Glennis Sleurink, Launceston

EXCELLENT editorial piece by Rob Shaw (The Examiner, April 16).

For me, the most concerning aspect of all of this is the deliberate sacrifice of club football and the entire Tasmanian player development stream in order to empire build at the Devils.

If all talent and development is centralised at the Devils, from 7 year old up, who will they play, who will they watch? Or are the Devils planning on kids' football to have to travel interstate each week?

Charlotte Day, Launceston

IT IS commendable that the Department of State Growth has finally acknowledged that speed limits needed to be reduced between Scamander and St Helens. However they should have reduced the allowable speed to 80 km/h (not 90kmh) between the northern end of Beaumaris through to St Helens including the recently upgraded section of highway because this is the most dangerous section of the Highway. The road from Scamander through Beaumaris is relatively straight while there are numerous curves north of Beaumaris and this is where most accidents occur. There are also several concealed accesses from private property and beach accesses.

Another reason to reduce the speed to 80 km/h is that research shows that decreasing the allowable speed can reduce roadkill by up to 50 per cent (Distribution and abundance of roadkill on Tasmanian highways: human management options Alistair J. Hobday A,B,D and Melinda L. Minstrell) The Beaumaris to St Helens section of the Highway is heavily vegetated with there being a number of Land For Wildlife and Covenanted private properties as well as Parks and Wildlife Conservation Areas on the coast. As such it is an important wildlife corridor where speed limits should seek to limit roadkill. In the last week alone two Tasmanian Devils have been run over near Dianas Basin.

Todd Dudley, President, North East Bioregional Network

RECENTLY I was having a discussion with a group of friends and the topic of climate change was raised.

I was very surprised to hear that the majority of people present indicated no fear at all concerning using fossil fuels to create energy. The general view was that our Prime Minister had a strong obligation to warn the people of Australia if using fossil fuels to create energy could be harmful. The fact that the Labor Party is presently approving many new coal and gas mines was raised and again most of the people attending made it clear that the Prime Minister surely would have warned if any harm could result from these actions, particularly in relation to human induced climate change.

With some hesitation I told the gathering that a great many scientists across the world have now been warning, for many years, that burning fossil fuels to create energy is causing great harm to many millions of people in the world and is a proven prime cause of human induced climate change.

I am strongly of the opinion that it is a great pity that many people in Australia are not sufficiently informed by our Federal Government concerning the very real problems that can result from burning fossil fuels to create energy.

Brian Measday, Kingswood SA

MY DAD, Mitre, is trying to locate his friend that lives in Launceston: Barry Smith, TAFE teacher. He had three kids. One kid I think was called Sid. Dad isn't well and would like to connect to Barry or find out what happened to him. It's a mystery.

Angelina Gjokov, Fairfield West NSW

WATCHING the rescues in NSW where idiotic drivers have driven into flood waters after numerous warnings, I wonder why they aren't made to pay the cost incurred by their stupidity. If that was the case they may think twice before ignoring advice and potentially endangering the lives of their rescuers.

Glennis Sleurink, Launceston