Climate Change
I HAVE noticed that this paper, and apparently much more of the local public are becoming more concerned with the effects of climate change.
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I am not saying that the possibility of man-made climate change, if it exists, is not something we should be concerned about; we should find better, cleaner and less wasteful ways of living without polluting our planet.
What I do find concerning, however, is the naive assumption that if we stop polluting our environment all of our problems will be solved. There are still the problems of poverty, over-population, corporate greed and governments.
Malcolm McCulloch, Pipers River.
Not much success for Bob Brown
BOB Brown's not having much success with his fun car stop rallies at present.
What about one to stop all that energy going to waste down Tasmania's Franklin River?
Gordon Thurlow, Launceston.
Pension Increase
WHEN you are an old age pensioner you lose the capacity to earn extra money to meet the escalating cost of living.
It is a forgone conclusion that when the rates, power, petrol, rent, food, rise, pensioners have no chance of meeting the increase.
Politicians get a yearly pay rise to meet these additional costs, far in access of a pension and feel no pain.
Yet they are strutting around like Christmas turkeys patting themselves on the back for being so benevolent, when they are only correcting an obvious rip off of deeming in the first place.
If budgets will not allow increases then for heaven's sake control the cost of living.
Peter Doddy, Trevallyn.
Gorge Gondalas
SKYWAY, no way.
This has to be the most inappropriate development out of a whole line-up of oddball tourism ideas hell-bent on molesting our natural settings in Tassie.
The Skyway website images miss out the cable cars, pylon poles and cables crossing over the suspension bridge.
The whole lovely unique sense of being in a small scale bowl-like amphitheatre natural space (AKA Basin) featuring natural cliffs, rocks, water and trees will be forever lost if we allow this place to be clogged up by cable cars, pylons and wires.
This development proposal is seriously at odds with every value we hold dear for this special place of ours. You can walk around the Gorge. And, now it can be traversed by wheelchair via the inclinator and new paths are fantastic. Thank you City of Launces and Parks and Wildlife Department.
No other city has this unique natural experience within 10 minutes walk of its centre. Why is this even on the table? The Gorge is a public space, valued for its natural setting.
Jack Birrell, Launceston.
Australia's Future?
HOUSING is way too expensive, banking practices are fraudulent, construction standards are criminal, and the consequences are mounting. The insanity must stop.
We are heading for even more pain for the public through measures like "bail-in" - seizing deposits to save banks. Australia needs a thorough overhaul of its financial system and economy, starting with a Glass-Steagall separation of banks so they cannot speculate, and a national bank that can start investing in productive infrastructure and industries in order to restructure the economy away from being concentrated on financial services, housing construction and raw materials exports, into downstream processing, high-tech manufacturing and an agricultural production powerhouse.
Rod Force, Sandy Bay.
Climate wrecking
MIKE Seward (The Examiner, July 17) in your criticism of the media you demonstrate inconsistent logic. On the one hand you have obviously formed your views on climate change "alarmist twaddle" by accepting the media coverage of a certain unashamedly biased media empire.
You then proceed to criticise the media hoo ha about the supposed stash of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Mike, has it not occurred to you that it was that very same media empire promoting this deception. We all know the media coverage in this country is not the same.
Ralph Marshall, Launceston.
Energy
I CAN'T believe to what lengths organisations including government, are going to avoid helping homeowners produce some of their own electricity through solar systems.
Now we have a peak body, AEMC, suggesting that we pay industry to shut down during peak demand times such as heatwave conditions.
This would be done by selling electricity they would not be using back to the grid. In other words they would be paid for electricity they are not using.
Why not pay homeowners more for the excess electricity they produce from solar systems. This electricity is usually produced during heatwave conditions, such as mid-day times.
Everyone should be encouraged to be more electricity independent.
Yes there are technical problems for the grid with increased solar production but paying industry to shut down during peak demand is a poor use of public monies.
With my own modest 3.5kw system and solar hot water, I can easily produce more than enough electricity for my own use of an air conditioner during summer.
Being less reliant on grid delivered electricity means more for industry and less use of our limited water resources.
Jeff Jennings, Bridport.