Letter: Excessive freight

GEOFFREY LEAN's article on the World Trade Organisation ("Bio- piracy", 28 November) makes no mention of climate changes. No amount of reform to the WTO can address the fact that the transport required to shift millions of tonnes of food and other products around the world is intrinsically damaging. Since the industrial revolution over 700 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide have been released into the atmosphere; half of this since the 1970s. An increasingly globalised economy can only exacerbate this problem.

World trade does not "relieve the plight of the poor"; instead it leads to more floods, cyclones and hurricanes, adding to the toll of human misery.

PM EASTWOOD

Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire