Letters, December 14, 2022

Unsustainable

I’M bemused by Lynton Vonow’s suggestion that denouncing the actions of green overlords compliments the Greens.

Unlike Mr Vonow, I am not affiliated with any political party, activist, or lobby group.

My opinions are based on my life’s experiences – not politics.

I have been involved in the energy and mining industry for four decades and have a good insight of how it operates. Australia’s energy woes are not due to privatisation as electricity supplies in NSW are only partially privatised and fully government owned in WA, QLD, Tasmania and NT.

I’m curious if AGL’s new owners are keen on nationalisation of their assets.

For the record, I have no issues with renewable technology or anyone making an honest living from it.

What I object to is the hypocrisy and ignorance of those who perpetuate crazy ideologies using climate as a weapon.

The world currently gets 10% of its energy from wind and solar.

The notion that we can achieve net zero with this technology is insane and environmentally unsustainable.

It may shock some but the manufacture of renewables requires vast amounts of fossil fuel.

Perhaps a visit to a mineral mine, copper smelter or tailings ponds may change few people’s minds about what they are proposing.

K. Stachovic, Meadows

Scare campaign

IT appears the Federal National Party is ready to play the conservative fear campaign yet again against The Voice proposal that is yet to be introduced to Federal Parliament.

Are they about to resurrect the old right scare campaign that this would allow a wholesome takeover of our properties?

Wouldn’t it be good to at last be working together to provide a long overdue opportunity for First Nations people to be at the table when and if decisions affecting their sacred sites and culture are being discussed?

A time where no longer do we see foreign corporations crushing rock art at sacred sites so important to their traditions or removing Indigenous people’s connection with their traditional land without consultation.

Glen Chenoweth, Goolwa North

Land protection

IN an attempt to slow the abhorrent loss of our biodiversity, the Australian Government has committed to protecting 30% of Australia’s land by 2030.

The only problem lies within the definition of ‘protected’.

If an area is overflowing with cats, whether they be desexed or not, it would be fanciful to imagine that it is protected under any meaningful definition of the word ‘protected’.

It will therefore be interesting to see what sort of greenwash our government invents to hide the facts.

Perhaps they could appeal to Christine Pierson for help and use a bit of her Trumpian logic.

John Wamsley, Aldgate

Pandemic heroes

IN his letter last week (December 7), Clive Bulmer credits Scott Morrison with getting us through the worst pandemic in decades, saving thousands of lives in the process.

I don’t recall that at all.

What I do recall was Morrison in mid-March 2020 encouraging people to “go to the footy” before the premiers showed sanity and started closing borders to the like-minded NSW a couple of weeks later.  

I also recall his ongoing failure to establish effective quarantine and protect vulnerable people in nursing homes, while at the same time attacking Labor state governments to coerce them into relaxing effective control measures.

I remember him telling us we were at the “head of the queue” for the best treatments only to find we were at the back of the queue for one of the cheapest and least effective ones.  

As for economic stimulus, Morrison here too was slow to get going, with the premiers and chief ministers, Federal Labor and the Greens all calling for economic stimulus before Morrison announced he would act.

And to top that all off, we now know that Morrison appointed himself to a whole range of Ministerial positions that held decision making powers.

How was any of this good governance?

The factual reality is that Scott Morrison did not get us through the pandemic, saving thousands of lives in the process.

It was in fact the state premiers and chief ministers who showed leadership, shaped public policy, influenced the Commonwealth and protected the health system from collapse.

No doubt because none of these things were, as he was so fond of pointing out, his job.

David Baker, Lobethal

Nuclear power fear

AUSTRALIA must move on, away from the fear of nuclear power generated by those who lack even the basic knowledge of what the new generation of zero carbon emissions, no greenhouse gases, no weapons grade fissionable isotopes, nuclear generators can guarantee.

A pebble bed reactor ticks all these boxes. It’s never off line, just provides gigawatts of electricity for decades.

The trouble is we have a Federal Government whose only ambition is to stay in power by scaremongering tactics.

Clive Bulmer, Forreston

Balance

IT would be refreshing to see a modicum of balance in the world view of The Courier’s cartoonist.

Christopher Collins, Mt Barker

Environment laws

IT is extremely pleasing that Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek announced this month, that there is to be a complete overhaul of Australian National Environment laws.

Given that Australia has a native animal extinction crisis, and in fact is one of the world leaders for native animal  extinctions, and our forests are being cleared at a rate similar to that of the Congo and Amazon, the announcement, after years of environmental neglect, is certain to be welcomed by a great many people in Australia.

The announcement has all the hallmarks of being a day to remember for nature.

Brian Measday, Myrtle Bank

Nature optimism

I SHARE Brian Measday’s support for the National Reserve System – permanently protected areas for biodiversity (The Courier, December 7).

Sadly, while protecting 19.75% of Australia sounds pretty good, scientists have warned that, at minimum, 30% of our habitat needs to be protected to avoid long-term biodiversity collapse – and many argue it needs to be higher.

Australia has the highest rate of extinction in the developed world, and a 2021 study found that 19 of Australia’s ecosystems are in imminent collapse or have already collapsed.

This nature crisis runs parallel, albeit interconnected, with the climate crisis.

Unfortunately, even if we solved the climate crisis tomorrow, biodiversity would still be on a path to widespread collapse.

The World Economic Forum concluded that over half the world’s total GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services, with almost identical findings for Australia. In short, if nature goes down, we’ll be going down with it. Of course, 30% is only a dream in some ecosystem types.

The Mt Lofty Ranges, for example, has only an atomised 13% of its original native vegetation. But the Hills can rejoice that we have the largest concentration of private protected areas – land conservation via Heritage Agreements – in the entire country.

All of this is what makes the Federal Government’s commitment to protecting 30% of Australia’s land and 30% of its seas by 2030 so important.

However, we’re yet to see the serious funding needed to get us there.Despite all this, I do share Brian’s sense of optimism. We can still turn the nature crisis around; we just need the community to consider it a top-tier issue when they vote.

Michael Cornish, Bridgewater