Hooray, a climate activist comes clean

The Editor,

It seems letter writers and columnists in your paper in recent months have been airing multiple concerns over issues which threaten our environment. Most of those writers have expressed their views in a reasonable way, in some cases even putting forward solid arguments with supporting evidence. And that’s the way it should be. For too long the moderate and well-argued message about what we need to do to protect our environment in balance with securing our own long-term standards of living has been drowned out by environmental extremists.

For too long it has been very difficult to express the view that businesses – and yes that includes farms – can exist and be profitable and do so successfully in harmony with the environment.

For too long, any attempt to provide some balance has been howled down by extremists who rely on screeching loudly as their way of trying to win an argument. What they don’t realise is that they are in fact alienating the quiet majority who do want to do all that is reasonable to protect our world for our children, but also ensure our children have a job to look forward to in the future.

For too long, many have been almost scared to speak up, for fear of attracting the ire of environmental extremists – and that, by definition, puts them in the category of ‘terrorists’. Terrorism is the use of “violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims”.

So it was an enormous relief to read a column by Michael Shellenberger last week which was published by several major newspapers.

Shellenberger describes himself as “a climate activist for 20 years and an environmentalist for 30”. He has come out to express regret

Up front disclaimer: As well as being a Dubbo Photo News reporter, John Ryan is currently an elected councillor at Dubbo Regional Council.

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EVERY time I see trees knocked down for development it makes me at least a little sad.

When I drive past the old RAAF stores depot it looks like a battlefield but looks can be deceiving.

In the 1990s I arranged to go down to Bathurst to put a proposal to then Charles Sturt University (CSU) vice-chancellor Cliff Blake.

I suggested to him that CSU should ask the federal government, which then owned that 97acre block in the middle of Dubbo, to give it to the university – after all, the town of Dubbo had gifted it to the Commonwealth decades before.

I convinced him that site would at being part of the climate change hysteria. The headline read: “On behalf of environmentalists everywhere, I’d like to formally apologise for the climate scare we created.”

Thousands upon thousands of people have been prompted to comment on what Shellenberger wrote, but the most telling point is what prompted him to speak out publicly in the first place.

After decades of increasingly extreme reporting, the latest decade including even more extreme social media campaigning, “half of the people surveyed around the world last year said they thought climate change would make humanity extinct”, he wrote.

And here’s the saddest part: “In January, one out of five British children told pollsters they were having nightmares about climate change.”

People at both ends of the extremist scale should be ashamed. They’ve been so busy screeching their views like temperamental brats that they have been oblivious to the fact their actions are hurting the minds of our kids. They’re scaring our children.

Yes, we need to protect our planet, and yes we also need to ensure our workplaces and livelihoods have the opportunity to thrive.

A balance is very possible, but very difficult to achieve whilst ever the middle ground is being drowned out by the sounds of the extremes.

Peter, Dubbo

The Editor,

At this point in time it would seem minorities are a protected species. One has to be so careful not to discriminate or offend any member of a minority group in any way whatsoever.

However, there is one minority be ideal for the uni and further suggested he advocate to the NSW government to build a new Dubbo High School on the block as well, which would have had the added benefit of preventing the amalgamation of our three state high schools.

I also pointed out that the former Dubbo City Council was outgrowing its building, and that he should invite that organisation to co-locate.

My argument ran thus: if we had the university (Commonwealth), Dubbo High School (state) and Dubbo City Council (local government) we could leverage those three tiers of government to secure funding for a 1000-seat tiered theatre and convention centre, instead of Dubbo residents seeing rates skyrocket about 25 per cent because the former Dubbo City Council wanted to build a theatre group that does not have the luxury of this protection. I refer to the white people of the world. Less than 10 per cent of the world are white yet are blamed for just about every evil that has been imposed on humanity.

This is somewhat unfair as this group has been responsible for most of the great innovations, inventions and civilisations while receiving little or no credit meanwhile.

It may look to the casual observer that there are those that feel the world would be better off without the European for whatever reason.

Martin, Dubbo

OUR facebook post last week about the trees being removed from the old RAAF Base site (see our story in today’s Dubbo Photo

drew a mixed response from readers – ranging from the disappointed to the supportive, and even bringing back memories for some.

Terry: I remember going to the all by itself.

Added benefits would have been that three tiers of government would have looked at funding the grandstand at Apex Oval as well as an underpass to access those grounds from the RAAF base.

I proposed a walking/bicycle/ golf cart track along the railway line so the uni would have access to Dubbo Hospital, with the future clear to build a new hospital on the RAAF base site as well, if funding was ever obtained.

Imagine all that in the centre of our city?

Imagine that precinct as a hub base as a kid. The hangars were huge. They gave us all a cloth map of the area. About a metre squared. Was awesome.

Jenny: What a shame cutting the trees down. I was disgusted.

Kate: How amazing! (Applause)

Mikhail: Good to see, will be exciting to see once this is finished. Love the allowance of balancing between progress and environment. for all sorts of community energy and creativity?

So, what depresses me about the RAAF base is that opportunity lost so long ago by very short-sighted decision making from leaders at the time who scoffed at the idea.

The stars had aligned for this concept – the day after I spoke with vice-chancellor Blake, he was to be sitting next to former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer at a dinner, and he was going to ask for the land to be handed to the uni.

CSU would have been getting massive rents from its well-heeled tenants for all those years and that cash-flow almost certainly would have meant a vastly increased presence in Dubbo to the great benefit of our city and region.

So that’s what I’m upset about when I think of the RAAF base, and the lost opportunities to the city.

Jennifer: Sad to see it all go but great to see the space getting used.

Yes, we’ve lost a few nice gum trees but most of the mess is scrappy pines, many of them were rotted from the inside and didn’t have much in the way of a future, and the valuable trees have mostly been preserved in the centre of the block.

And, the trees that have been knocked down are all going to good homes to benefit the community in some way, shape or form.

Unless major public organisations are tenants, the only way to preserve all that great history, the igloos and the Rabaul hangar, is by ensuring a commercial enterprise can create a decent income stream and have conditions attached where that history has to be preserved.

z Disclaimer: John Ryan is a Dubbo Photo News reporter and an elected councillor at Dubbo Regional Council.