Newcastle Herald Letters to the Editor: Monday, September 23, 2019

Any detioration of the mental state of young people surely results from the frustration and desperation caused by a lack of action from climate sceptics. They are ignorant or blind to the overwhelming science that warns that our environment is changing and that the world where our young people and their children will have to live will be a dangerous and difficult place. The young people are worried how they will survive the coming decades.

The young people today are clever and understand that climate change inaction is triggered by blindness and greed of the paralysed politicians and those who deny climate change. Their denial is preventing urgent action that can improve the outlook for future generations.

These sceptics are driven by the fear that the truth will cause some discomfort to their cushy lives. They have no intention of initiating any climate action that will disrupt their comfort, their life has been fine.

The frustration that results from this knowledge can easily turn into deteriorating mental health for many people, not just the young. Don't blame those who, alarmed by the way climate is changing, fear for the future. Blame the denial and inaction of the sceptics.

Peter Lipscomb, Maryville

Time to act is now

THE federal government are once again threatening to take a stick to the power utilities as a means of reducing the cost of power, once again a proposal to prop up the use of coal fired power stations instead of setting of implementing the National Energy Guarantee. The energy guarantee is a mechanism designed to integrate energy and emissions policy in a way that encourages new investment in both low emissions technologies and in dispatch able energy such that the electricity system operates reliably.

This is happening as we see emissions increasing and no action to alleviate the ever-increasing temperatures of the planet. Here we are just coming out of winter and bushfires are raging all over the state and conditions are so bad in some areas that they don't have water in sufficient quantities to fight the fires.

Our farmlands as we know them as of today are at risk of becoming unfarmable, most will not be in a position to plant crops as there has been insufficient rain to allow this to happen.

The government is claiming their big stick approach will put downward pressure on prices of power. There is nobody talking about the rising costs of water, food, insurance, drought assistance as well as funds to support areas subject to catastrophic weather events caused by climate change.

I challenge everyone to do more to put pressure on governments to tackle climate change so that our children and grandchildren will have a world to live in.

Robert Masterson, Adamstown

Tainted approvals process

AGAIN we see an IPC decision causing an upset. I ask people to think of the times when projects were declined and then politicians stepped in and overturned them. The whole idea of the IPC I think was to take political interference from the approvals process and give the whole process total transparency by following a defined set of guidelines.

Now we have the minerals council crying out that an injustice has been done and we need to change it. Try telling that to the people of Bulga who have been left to wallow in the dust that these decisions make. Don't forget royalties are only paid because they have to.

We live in a democratic society where we may not like a decision. Sure protest, complain, write letters, but the process is there, work with it not against it.

Leave the IPC to make the decisions it was set up to do. Keep the vote chasers out of it and I am sure the ratio of yeses and nos will even up.

Robert Kennedy, Singleton

Day to raise awareness

ON Monday, October 7, the clock tower Newcastle will be lighting up teal in support and to raise awareness for a rare condition affecting approximately one in every 200,000 people called Trigeminal Neuralgia also known as the "suicide disease".

This condition is known to the medical field as the worst pain known to humankind in most cases the reason remains unknown as to a person sufferers and there is no cure.

A person who suffers this condition has electric shock like pain to the face along with burning and stabbing pain. These attacks can last seconds, minutes or even hours and days.

As a suffer of this condition for the last seven years my aim is to try and raise as much awareness within our communities as possible.

Lisa Sefer, Morisset

Recycling starts at home

IF our government was or is serious about doing something about reducing carbon emissions then I believe the government should fit solar panels to all buildings, including residences, and fit rain water catchment tanks to the same. This water could be utilised for sewerage and laundry with a split buy-in system to Hunter Water during hot periods.

Recycling systems should be upgraded so recycled waste is actually utilised towards improving communities not shipped to other countries, that's doing something positive that actually will achieve results.

Graeme Kime, Cameron Park

Pumped hydro support

QUEENSLAND'S Wivenhoe dam pumped hydro system has recently demonstrated how successfully, and profitably, pumped hydro storage systems can support renewable energy in providing reliable 24-hour power.

Previously Wivenhoe pumped water uphill mainly at night, but in August all pumping of water uphill occurred during peak solar daylight hours, at an average price of $18.69 per megawatt hour (Mwh). Water was then returned downhill to generate power when demand exceeded supply, at an average of $116.02.

Even at 60 per cent efficiency (low for a pumped hydro system) this is obviously a profitable process that will encourage the other pumped hydro systems currently under development in Australia. It is estimated that only 0.1 per cent of the sites identified as suitable for pumped hydro across Australia will be needed to support a reliable 100 per cent renewable energy system.

Richard Mallaby, Wangi Wangi

SHARE YOUR OPINION

Email letters@theherald.com.au or send a text message to 0427 154 176 (include name and suburb). Letters should be fewer than 200 words. Short Takes should be fewer than 50 words. Correspondence may be edited and reproduced in any form.

Short Takes

SO Sam Burgess is in trouble again, ruffling a blokes hair up gets a week, in the same game a shoulder to the head from someone on the other team gets nothing. Now some people aren't even allowed to criticise that, I mention some people because there has been plenty in the past that have criticised the NRL Judiciary, even just yesterday I heard a coach being critical of a suspension. Makes me wonder, do they just want Sam Burgess out of the game, or is it South Sydney they want out of the game. That has happened before.

Fred McInerney, Karuah

THE devastating erosion at Stockton beach is alarming to say the least. At Blacksmiths beach recently, the relentless swell has chewed away a huge amount of stabilised beach, leaving a three-metre drop off. I and others believe this is a direct result from dune care activities and breakwater extensions. Although on a much smaller scale than Stockton, a once prime surfing beach has been lost for years. There have been a whole generation of local kids that have not had a decent surf at Blackies. To all governments, local councils ... get your heads out of the sand and have a look.

Steve Paras, Pelican

I SUSPECT Bill Shorten won't be too forlorn about missing out on that ride on Air Force One, Alan Hamilton (Short Takes, 20/9). It seems such a fleeting reward for having to put up with a fool as your host. No wonder Trump and Morrison seem to get on so well. In fact, I have little doubt that Trump will, immediately after this bore fest, announce that having heard first hand the word of Scott's prosperity gospel, he will use his emergency powers to introduce franking credits in the US. God helps those who help themselves, after all.

Michael Hinchey, New Lambton

IT'S time for combined action by all governments. Newcastle council is just using Stockton as a glorified car park for Newcastle. We want action not talks and studies.

Glendon Forbes, Largs

ANY mining of valuable agricultural land such as the Breeza Plains, which continues as the New England area as far as Moree, will destroy the massive irrigation aquifer where the water is in many places only about 6m below the land surface. The coal is more than 180m down so an open cut will allow some of that water to drain into the open cut hole or, if mining is underground, that activity will crack the impervious layer which keeps the irrigation water in place.

John Turner, Carey Bay

HOW sad has our society become when adults are encouraging, supporting and using students to strike for climate change. Why are those adults choosing children to do what they should be doing themselves? Are the adults organising strikes at their workplaces or taking buses to Canberra? There's a heap that adults could do but no, let's give students a green light to strike. Shame. Shortland MP Pat Conroy, really, how about having more of a go for climate change yourself instead of supporting the strike? What's next? Students striking to have less hours at school?

Gregory Grey, Maryland