Make sure masks work

SHOPPING at a large variety store at Cambridge last week we saw piles of masks for sale. On the back of the mask I examined it said that they were not a protection against viruses. I wonder how many people bought them without reading the back of the pack. They would have had no protection in lockdown. Helen Brumby

Rose Bay

WELL DONE PEOPLE

TODAY I had my second Pfizer jab and all went well. It was so good to see everyone at the supermarket, walking the dog and driving cars wearing their masks. Well done. I know everyone is angry about the knucklehead who left hotel quarantine. How could this happen? Where is the security at the hotels? Kelvin Ball

Claremont

OTHERS CAUSE MORE HARM

I AGREE the difficult man whose behaviour led to the lockdown of the South is reprehensible, but the baying for his blood on social media was unnecessary and disproportionate. There are other members of society who cause considerable harm to our community and do not face such vitriol. They are the people who allow three year olds to be locked up, deport people to danger, fail to prevent deaths in detention and ignore climate change. They do not suffer the same vilification. They get reelected to government.

Carol Bristow

Dynnyrne

VAGUE PLAN

PERHAPS, as the rest of Australia opens up, the Tasmanian government should set a date for the 90 per cent vaccination rate to be achieved. Most Tasmanians have had plenty of time and opportunity to be close to double vaccinated by now. Any disadvantaged groups that wish to be vaccinated but have been unable to should be targeted perhaps with mobile clinics.

As long as there is no target date, Tasmanians will keep drifting in limbo. We are now only the fourth most vaccinated state. What if we never get to 90 per cent? How long does the government want to make us wait?

I suspect the government fears our hospital system won’t cope but why should that be? They have had 18 months to work out how to handle Covid. What has been put in place? Will they wait for the army to step in and solve the problem again as they did in Burnie? Where is Tasmania’s road map out of Covid and what is the plan for our hospital system?

Sue Muir Lindisfarne

CHOOSING TO DIE

ARE people who refuse vaccination choosing to die if they catch Covid-19, which will arrive here sometime soon? As the vaccine will greatly reduce the severity of illness, and almost eliminate death, then the answer must be yes.

Intensive care with ventilation, is quite unpleasant, and if available, costs over $5000 per day; the stay there will be weeks to months, generating an enormous bill, footed by the ordinary vaccinated taxpayer. Bryan G. Walpole Sandy Bay

TRUISMS ABOUND

IT’S amazing how aphorisms prove accurate over the centuries. “The strength of a chain is in its weakest link”. That neatly sums up any comment about local quarantine failures. You could also add an observation about “closing the stable door after the horse has bolted”.

F. Langley

Nubeena

MANY BLESSINGS

THANK you Lauren and Greg Coote for such a wonderfully uplifting story of love and spontaneity (Mercury, October 17) in the midst of so much doom, gloom, misery and suffering. You all looked beautiful.

It was terrific to see the Mercury highlight your story with such vibrant photos.

I’m sure I’m not on my own in trusting that the new chapter in your lives, as a married couple, will be blessed abundantly.

Sue Carlyon Kingston

FORESTRY THE REAL ORGANIC

THE Wilderness Society’s Tom Allen’s article (Mercury, October 4) contains scientific errors. Tasmania’s cool-temperate eucalypt forests are not the planet’s most carbon-dense. On average the biomass in tall eucalypt forests (more than 55m high) contains 470 tonnes of carbon per hectare, but research by Stephen Sillett in North America shows tall redwood forests contain more (2000 t/ha).

Tom confuses carbon storage with carbon sequestration (the ability to store more carbon over time). Mature tall wet eucalypt forests contain a lot of carbon, but are not accumulating carbon, they are losing it at 5 to 7t/ha every decade as they transition to rainforest, which contain roughly half the carbon of the eucalypt forests they replace. That’s why putting old eucalypt trees and forests in reserves does not mitigate the effect of fossil fuels on climate.

If Tasmania is to retain its carbon-neutral status we need to maintain a landscape mix of carbon-accumulating young eucalypts among rainforests and older eucalypts. Similar forest mosaics, created by a combination of Aboriginal and natural fires, have existed at least 9000 years.

In our wood-hungry world such mosaics are made by science-based planned forest harvest followed by fire-induced regeneration. The harvest is a dense strong timber. It is produced in a biodiverse landscape in which soil and water values are protected. It does not require fertilisers or insecticides. It substitutes for carbon-intensive steel and concrete. It reduces the need to import native timber from countries with doubtful sustainability credentials. Tasmanian wood produced this way is the ultimate organic product. Peter D. McIntosh

West Hobart