Letter of the Week
Have strong opinions, write in an engaging way? You could win our Letter of the Week, and with it a book from our friends and sponsors, the publishers Harper Collins. This month’s book prize is Table For Eight by bestselling author and master storyteller Tricia Stringer. It tackles troubled relationships, second chances and love old and new in this uplifting story of unlikely dining companions thrown together on a glamorous cruise.
THERE have been a number of calls for schools to teach “civics” and the call seems worldwide even if it has different titles. There are a number of definitions although most include a study about being a citizen and their rights, which most students already seem to know and their responsibilities, an area that students need further development on.
The number of areas that teachers have to address is growing swiftly from the old topics of reproduction (and hopefully contraception) to include gun safety — as if that is really possible — politics, which many of the participants don’t even seem to understand, and diversity and its acceptance, a task that seems to be beyond the capacity of many “mature”>
Oh for the days when multiplication tables were one of the most difficult topics on the teaching program.
Most of these are mature concepts that cannot be taught as facts and figures but rather as a choice in life. These areas should really be handled by parents and the wider community but that is where students see these ‘uncivil” actions occurring. These should be demonstrated by example, a situation that is becoming rarer in most countries, especially amongst the leadership groups.
Parents, they are your children. It is both your right and responsibility to prepare them for life. Don’t just pass it on to some overworked teachers, yet again. DENNIS FITZGERALD
WE used to laugh about six degrees of separation; now it’s time to cry about half a degree of devastation.
The latest The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on global warming issued this week in Korea has detailed the catastrophic difference half a degree of warming will make. The report, based on more than 6000 scientific references and the contribution of thousands of expert and government reviewers worldwide, warns that global temperature rises must be kept to 1.5 degrees Celsius or less above pre-industrial levels. If the rise reaches two degrees, the results will include the loss of all coral reefs, an extra 10cm sea-level rise causing flooding of coastal cities and the inundation of many Pacific nations, and many other ruinous impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being.
The report states that to limit
global warming to 1.5C, net humancaused emissions of carbon dioxide would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching “net zero” about 2050.
Waiting for governments to agree on action is a recipe for disaster. We can take our own immediate actions to reduce our carbon footprints. Breeding and slaughtering animals for their milk and meat results in a significant percentage of greenhouse emissions. For example, cattle produce methane, which is a greenhouse gas about 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The livestock sector is responsible for about 37 per cent of human-caused methane emissions and about 65 per cent of human nitrous oxide emissions (mainly from manure). One of the main ways in which the livestock sector contributes to global warming is through deforestation caused by expansion of pastureland and arable land used to grow feed crops.
We can’t all afford to go solar or buy a hybrid vehicle tomorrow. But we can all make a difference today by going vegan and refusing to buy the meat, eggs and dairy products that are warming the earth, blocking our arteries and causing massive suffering to billions of innocent animals every day. MIMI BEKHECHI, CAMPAIGNS CONSULTANT, PETA AUSTRALIA