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JERRY Murphy of the Environmental Research Institute at UCC claims grasslands are under-utilised and could be used to make biofuels (April 15).

However, fertilisers are needed and these are made from oil or gas feedstock requiring huge inputs of energy to manufacture. Also the grass has to be harvested and transported, and of course the manufacture of each car still requires about a tonne of fossil oil and the use of finite mineral reserves. This is neither sustainable nor carbon-neutral

Imagine a carbon neutral means of transport that not only harvests the grass, but also produces fertiliser and can reproduce itself without any cost or human intervention — it’s known as the horse.

Horses have been used for thousands of years and up until recently were the main means of land transport — they still are in many countries. They are the only genuinely sustainable form of transport along with sailing ships and shank’s pony.

Michael Job

Rossnagrena

Glengarriff

Co Cork