source : the age
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The UN Environment Program report concludes that humanity has failed to keep climate change below 1.5degrees (″Pacific anger at Australia after climate target failure″, 3/9). This should be front-page news. Pacific nations, who literally used the slogan ″1.5 to stay alive″, have every right to be angry with the pro-gas Albanese government, whose Resources Minister Madeleine King recently celebrated turning on the tap for fossil gas fracked from the Beetaloo Basin. Climate change, made worse by digging up and burning coal, oil and gas is an existential challenge that affects us all. Like your correspondents (Letters, 3/9), I want to see the Albanese government set out a clear plan to phase out coal, oil and gas and provide permanent protection for Australia’s native forests. That would be real climate action.
Sarah Brennan, Hawthorn
I’m doing my bit, but politicians aren’t
I’ve installed solar panels and a battery, switched to efficient electric appliances, drive an EV, moved my savings and super out of fossil fuels, eat mostly local vegetarian food, buy second-hand and minimise waste, and usually take road trips for holidays. I love these healthy changes and feel I’m doing my bit to live a climate-conscious life.
Yet here we are, just 11 years after the historic Paris Agreement, and the UN Environment Program says the world will breach 1.5°C of warming within the next few years. By supporting and enabling the expansion of coal, oil and gas, the industries driving climate change, elected representatives are failing us. As your correspondent argues, it is only the Greens, Community Strong Australia and independent MPs who are prepared to put the public interest ahead of the fossil fuel industry’s interests (″Most politicians should be ashamed″, 3/9). Australians are playing our part; it’s time our politicians played theirs.
Amy Hiller, Kew
Policies fuel neighbours’ existence
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called out China for having ″no respect″ for Pacific nations by conducting missile testing in their region (″Albanese blasts China’s missile testing in the Pacific″, 4/9). The acute irony seems to have escaped him. Albanese and his government have shown no respect for Pacific nations by continuing to approve new and expanded coal and gas mines in Australia. The atmospheric pollution they generate by their operations and by the burning of their product worsens the global warming that puts Pacific nations in clear and present danger from rising sea levels. Diplomatic initiatives aimed at warding off Chinese influence in the Pacific are at odds with Australia’s refusal to take responsibility for fuel policies that put our island neighbours’ survival at stake. Perhaps the right word is not irony but hypocrisy.
Tom Knowles, Parkville
THE FORUM
All aboard the trams
Finally, the Melbourne tramways general scheme of 1923 gets remembered (″The 100-year-old map that shows what Melbourne commuters are missing out on″, 4/9). The scheme would have doubled the city’s tram network, reaching far into the suburbs.
It’s incredibly pertinent to our times as the city faces an unfolding congestion trap of its own making. In a few short years the city will be experiencing periodic gridlock as our roads and streets fill to capacity. What a shame that the scheme wasn’t implemented but wait, we still have the skills and know how to build it.
Don’t waste our money on the SRL, make trams!
Greg Gardiner, Brunswick
Family legacy
How fantastic that reporter Alexander Darling has highlighted the work of our grandfather Tom Strickland who designed one of our famous trams and created their networks. If only modern-day leaders were as committed to public services and access as he was.
Peta Colebatch, Hawthorn
Attracting male teachers
Matt Canavan would like to see more male teachers in schools. More men would be interested in teaching if all teachers were much better paid, if classroom supports were improved to reduce the excessive workload, and if politicians stopped sledging teachers.
Eileen Ray, Ascot Vale
… and its obstacles
Nationals leader Matt Canavan attacks what he calls the “feminisation” of curriculum and teaching and asks where all the male teachers are. I can give him three reasons why more men don’t go into teaching. One, the pay is not as enticing as in male-dominated professions; two, society does not respect teachers but instead blames them for all the bad behaviour of children and asks teachers to be a parent/social worker/counsellor and teacher; and three, it’s too much work – it’s not an easy, straightforward, nine-to-five job.
Robyn Westwood, Heidelberg Heights
Kindness of people
The assistance received when your correspondent had a fall in the street is not at all surprising (Letters, 3/9), because basically people are kind. I think of that as the default position.
However, what is very alarming, is that the default position seems to be progressively swinging the other way.
Barbara Hilling, Watsonia North
Smoking factors
Was the price of cigarettes ever a deterrent for smokers in past years? Or was the ending of persuasive advertising a major factor in lessening the injurious habit? Smoking lost its allure for many when the imagery of lighting up a cigarette lost its stylised appeal when the Marlboro man died of cancer and Yul Brynner publicly stated he was dying from lung cancer. Myriad factors over decades have brought down the smoking rates in Australia and it shouldn’t be forgotten the role public education played in doing so.
The effect on health through smoking, particularly lung cancer, became a given fact. Yet now the debate is almost entirely about the price.
There seems to be little acknowledgment of a time when so many factors combined to significantly bring down smoking rates and then raising cigarette prices was seen as the ultimate deterrent. But doesn’t reliance on one policy lever have limitations?
Des Files, Brunswick
Scrooge lives
Excuse me but I’m fuming. Scrooge is looming over television sets in aged care homes (“Ask Noel Whittaker”, 2/9). A demand for a daily fee of $5.50 for a resident to watch television in their own room because it’s an “additional service”?
