Opinion
8 April, 2021
Letters and Texts to the Editor
Global Warming - I Love a Sunburnt Country - Support Local - Bring Back Conscription - COVID Vaccinations
GLOBAL WARMING
A recently published report warns us again of “scorching days ahead” the planet is on track for at least 3C global warming. Climate scientists have been ignored for decades.
We have already witnessed the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef on several occasions. Scientists warn that most of the corals will be gone if the ocean temperatures rise by 2C.
Droughts, bushfires and floods are becoming increasingly more severe and frequent, as the scientists have been telling us they would. The seas continue to rise as the polar ice and glaciers melt.
Warming oceans expand as their temperatures rise. Coastal cities like Cairns will become unliveable as the seas slowly flood our streets.
Future generations will wonder why the best educated generation ignored the scientists and continued to open new coal mines and invest in gas.
We rejoice when we hear news that our GDP continues to grow, even though this is often linked to increased greenhouse gas emissions.
Logic tells us that infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible. Many of our ecosystems are already collapsing and we are witnessing extinction rates in the biosphere far above normal levels. We are literally stealing the future from our children and future generations.
The United Nations has developed 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) these global goals are designed to meet the global challenges of poverty, inequality and sustainability we rarely hear about them in the mainstream media. We understand the issues it’s time we focused on solutions
JOHN, Mooroobool
I LOVE A SUNBURNT COUNTRY
Dorethea Mackellar penned her immortal poem, My Country in 1904.
In it she writes of drought and flooding rains.
Look back at Australian metrological history and you will see she is correct.
The weather patterns of this great nation are cyclical. We are exposed on all sides by water and conflicting weather patterns.
To the south the icy currents of Antarctica, to the west we have the untamed Indian Ocean, the north the humid waters of the tropics whilst the Pacific is unpredictable and sub-tropical.
Is it any wonder we have extremes of climate conditions?
We are surrounded by a melting-pot of conflicting weather extremes.
Yet we continue to have the pro-climate change faction preaching their prophecies of doom and gloom.
If we dare disagree, we are called ‘flat-earthers’ and deniers and fools.
In Queensland we have had major droughts in the 1960s, 80s and 90s. At the same time, we have experienced flooding rains.
It’s a pattern, not an alarm.
Please let’s all be sensible here. Reduce our carbon footprint, let’s not pollute, but let’s also welcome progress and development in a manageable, sustainable manner.
NOBBY, Earlville
SUPPORT LOCAL
As a new reader of this paper I find it necessary to add my total disgust at an Australian company gouging the Australian people of their hard earned dollars. Now in Cairns we have unemployed people who have relied on Job Keeper now without work and yet a major company like Harvey Norman can receive $22M in job keeper despite massive profits and not return to the taxpayer. I was going to mention this to the Harvey Norman/Cairns Post or the Harvey Norman/John Mckenzie talk back show but alas. I urge all people to boycott Harvey Norman. Just think about it.
STEVE, Westcourt
BRING BACK CONSCRIPTION
We have a problem. Youth crime is spiralling out of control. The police are losing the battle because we have differing opinions on how best to deal with the issue.
The police can only do what they are currently doing. Investigate, arrest, charge if they can, take them to court and let the judicial system deal with them.
Many are let back out immediately, to continue to do what they have already been arrested for doing.
The safe fall-back solution has always been, put them in the army, teach them a trade, give them some discipline.
Our armed forces are not a reform school. They are not a child-minding service, not social workers.
Don’t bring the standard down by drafting problems into the forces. We need our armed forces to be disciplined and well trained, not a pre-school filled with people who do not want to be there.
DIGGER, Cairns
SUPPORT LOCAL
Support local newspapers and farmers....Phil le Petit..I agree...can the Qld Gov pls continue to help support independent newspapers...Nicole..relocating young independent unemployed people to farms that need fruit pickers could be a good idea to assist farmers...what do others think? Lets also remember to support local business where possible, cafes,nurseries, grocery shops&markets...thankyou..this is a terrific local paper..
John, Northern Beaches
COVID VACCINATION
Why do we have so few people in Queensland vaccinated? As of April 4 we have only administered 87,000 doses in Queensland. Nationally 841,000.
But we were told there wouldl be 4 million doses administered by the end of March. Our first priority must be to gest as many first doses administered as quickly as possible. Stop the posturing and get on with the job.
M JACOBS, Cairns
GOVERNMENT STABILITY SLOWS COVID
Queensland has suffered only one COVID-19 death per million population. Why are many other similar peoples doing hundreds and thousands of times worse? E.g. USA with sixteen hundred deaths per million.
Some say our warmer weather protects us. But that hasn’t protected Brazil, Malaysia or Hawaii.
Some say our modern health system. But that hasn’t protected Sweden, France or Italy.
Other, broader, factors in combination must be in play.
Firstly, social cohesion: a strong sense of us against the world.
Secondly, sensible political leadership which follows competent medical advice and doesn’t explain it away as ‘just seasonal flu’, or push quack remedies, or tell us we just have to wait until we get herd immunity.
Thirdly, unity of purpose, clearly set by government. Bicameral and multi-member proportional representation dilute accountability – ‘it wasn’t my fault the upper house blocked me’ - and creates compromises.
As UK MP Paddy Ashdown said “Politics is compromise” but a consensus, ‘almost good’, response to COVID has proved deadly to millions.
The jurisdictions which have done best in Australia - Queensland and Northern Territory - have unicameral parliaments with single member electorates with a stable governing majority party.
S MCGINN, Clifton Beach
