To repair our climate we have to address the true primary or main cause of climate ruin and that is not the misdiagnosed "greenhouse effect" or "radiative forcing" (RF) by greenhouse gases (GHGs) but rather about 10,000 years (since the beginnings of agriculture and civilisation) of land-clearing and logging the planet's evaporative air-cooling and air-humidifying and rain-cloud-producing trees and forests.

It is estimated we have killed three trillion trees during this time, and we are still doing it.

The current combined annual land-clearing and logging rates of Queensland and NSW, in the hundreds of thousands of hectares every year, are claimed to exceed the forest-clearing rate in the Amazon, and make Eastern Australia a global deforestation hotspot.

IN THE NEWS:

Fifteen billion trees cleared to make the Murray-Darling Basin farming and irrigation area and they still expect rain out there? If rain-clouds blow that far in from the ocean, you are lucky, as by removing forests we have offshored our rain-cloud-producing capacity. We need to replant forests inland.

Do you have any idea how difficult that is going to be, getting trees to grow in the heat and dry conditions while tens of thousands of mature trees worldwide are turning brown and dropping dead from the heat and dry we have caused by previous deforestation?

A guess is we will need thousands of solar-powered desalination plants, and solar-powered pumps to pump this water to dry, thirsty towns and to trickle-water replanted forests.

We will wait 20 or 30 years for replanted forests to start cooling our continent and making rain again.

Meanwhile, every tree killed is another nail in the coffin of climate.

Those who slogan "need more burn-offs" need to get beyond bogan-level analysis.

Some parts of Western Sydney saw temperatures above 50 degrees celsius last summer.

You think it's hot now? Give it 10 more years and you won't need to pluck your eyebrows - they will have burnt off.

WHY wouldn't I take a Pfizer vaccine?

Perhaps because Pfizer (and at least six other pharmaceutical corporations), are convicted corporate criminals and Pfizer are repeat offenders.

In 2012, Pfizer paid US$60 million to settle a US federal investigation into bribery overseas.

Pfizer wasn't only accused of bribing doctors, but also hospital administrators and drug regulators.

They sought to hide the bribery by listing the payments in accounting records as legitimate expenses.

Unsurprisingly, nine of the 10 companies that Prof. Peter Gotzsche exposes for their criminal activities in his 'Hall of Shame for Big Pharma', are the very same companies that fronted the 2015 Senate tax avoidance enquiry: Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, GSK, Merck, Eli Lilly, Novartis, AstraZeneca, Roche and Sanofi. (Drug companies go vague on 'tax rip-off', Sydney Morning Herald, 2/7/15)

As we have seen above, the pharmaceutical industry does whatever it takes to corrupt the political establishment's parliamentary decision making, through lobbying, donations and bribery, which sacrifices public health for profits.

"Who pays the piper, calls the tune", that's corporatocracy, not democracy.

Maybe that's why only four members of the House of Representatives voted for a federal anti-corruption agency: the Greens' Adam Bandt and three independents.

SINCE Donald Trump became President, Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), which is grounded in a refusal by Trump's Democrat opponents to accept the legitimacy of his 2016 presidential win, has become a well-known phenomenon.

Much of this derangement has Trump being compared with Hitler.

This is a disgrace to the memory of the six million Jews who were tortured and murdered by the Nazis.

But proponents of TDS think that by dismissing any comparison with Hitler's crimes while simultaneously comparing Trump's personality and agenda with Hitler to be more tenable.

But such claims remain just as offensive because they use the victims of Nazism to libel for political advantage.

If generalisations such as creating fear in the populace, strong oratory skills and a loyal supporter base suggest "Hitleresque" tendencies, as Barry Reed of Islington argues, then a case could be made against most politicians.

Similarly, Donald Trump delivering on the promises he made to the American people in 2016 or questioning the ballot count in the 2020 presidential election is in no way comparable to Hitler.

The US Constitution sets out the system for determining presidential elections including the right of all candidates to adjudicate claims of ballot irregularity.

As one of the 2020 candidates, Donald Trump, like Jill Stein in 2016 and Al Gore in 2000, has every right to request to have the results tested and no amount of attempting to delegitimise either Trump or his claims by using the spectre of Hitler, will stop this process.

PEOPLE continue to tell us, 'the end of coal is near'.

Well if that's the case, why do you need the regulations in place to end an already dying industry?

The truth is in the real world the coal industry is not dying, it has a bright future ahead of it.

There are over a dozen major coal projects on the table that will push effective mine lives out beyond 2050.

There is 8.4 billion tonnes of coal mined every year. That's 60 Newcastle coal terminals.

World coal demand will increase for the next 15 years before slowly tapering off back to current levels.

This is assuming Africa does not take up the slack as they innovate into the modern world.

All this means is if you take up a job now at 20, you'll be in your 50s at the end of some of these projects.

There's no need to cry for us coal miners and act like you want to save us from some impending job apocalypse.

We aren't asking to be saved.

We are simply asking for our jobs to not be needlessly sacrificed for the sake of this ideological, green movement.

The truth is, the biggest threat to a coal miner's job, is a politician.

Joel Fitzgibbon is finally doing what he should have done the entire time, sticking up for the people who pay the bills and keep the lights on.

Too little too late I say, see you at the polls.

DAN Kirkpatrick (Short Takes, 17/11) our kids do not need to be alarmed. They do need to be aware. Aware that our insatiable desire to surround ourselves with non-essential junk is hurting the planet. The latest model phone, aircons running non-stop, a TV in every room, dishwashers, clothes dryers, bigger cars, bigger houses filled with junk to make us feel good about ourselves, the list is endless. And we need to give them hope by letting them know that they can make a difference by simply saying "no", even if their parents can't.

I EXPRESS great displeasure at the move by the state government to introduce the perpetual property tax. Governments, councils and government corporations may not realise, but they don't have a god-given right to tax and rate and charge people into homelessness. They need to look far harder at their expenditure rather than forever increasing the money-catching mechanisms. Nearly everybody has a point in their lives when income stops. For most people that happens in old age. They need to have their "obligations to the community" fully paid up before the end of income.

TRUMP should be resigned to losing the election and perhaps with his party's support, look to regaining power in four years' time. Biden has won and should be given a united reign to govern. He seems to have a good gig and is well experienced, but he is simply just too old. He is in the same vintage as me and looking at him, I suggest I could be stronger than he. At my age I become tired. Play a round of golf, and my biggest decision is whether to use my pitching wedge or my nine iron. The President's decision can affect the wellbeing of the world keeping in mind the presidency demands 24/7 attention. Congress meetings, economy, employment, health, travelling as necessary to some of the 50 states; and as the virus improves meeting heads of state, perhaps world travel - Australia? All the above being more demanding than a round of golf. Fortunately, administration and members of the so-called "swamp" will efficiently attend to 90 per cent of the President's duties and Biden will only be a "cog" in the establishment as portrayed in the television series, "Yes Minister".

NOW that sporting groups have access to infrastructure funding, it's time to apply for funds to replace the rusty shipping containers used on the various sporting fields around Newcastle and replace them with properly constructed storage sheds.

NOW we know why state public servants had to have a pay cut. It was to finance more vanity projects in Sydney. Once again the Sydney state government shows its contempt for the regions and for the workers.

WITH regards to Dominic Perrottet's generous offer in his budget to give every adult in NSW four $25 vouchers to spend on dining and entertainment. I wonder whether the receivers would sooner receive $100.