What have we become?
Jane Ross, San Remo
Ship as metaphor
Despite the Trump administration’s propaganda spin, the photo of the rusty US super-carrier Abraham Lincoln after “nearly nine months at sea to support US operations against Iran”, is not a good look (“US warship shows strain after long deployment”, 4/9). It’s a visual metaphor for a US president and military, who have bitten off more than they can chew.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills
Insanely happy
Here I was feeling unhappy reading all these articles about the devastation that is being and will be caused by AI. I thought something must be wrong for us to so blindly follow the lead of the people from Silicon Valley. Then I realised, AI doesn’t mean Artificial Intelligence, it means Absolute Insanity. I feel happier now.
Stan Thomson, Sandringham
Don’t take it as read
Algorithms ensure people remain in their echo chambers, consuming content that confirms their world view. In the past, we were told: “Don’t believe everything you read.” Nowadays, we need to be told, “Don’t read everything you believe.”
Sarah Russell, Mount Martha
Time of dumbing down
I googled for a solution to an electrical problem in my 53-year-old MG Midget and obtained a detailed and very helpful answer that I had no reason to doubt the accuracy of. Looking at videos of people, dogs, dolphins etc, etc that appear uninvited on Facebook I am becoming increasingly unable to tell if they are real or AI fakes. I think I’m reasonably well-educated and able to think for myself, so I’m concerned for all the people who in recent decades have not had the opportunity to develop this for themselves because of the pervasive effect of screens. We are now seeing teachers who have grown up with the insidious dumbing down that occurs due to too much screen time who, probably without realising, now know less than their teachers did. This is how dumbing down occurs from generation to generation, and is the inevitable result of unchecked AI.
Don Jordan, Mount Waverley
Don’t follow Queensland
More evidence that the Queensland government is determined to undermine and delay Australia’s transition to a post-carbon economy (“A quarter-million-dollar mistake”, 4/9). Despite the accelerating climate crisis, the greater financial costs, and the greater public health risks, Queensland continues to advance the interests of the fossil fuel industry. The opposition in Victoria has given every indication that it will follow the same path.
There is no doubt that Victorian Labor needs a kick in the pants for the rorts occurring through major infrastructure projects, but its objectives in delivering these projects and pursuing the energy transition remain sound.
Victorians can censure Labor without installing an unstable, economically damaging, and environmentally dangerous Coalition/One Nation alliance by voting for independents and Greens.
Graeme Henchel, Yarra Glen
Inspiring story
How inspiring to read the story of the Cozzo family (“Cozzo girls ready to baroque Brunswick again”, 4/9). Of course it is a tale of Franco Cozzo’s success as a businessman. It is also a story of a beloved father, whose four daughters are restarting his business in harmony. It is a story of a young man coming here from Italy and working hard to set up a well-loved business. Not mentioned is his wife, who raised 10 children while her husband was busy with his work. Especially inspiring that the community is eagerly anticipating the reopening in two weeks.
We need more families like this.
Jan Marshall, Brighton
Nature of things
Mother nature has been sending messages and warnings – together with the scientists – regarding the environment for decades now. All seems to be falling on deaf ears. When nature takes charge of her domain there might not be any survivors.
After all, nature doesn’t need people.
Helena Kilingerova, Vermont
AND ANOTHER THING
Politics
If Josh Frydenberg packs his kitbag for another stint in politics, he needs to leave out the lump of coal (″Stars aligning for Frydenberg 2.0″, 4/9).
Jenny Smithers, Ashburton
Recycling Tony Abbott, followed potentially by Josh Frydenberg: the Liberals’ aversion to renewables knows no bounds.
Bernd Rieve, Brighton
If Josh Frydenberg is the answer to the Liberal Party’s woes, it is in even bigger trouble than we thought.
Annie Wilson, Inverloch
Angus Taylor is promoting price matching between legal and illegal tobacco products. Fantastic. Great move. Well done.
Dawn Richards, Huntingdale
The glacier failure in Nepal puts a nail in the coffins of the climate deniers and sceptics frequenting the Coalition and One Nation.
Greg Curtin, Nunawading
Warren Pickering, please explain your statement of our ″opportunities to partake in the future of nuclear energy″.
Bill Burns, Bendigo
Furthermore
The manosphere and misogynistic attitudes are the urgent problems for teenage boys. They don’t need to have an opinion about abortion.
Kate Ingram, Surrey Hills
Having spent a lifetime in sales and sales management I have always believed you’re only as good as your training (″OK, I bottled the interview, but the question was a corker″, 4/9).
Louise Lawson, Point Cook
The NFL has found that about a quarter of deceased former players had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). And they wear helmets (″AFL accused of stalling on head trauma research as chilling NFL findings emerge″, 29/8).
Tim Durbridge, Brunswick
Finally
Why not build data centres in the desert? Plenty of space, no neighbours to complain. Plenty of sunshine to make electricity. Plenty of artesian water to cool the computers. What could go wrong?
Doug Springall, Yarragon
