YOUR SAY: I hope leaders see energy is the real emergency, not climate

With all the rhetoric coming out of Canberra re climate emergency in recent days is it any wonder people are afraid and our youth are having mental issues. One does not have to be a scientist to realise that reducing our carbon emissions by 43 per cent which in real terms is 1 per cent of global emissions will make no difference to the climate while China and India continue to build coal fired power stations. With all the talk on solar and wind generation maybe we need a submarine moment to realise what we will finish up with. It is a system that only works 50 per cent of the time and with a winter like we have had sometimes not at all. It will require tens of billions of dollars to rewire the transmission grid to bring power from solar and wind farms. We will need massive amount of batteries to store energy and along with solar panels and wind turbines all which have a limited life and need to be replaced. Products which all come out of China. Rooftop solar is fine to reduce our household energy bills but industry needs base load power 24/7. It is time to remove all subsidies (including for electric vehicles) so we understand the real cost of so-called renewable energy which really benefits the top end of town while all of us are paying billions of dollars through our taxes to provide these subsidies. We only have to see what is happening in Europe with their green energy policies. The best option is to build power stations near the existing grid where most of the power is required, fired by gas or nuclear which resources we have in Australia. Spending hundreds of billions on subsidies that will make no difference to the climate ... instead, provide us with a health system that we can get a bed in a hospital which we need now. Equip our defence forces so we can defend our country and build some dams to mitigate the effects of flooding and conserve water, produce hydro power and provide water against the next drought which will surely happen again. I only hope that politicians can see the real emergency is energy not climate and in the long run provide the best solution. IN OTHER NEWS: From the homeless people of Wodonga, a big thank you to Wodonga City Council for giving us a bike shed for us to sleep in and somewhere to keep our belongings. MORE COMMENT To read more stories, download The Border Mail news app in the Apple Store or Google Play. Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: