Sir, - In his Science Today column "Is there a world population crisis?" (August 10th), William Reville referred to the environmental damage we can see "in the form of the enhanced greenhouse effect, acid rain, etc.,"
Just a year ago, in a Science Today column on smoking addiction, Dr Reville wrote that "smoking makes an important contribution to enhancing the greenhouse effect." In a letter to The Irish Times (August 1, 1997) - which you succintly headed "Enhancing" - I pointed out that, since to enhance has the connotation of improving something already of good quality, surely what Dr Reville had meant to say was just the opposite?
Perhaps I was remiss then in not suggesting a more appropriate word, such as worsening or deteriorating, in lieu of enhancing.
But then, one can only lead a horse to water . . . - Yours, etc., Myles Crowe
Seapoint, Co Dublin.