of circulation, and this led to widespread prosperity. Many businesses and residents took part in the scheme, not least because they were able to use the new currency to pay their municipal taxes. Valais must therefore be doing something right.

Alfred Schmitter, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Vacant churches: rent, sell, demolish?

As a practising Christian, the letter to the editor from Christopher Egli (USA), published in the January edition of Swiss Review really hurt and shocked me. Mr Egli wrote that he was happy to see the number of religious people in Switzerland declining and wished that this was the case everywhere. I vehemently object to his statement and find it degrading. The reality is different in my experience. For example, life in our parish near Hamburg is built on faith, tolerance and forgiveness. Is Mr Egli advocating that we all become atheists or that we start following some sort of substitute religion? If he is, then he is forgetting the other side of the coin, the sad fact of the ongoing persecution of Christians in countries like Iran, China, Pakistan and North Korea, where Christians not only end up in prison but sometimes also end up dead.

Hans Jürgen Siegenthaler, Itzsedt, Germany