Burns leave dangerous legacy

TASMANIA over the past weeks has been covered in a pall of smoke. Some was from necessary fuel reduction burns; most was from forestry operations. The forestry practice of clearfell and burning, in an age of climate destabilisation, is unacceptable. Deforestation releases millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide, further destabilising the Earth’s climate. The smoke from burning forests releases trillions of minute particles. These block some of the solar radiation and ironically keep the Earth cooler for a limited time. Satellite imagery reveals smog has discoloured the Earth’s atmosphere. If all burning of fossil fuels were to cease, the Earth will continue to warm from existing CO2 for 100-plus years, adding at least one degree on top of the one degree increase. Once smog particles settle to the Earth, they will no longer block some of the solar radiation. This will cause probably a further one degree increase.

Burning of fossil fuels and biomass will not cease anytime soon. Future generations will ask how governments and the people who gave them power could have allowed this to happen. Given forests are a carbon sink, and deforestation is responsible for 20 per cent of CO2 and less than 50 per cent of the Earth’s forest cover remains, deforestation is a danger not only to us but to future generations. All clearfelling and burning of old growth forests must cease. Furthermore, many other aspects of how humans live must change for there to be any decent future at all.

Look the other way

THE Rosny Hill Development by Hunter Developments is as enormous as the concerns of the residents of Clarence, particularly Rosny and Montagu Bay. The road system below the proposed development is narrow and often congested with users of a funeral home/church, pool, traffic from three schools, bike riders, children crossing, etc. The developers are very proud in creating a sensational experience for tourists and perhaps the local market. Their mistake is that they are unable to look below; only over to the western side to take in the gorgeous view. Residents agree a Rosny Hill development is timely but not of this proportion and disturbance to the community. This will not be a great legacy for all of those involved to leave behind. What will happen once Hobart is not the flavour of the month? writers who mentored me, tidying up my writing to the point where I’ve recently been published by Forty South Publishing. The service the TWC has rendered to me has been very worthwhile and I urge people to dig deep and donate to the cause.

Great sports

I’VE often asserted that taking money out of sport would solve its problems. On Sunday I watched a local soccer match in South Hobart that was of a good standard and played in the most sportsmanlike manner. The atmosphere was terrific, the crowd was mere metres from the game, and the tuck shop was doing a brisk trade. The 5-1 result provided plenty of entertainment. I doubt anyone at the “big game” that day would have had a better time, and the $8 entry fee at my venue probably went towards balls and shirts, rather than someone’s new Ferrari.

Thrill of transformation

THERE is a remarkable transformation happening in lower Murray St. Week by week the floors of the State Government Offices at 10 Murray Street are being taken down, changing, in a positive way, the amenity of the area. As an eight-yearold I watched in awe as this building rose out of the giant hole dug on the site. From our vantage point of the top floor of 9-11 Murray St, my siblings and I watched as dozens of bright orange cement trucks lined up the street when a big pour was on. The dogman rode the yellow hopper car- rying the cement up into the sky, with all the bravado and cavalier attitude of a matador, hanging on nonchalantly with one hand. He was armed with a chrome whistle, which he used to signal the crane driver high above him, giving the driver directions. Now a similar crane is being used to demolish this building and bring the pieces of the building down to the waiting tip trucks. The brutalist architecture of the sixties (by the architect Mr Dirk Bolt) has been replaced by blue sky and the looming shadow the building cast is no more. The change is remarkable, particularly at Brooke Street Pier, Parliament Lawns and area surrounding Watermans Dock. I wait with a renewed sense of excitement for the next stage of the Parliament Square Project.

Staff not the problem

READER R. Newell is fortunate to have had a good experience at the Royal Hobart Hospital (Letters, April 28). The Royal is full of caring, dedicated but harassed and beleaguered professionals. Nowhere have I ever seen this denied.

Rosalind Jack’s description of what happened to her dying sister (Talking Point, April 26) focused on the system, not the staff. She gave a detailed description of how it failed her and her sister over a period of three days. How would the writer like to be managing a dying relative in the way Rosalind Jack describes over a period of three days? I see no reference to unprofessional behaviour: on the contrary, she only has high praise for the staff.