So, when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow, what do we rely on for our electricity?

In Australia, coal-fired power stations that are near their used by date are the main reliable base load for this. There is talk about tidal power as well as hydrogen-generated power, but that is all it is at this stage. The gas that is used also has to be piped some distance to the generators and we will have to do more exploration to find new sources. We have some hydro power and some pumped hydro is coming online soon, but this will not be enough to power our homes, businesses and manufacturing industries 24/7 all year. We still need some form of generation of base load power. Surely in the 50 years since Liddell Power Station was built technology has improved to make new coal-fired power stations more efficient and with less pollutants. The other alternative is nuclear power, used in Europe, Asia and USA, but no-one in Australia seems keen to explore its use even though we export uranium to these countries for them to use for generating their electricity. We need to pull our heads out of the sand address this issue on an Australia-wide basis.

SARAH Taylor (Letters, 4/3), compared the response to the coronavirus to that on climate change. The response to the Coronavirus has been one of authorities doing their best to control an infection epidemic of which few people understand the dynamics nor the nature of the organism. Everybody is guessing the cause of the thing. Some people have even become emotional, fearful and reactionary. I believe the response to climate change has been much the same, though the response to climate change has been going on for far longer over decades. What progress has been made over those decades?

If Ms Taylor wants action on climate change, she should detail those actions we should take. What evidence do we have from anywhere that such actions will change the climate in any way, shape or form?

REGARDING the story about the discovery of the film footage of Newcastle celebrating the end of World War II (Rare film a 'treasure', Herald, 3/3).

This story brought back good memories for me. I was only 15 and I was working at the Newcastle Fur Company, above Coles in Hunter Street when the news broke.

Everything was shut down in the factory and a few of us climbed up to the windows and were hanging out and waving and cheering.

A photo of us was in the Newcastle Morning Herald.

Outside we came across a big table top truck and a lot of us got on the back, legs hanging over the side while others stood.

We went up and down Hunter Street for hours, singing and whistling. We had a marvellous time. I was late getting home and my mother and sister were wondering where I could be.

At home we celebrated, thinking that my father, who was a POW in Borneo for three years, would now be coming home.

But sadly we received news in October he had died in July at the last camp of the Sandakan Death March.

CORONAVIRUS is a common cold and flu virus, of which Australia has had four types in the past and without the hysteria which has broken out around this version.

In most cases it causes a mild form of flu, but it can cause fatalities mainly among the elderly and those who are already sick or have low immune systems. The cases reported and fatalities so far are miniscule compared to the fatalities due to flu last year. There were more than 430 flu fatalities in Australia last year; but 80,000 flu fatalities in the United States last year and worldwide roughly 650,000 flu fatalities.

There was no panic or hysteria last year; indeed we weren't even aware of these statistics. I agree with our health system making appropriate plans and for everyone to take sensible health precautions, but let's put it in perspective and not fan up a hysteria which is out of all proportion.

MY sincere condolences to the families of the deceased victims of coronavirus to date. Australia's so far three deaths ('Australian virus toll rises to three', Newcastle Herald 9/3) is triple the number of Australian SARS cases recorded in 2003.

It's interesting to compare this to the recent bushfires which killed 34 people and destroyed 2176 homes. The Royal Life Saving Society has reported 276 Australians drowned in 2018-19. Compare 257 people who died worldwide in commercial airplane crashes to 1182 victims of Australian road carnage. The number of victims of homicide and related offences across Australia decreased from 432 victims in 2017 to 375 victims in 2018. Of these, 38 people died as a result of domestic violence homicide in the year to March 2019. Life in Mind Australia says 3046 people died from suicide nationally in 2018. The natural Australian population increase for 2019 was 143,000, while the year ending 30 June 2019 Australia's preliminary net overseas migration estimate was 238,300 people. Do the numbers. Is this our best effort?

SCIENTISTS tell us the best and probably only way we can implement carbon capture and storage is to plant trees. Billions of them. It's a task that will require cooperation from all nations and one where action by cities and local councils will have a fringe benefit of providing shade, cooling the local environment and adding to the charm of the locality. Unfortunately this isn't happening.

I estimate Lake Macquarie loses about 55 hectares of bushland every year to urban growth, and remaining trees are threatened with removal because of the threat posed by litigation should a branch fall and injure someone. Recently the council removed a magnificent lemon-scented gum tree from the art gallery and two from Macquarie Street at Belmont, presumably for this reason. These were trees that provided shade for a hot parking area. Even though the threat of injury is extremely low, trees will be removed from places where we really need them. Our cities are becoming hot islands like those in Europe. Heatwaves there last year caused the deaths of 1435 people just in France. We need to have city forests, but we are creating deserts and calling it progress.

TUDOR Street is one of the main thoroughfares bringing visitors and locals into the city. The median strip is an absolute eyesore again, has been for weeks now, and often is. If the council cannot keep it mowed then they should cement it, as it really does give a very poor first impression. I've just returned from Adelaide, where every part of that city is manicured to perfection. The contrast with Newcastle is just miserable.

MARK Latham's pro-nuclear call (Opinion, 5/3) is a case of lazy, simplistic and dangerous thinking. A better alternative is laid out in the Energy Transition plan proposed by the Australian-German Energy Transition Hub, which includes scientists from seven Australian universities. This plan advocates a green hydrogen generation plan which could double Australia's energy output by 2050. Such thinking is not idle speculation, as in 2018 construction started for a SSAB plant in Lulea, Sweden, to produce "fossil-free steel" which will start production this year.

THE Reserve Bank has cut interest rates to their lowest level yet and banks have passed the cut on to help the economy. Why does Prime Minister Scott Morrison still insist on not passing on the rate cuts to pensioners who are still deemed to be earning 3.25 per cent on their savings above $48,600 and 1.75 per cent under that amount? How much are pensioners being stripped to assist with their budget bottom line? The silence is deafening on this matter and has been for years.

I'M not sure what part of "allow all industries to rise and fall on their own merits" John Ure failed to understand (Letters, 5/3). Of course all subsidies should be ended - including mining, transport and the massive amount funnelled into agriculture. It is not the responsibility of hard-working taxpayers on average wages to prop up inefficient or uncompetitive private business ventures.

I THINK we can rid ourselves of that old Aussies-are-so-easy-going mantra after the stampede to get hold of toilet paper ('Toilet paper mania wipes shelves clean', Topics 5/3), and of course all the rest of the paraphernalia to save us. I understood COVID-19 was a respiratory disorder, not a gastro disorder. What's happened? Get a grip.

WITH all the hype about the coronavirus in circulation, I was hoping to purchase a carton of beer with a similar name for a dollar or less. Unfortunately the bottle shop owners have washed their hands of my wish.

AMERICA'S surgeon-general says: "seriously people, don't wear masks." So can someone explain to me then why it is that the Australian government is stockpiling millions of them? Some say it is because they may be needed for distribution among clinicians and health care providers if there is a pandemic. If they work to protect these people, why don't they work to protect the ordinary person in the street? If a pandemic is declared I am going to be wearing face masks. I've made my own.