I’m amazed at our lack of action in regards to droughts, which we’ve been told will become more and more frequent by the climate change and global warming experts (currently they appear to be correct).
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We seem to sit around paralysed with inaction. The cost of the lack of rain must be enormous, with a high negative impact upon the economy. If we can build snowy hydro one and now snowy hydro two, why can't we build desalination plants?
The country is surrounded by vast amounts of sea water ready to be desalinated. We could build a number of desal plants all around the coast, power them from solar power and windpower and pump the water inland to where it is needed for crops, towns, and pastures. The pumps could be solar, battery or wind-powered to minimise running costs. We need to see some leadership on this matter and it must happen pretty soon.
Graeme Scott, Albury
Glory in honour
My daughter had an assignment on the value of honour and needed examples. We read about honourable men and women and how it's not easy to take the honourable road, that with honour comes the need to have courage and determination to stand up and receive no glory for it.
She commented on the lack of honour amongst society now and would we survive a war or attack as we do not seem to possess that quality that was more present in olden times. Would we? I'm not sure anymore. I have discovered that people I thought would have honour actually possess 'saving face' and disguise it as honour. Apparently the honourable thing is to not be caught out.
This is not confined to the lower class or the thieves; actually I believe the saying 'honour among thieves' is true that they possess a twisted but truer form of honour to their ilk.
What about the wealthy? Not all of course but no one's foolish enough to believe that they see all men as equal. On reading it seems to me that they still believe they are honourable despite actions to the contrary because those beneath them do not count, or know no better and therefore it's not dishonourable.
Or is it? With power and wealth shouldn't more responsibility come and compassion? But you can't buy decency all you can buy is the pretense of respectability and all you get back is the pretense of of respect.
All in all I found her essay topic very insightful.
Vikki Bye, Yarrawonga
Stop the hypocrisy
The hypocrisy is breathtaking. On the one hand we have a Prime Minister stating it’s a ‘big priority’ that maths or science be a pre-requisite subject to enter university and on the other, we have his government promoting a project that has zero backing from scientists. Why pretend he wants strong science literacy when he disregards the findings of climate scientists who say we must not build the Adani coal mine?
Dr Susan Lawler, Associate Professor at La Trobe’s Department of Ecology, Environment and Evolution, spoke at a StopAdani film night and reflected on the sad shift in attitudes towards scientists. Once revered, their findings are now often ignored and climate change recommendations dismissed as money-grabbing, when in reality it’s political parties desperately seeking donations that drive these irrational decisions.
When will Malcolm Turnbull have the spine to truly listen to the scientific community and revoke the Adani mine approvals?