The difficulties at the National Media Museum (Report, 3 July) might be to do with the redevelopment of Bradford city centre and associated building work, but the fall in visitor numbers could also be linked to the change in name. The National Museum of Photography, Film and Television may have been a bit of a mouthful, but had something people could relate to, whereas the NMM is vague and does not resonate with the majority of potential visitors. Branding and rebranding are dark arts affecting the way things are perceived, and in this case may have back-fired.
Nigel Hamilton
Oxford

• It’s a lot worse than David England thinks (Letters, 2 July). Methane actually has 21 times the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide so just the leakage of 16% of methane causes 3.36 times as much greenhouse effect as burning it. All in all that would make it a far dirtier fuel than coal, which is only about twice as bad.
Peter Hanson
Exeter

• Someone should tell Nursultan Nazarbayev that the prime minister of the UK is not an elected position (‘I’d vote for you’, 2 July). He could only vote for Cameron (as his local MP) if he lived in the constituency of Witney. Perhaps he is planning to move there?
Michael Short
St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex

• Derek Middlemiss is obviously correct about your unwillingness to review what are essentially cover bands (Letters, 3 July), and while you’re about it, there’s too much coverage of artists enacting other people’s plays rather than their own. And don’t get me started about those so-called “dancers” who have never composed a ballet in their lives.
Martin Skinner
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

• Peter Leach asks how he might become consummate (Letters, 3 July). With ease, Peter, with ease.
Alan Saunders
Yattendon, Berkshire

• Taxpayers, customers, people, fairness and creativity are at the heart of various organisations. Is there any other part of the anatomy they’re ever put?
Mike Smith
Southampton

Tony Abbott has pared back the money available to his “green army”, recommitting to the 2010 election policy but saying it will now take five years for its “troops” to grow to the promised 15,000.

In 2010 Abbott’s green army – a voluntary program for 17-to-24 year olds to do practical environmental work – was allocated $400 million over four years. The 2013 version has $300 million to spend.

In both 2010 and 2013 the program began with a $50 million allocation. In 2010, that was estimated to be enough to pay for 4000 six-month training places, or 2000 army recruits at any one time. In 2013, after increases in the national training wage, the starting numbers in the army would have to be fewer than 2000.

The Coalition has not provided a detailed year-by-year cost breakdown for the 2013 version of the green army. It says it will still build to a 15,000 strong workforce, but this will now take five years. In the first four years no more than the new allocation of $300 million will be available. It says that will be enough for 1,500 projects.

Announcing the policy yesterday, the opposition leader said one of the first green army projects would be along the Georges River in Sydney.

Army recruits can be school leavers, students on a gap year, or young unemployed for whom it can act as an alternative work for the dole program. It will be administered by the environment department and projects will be chosen for their environmental benefit, contribution to the local community and capacity to provide the participants with training in specific skills.

As examples of possible projects, the coalition policy paper cites weed eradication, construction of sea walls, rehabilitating river banks and restoring walking tracks.

Abbott said the army “complements” the coalition’s “direct action” approach to climate change.

“At the same time as improving the local environment, the green army will foster teamwork, local ownership and community spirit in our young people,” he said.

The largest algal bloom ever recorded in China has turned the Yellow Sea green and may be related to pollution from agriculture and industry.

Officials in the city of Qingdao had used bulldozers to remove 7,335 tonnes of the growth from beaches according to the Xinhua news agency.

The phenomenon has become an annual occurrence in the region over the past six summers. This year’s incident has swathed 28 900 sq km (11 158 sq miles), twice as much as the previous biggest bloom in 2008.

The algae, called Enteromorpha prolifera, is not toxic to humans or animals.

However the carpet on the surface can dramatically change the ecology of the environment beneath it. It blocks sunlight from entering the ocean and sucks oxygen from the water suffocating marine life.

The algae thrives on an abundance of nutrients in the sea. University of Cambridge and EnAlgae Project researcher Dr Brenda Parker said that the Chinese bloom may well be linked to industrial pollution.

“Algal blooms often follow a massive discharge of phosphates or nitrates into the water. Whether it’s farming, untreated sewage or some kind of industrial plant that is discharging waste into the water,” she said.

The recent explosion of the algae pointed to a dramatic change in the ecosystem which was probably not natural.

“That would probably be an indicator that something is a little bit unbalanced,” said Parker.

She said that the 2009 example algal bloom on the Brittany coast was a similar example of a human-induced algal bloom.