Sir - 2007 is the 50th anniversary of the first scientific report that CO2 causes global warming.

Before that, scientists knew human industry was increasing atmospheric CO2 but thought the oceans would absorb it.

Then in 1957, oceanographer Dr Roger Revelle and chemist Dr Hans Suess showed that increased CO2 would not disappear in the sea, but would change the world's climate. Atmospheric CO2 has always fluctuated, but, since the 18th-century, industrialisation has raised it to unprecedented levels.

Since at least 1950, global temperature increase has mirrored CO2 increase. Scientists now know other gases including methane and nitrous oxides also harm the climate, and that human activity emits them at dangerous rates too.

Dr Revelle taught Al Gore. Our High Court has found the climate science for which Gore and the IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was "broadly accurate, supported by a vast quantity of research published in peer-reviewed journals worldwide and by the great majority of the world's climate scientists".

Oil, gas and coal provide concentrated, convenient forms of energy unprecedented in human history. But we burn more while supplies dwindle. And uranium supplies are too sparse for nuclear power to fill the gap. From the mid-1950s onwards, Dr Revelle and "peak oil" geoscientist Dr MK Hubbert argued that plentiful fossil fuels were accelerating world population growth. Humans now number 6.5 billion and are increasing ever more quickly. It is estimated the Earth without fossil fuels could sustain only about 1.5 billion. The more fuel we burn, the more quickly we bring disaster.

Hugh Jaeger, Oxford