When I see a picture or read about Joanne McCarthy and Peter Fox I am also filled with emotion. These two people made the world of difference by opening up an extremely evil and dangerous can of worms.

Taking on an organisation as powerful as the Catholic Church was remarkable, but it involved a heavy cost for those who dared to go there. Michael Stanwell did just that and he also paid heavily with mental health struggles and addiction. It is a similar story for so many. Not only did Catholic priests sexually abuse children but the Church ostracised and punished those who stood up and spoke up.

The torment in all of this is that the Church did this to its very own faithful men, women and children. The damage and suffering will go on for generations but those who did not stay silent will shine like lights in this hellish period of church history.

COVID-19 and its multiple variants are coming all the time, so it is important to wear a face mask that is going to give you the best protection. This is especially recommended when in an indoor setting and moreso when in a crowded environment.

The influenza season is predicted to be more severe than usual and COVID-19 vaccinations, whilst important, only give limited protection and do not rule out breakthrough infections. Multiple infections compound within the body to further add to the decline in a person's health from previous infections.

Prominent epidemiologists agree that a mask is needed that is manufactured with high filtering fabrics

An N95 mask protects the user from aerosols, gases or vapours. It can filter the particles down to 0.3 micron and it provides 95 per cent filtration and protection against particulates and needs to be tightly fitted to the face using the thin metal in the nose area. You see people with bits of face coverings not worn properly and it is next to useless in protection against aerosol transmission, which is how Omicron is spread.

IN reply to Lesley Walker, ("Short on science claim evidence", Letters, 23/6), and John Ure, ("Theories only as good as the proof", Letters, 23/6), thank you for your critical replies to my letter of 20/6.

I take your points, but I notice that neither of you argued against the climate facts I presented, including that the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, reported no apparent warming this century. Eunice Foote's simple gas-heating experiment, published as a brief one-and-a-half-page journal letter in 1856, would make a nice junior-high school experiment today, though lacking good controls. What Lesley Walker, the science teacher, didn't explain was that Eunice's experiment found that CO2 and water vapour both increased temperature the same amount. We now know that not to be true and in fact water vapour is a far more potent greenhouse gas. While I support science teachers everywhere, science may be in trouble if the highest level of scientific understanding is at the level of a school science teacher. In 1916 Albert Einstein published "Quantum Theory of Radiation" where he showed that gases, including CO2, will not retain heat and get hotter,but radiate it out immediately. Put another way, Dr Patrick Moore, president of Greenpeace, 1977-1986, stated that there was "no evidence that CO2 gas in the air changes the climate temperature". In answer to John Ure, yes, the climate theory has been tested widely in recent decades. But the results haven't been confirmed, especially when retro-tested through the last century or longer. That's why the Greenhouse Theory and the Climate Theory remain just that - theories. If you're interested, just ask.

LARGE-scale renewable investment over the past ten years has had the effect of increasing an abundance of electricity in the middle of the day, pushing spot prices lower and making baseload reliable generation less profitable.

Rather than improving the reliability of supply and lowering costs, the large investment in renewables has had precisely the opposite effect. Even with a modicum of common sense it is clear to see that if we are to have renewable supplies we also need substantial reliable back-up supply and windmills, dams and batteries are not the ultimate answer.

I believe that for someone to advocate, like our federal energy minister Chris Bowen, that to solve the inherent unreliability of renewables is to add more renewables is lacking in any sound reasoning. As Einstein is reported to have said, insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

I FIND John Ure's recent comments, ("Theories only as good as the proof", Letters, 23/6), on science and climate change problematic. He says we don't really know if the earth is warming, or if human behaviour influences any possible warming, but we generally accept that it's been proven. Accepting a scientific theory as proven when we don't really know what's happening sounds to me more like a leap of faith than science. As for mathematics, we really do know that two and two make four. If we didn't science would not be possible, and I prefer to think we discovered rather than developed the rules and systems of mathematics which existed long before we did. A rational universe capable of being investigated is what makes science possible, and begs the question of how the rules and systems of mathematics underpinning things originated. We also do know distances to planets and stars, and, while the origins of the universe are shrouded in mystery, we do know that something could not come from nothing. As for trailblazers like Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler, I liken them to modern climate sceptics, challenging the "settled science" of their age.

MAUREEN O'Sullivan claims that "politicians handed over most of the funding to private schools" ("Schools must have equal footing", Letters, 25/6). For some reason people continue to believe this when it is manifestly untrue. The figures are easy enough for anyone to find and detailed in ACARA's annual report each year. Total government funding to public schools dwarfs that to private schools - $52 billion to public and just $18 billion to private. That's over $20,000 each year for every public school student vs $13,000 per private student. Each child in the private system saves the taxpayer around $7000 per year.

HOW easily we take for granted the beauty and wonder of nature. On return home from my regular earlier morning walks to our magnificent coastline, I was nearly always met by a happy swarm of busy bees in our garden. This morning, not one bee. Our deepest sorrow for the hopeful,short term loss of our bees and the quick successful eradication of the introduced mite. Similar sympathy and a quick recovery for the bees' faithful and dedicated amateur and commercial keepers.

WHAT is it with some of these cyclists? The other night I was driving on Main Road, Edgeworth when two cyclists rode straight through the three sets of red lights between Minmi Road and Frederick Street without so much as a sideways glance. To make matters worse neither of them had a helmet on or any lights, as well as wearing dark clothing. They would be the first to scream if they got hit by a car wouldn't they? No wonder idiots like this give cyclists a bad name.

THE Adam Bandt flag controversy: Wake up to yourselves ye lot, the Union Jack on the Australian flag is emblematic of Aboriginal oppression. Remove this symbol of horror, the Union Jack, off the Australian flag and replace it with the Aboriginal flag. Imagine if we had the swastika on the German flag, all hell would break loose.

I CAN'T believe the Coalition: 10 years in government and not a word on nuclear power; Labor has been in government for five weeks and all we've heard about is that we should invest in nuclear power as our major energy source.

DON'T fear, John Arnold; Australia will soon have a new government; a Chinese one. I'm sure the good work China is doing will continue in their new province, the former continent of Australia.

QUEENSLAND should sack that referee.

YOUR correspondent Mr Arnold (Letters, 27/6), while spruiking China's effort to transition to renewables, conveniently omits the important fact that they are also building hundreds of new coal plants in an effort to maintain their population's living standards. In contrast, here our coal plants have been neglected as their owners, having repeatedly been told by the alarmist brigade they have a limited future, have unsurprisingly been reluctant to invest in maintaining them. We have an energy crisis of our own making.

ONCE the Commonwealth of Australia. Now the Corporation of Australia, where the citizens are paying customers.

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