No business as usual
Too hot for comfort
IAN Fitch claims that “if Extinction Rebellion did their homework on oil, gas and coal reserves they would be aware that these reserves would be depleted long before the planet becomes uninhabitable” (Letters, October 15). I’m not sure where Mr Finch gets his information from but there have been a number of studies of the likely effect of burning all our fossil fuel reserves. A recent (2016) study estimated that burning five trillion tonnes of carbon (the lower end of the estimated range of total resources) would result in “global mean warming of 6.4C to 9.5C, mean Arctic warming of 14.7C to 19.5C, and mean regional precipitation increases by more than a factor of four”. I guess it all depends on Mr Fitch’s definition of “habitable” — it certainly isn’t the same as mine.
Party heads for oblivion
LABOR’S support for the coal mines in Tasmania is another step in its self-made trajectory toward irrelevance and inevitable oblivion. I AGREE with reader Clare Smith (“Planet in trouble”, Letters, October 15) and the arrested “knitting Nannas” protesters — business as usual is not an option. Things can’t continue as they are.
Contrary to the stereotype, I and many of my Baby Boomer generation spent decades trying to change things — with little visible result. As the Hong Kongers discovered — being polite and obeying the rules just gets you ignored.
Now there’s a new generation — they’re seething and determined to be heard — and who can blame them? It’s their future and they deserve a better legacy — they have my support. Grandparents for Climate Action — NOW.
Not interested in him
SO bloody what if Ivan Milat is on his deathbed ( Mercury, October 17)? His victims didn’t get that privilege. News about this is nothing but gossip, not journalism.
Coal hard reality
WILL and Bec may be party leaders, but when the chips are down, and old King Coal pulls the strings to ask his loyal fiddlers to fiddle — there’ll always be two there (“Greens coal mines ban buried”, Mercury, October 17).