IN some ways I have to agree with Richard Sykes (Choice of science or salesmanship, Craven Herald letters, October 19).

All we can do is read all the reports in the press or the internet put out by one side or the other plus what politicians spout about and most of them only repeat what they have been told, having no more in depth knowledge of climate change than you or I.

Both those on the side of ecological disaster and those who produce fossil fuels have an agenda and a living to make out of what they do. It doesn’t take long on the internet to find reports that contradict each other with wildly varying statistics.

Scientists who want to keep their funding will lean their findings to what their backers want. And, the backers on both sides will pick out and use only the information that fits with their agendas. Even if someone produced a totally independent report on the state of the planet one side or the other would disbelieve it. So most of us are still in the dark and have to pick a side that suits us or remain sceptical.

As with many things big business and politics directs the narrative and us everyday people in the streets have to bear the brunt of things.

Paul Morley

Long Preston