A world safe for robots and mammoths

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/20/a-world-safe-for-robots-and-mammoths

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Can it be right to bring back the mammoth (Report, 17 February)? It disappeared at the beginning of this man-made age of extinction. For it to be returned towards its end, with declining populations of elephants and rhinos, is irony itself. It also highlights that technology is now so poorly controlled that the march of scientific ability will continue to outpace its ethics. Is a world of super-intelligent robots and their woolly mammoth pets really the direction to be going in?Dr Colin BannonCrapstone, Devon

• Fun though it might be to see a woolly mammoth in the 21st century, I question the mammoth function in combating global warming. George Church says: “They keep the tundra from thawing by punching through snow and allowing cold air to come in,” and “In the summer they knock down trees and help the grass grow.” Couldn’t a bloke in a JCB do that? And a lot more cheaply, I imagine.Francis BlakeLondon

• Your analysis of transport spending shows that the term north-south divide is dated and should be replaced by “London-anywhere else divide” (London takes half of English transport spending, 20 February).Les BrightExeter, Devon

• There is one misdemeanor baby boomers can’t wriggle out of (Letters, 20 February). They keep voting in Tory governments.Phil GarnerDerby

• Beverley Mason’s mother made currant fat cakes from leftover currants and pastry in Hyde, Cheshire (Letters, 17 February). She asks us to guess what they were called in Eccles. It wasn’t Eccles cakes, which, as all Lancastrians know, are made from puff pastry. My mother would have called Beverley’s cakes flat cakes, which are similar to Chorley Cakes, yet another Lancashire delicacy.Terence HallManchester

• I write with some sadness, as I live not far from the Weetabix factory (Letters, passim), that a French friend thought Weetabix was only fed to horses.John MannIrchester, Northamptonshire

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