Fossil foolishness
KEN Beatty (Letters, GA, 22/10) is an alarmist to suggest that because we are methodically disengaging from fossil fuels, we are in the throes of bankrupting the economy.
It is a typical shriek of alarm from those who fail to see life beyond the veil of fossil fuels.
I’m pleased to note that he agrees that we must reduce our carbon footprint and turn to renewables despite being about 1 per cent of the world’s emissions.
We have sober-minded money managers in Canberra now and not reckless free marketeers beholden to the fossil fuels industry.
The future of manufacturing in this country is safe and can only prosper under their tutelage, beginning with renewables.
However, I am uncertain on gas as an alternative as it usually involves fracking, which has proven to be a disaster whenever and wherever it is used.
I am most certainly not in favour of nuclear energy as that itself is fraught with dangers and the fact that it is at least 10 times as expensive and not readily available as any renewable.
The time lag from contract to on-line conclusion would not fill any energy gap as even “mini” nuclear power plants are not available nor a commercial proposition.
I must remind him of the disasters of Windscale, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl and recent sudden wars with their vulnerability to missile attacks as in Iraq, Iran and once more, Chernobyl.
Despite Asia’s short-term reliance on fossil fuels, a modern country like ours can set an example of a fossil fuel-free economy without the nuclear option.
Derek Costello, Belmont
1618
Walter Raleigh, 64, is beheaded in the Tower of London for treason on orders of King James I, angered when Raleigh’s men burned a Spanish settlement in Venezuela.
1858
Sydney is linked to Melbourne and Adelaide by telegraph cable. 1863
An international conference in Geneva, organised by Swiss citizens, completes the foundation of the Red Cross. 1923
Mustafa Kemal Pasha is elected president of Turkey, proclaimed a re pu bli c.
1 9 2 9
On Wall St’s Black Tuesday, investors lose billions as 16,410,030 shares trade on New York Stock Exchange in one day.
1936
General Bakr Sidqi leads a coup which overthrows the civilian Iraqi government. He is killed nine months later by a fellow soldier. Australian troops of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, reach and take Chongju, the most northerly point of their advance into North Korea. 1997
Nugget Coombs, 91, the economist who guided Australia to post-war economic prosperity, dies. 2004
Caretaker captain Adam Gilchrist’s (pictured) Australian team win a Test cricket series in India for the first time in 35 years. 1982
Lindy Chamberlain is found guilty of murdering her baby Azaria, despite saying a dingo snatched the girl near Uluru. On the same day she is sentenced in Darwin to life in jail with hard labour. The verdict is quashed in 1988. 2011
An Afghan soldier opens fire with a machinegun on his Australian mentors at a Saturday parade in Kandahar province, killing three and injuring seven. Killed are Corporal Ashley Birt, Captain Bryce Duffy and Lance Corporal Luke Gavin.
2015
It is announced that China is ending its one-child policy. Beginning in 2016, couples could have two children.