YOUR VIEWS
NICK Belloff is right about many islands increasing in size (GCB 14/1).
These changes are from coral reef sediment being washed ashore. Warming oceans will continue to degrade coral reefs and so these processes will become less important or disappear altogether.
Some islands may be increasing in size because of rising tectonic plates. Other islands are becoming smaller because of sea level rises. The Solomon Islands, the Maldives, Tuvalu and the Seychelles are a few examples of island groups being affected by sea level rises. A Fijian village has already relocated because of rapid sea level rise.
We know that the atmospheric temperature has been increasing. This was easily predicted from our knowledge of physics and chemistry gained in the nineteenth century. We know that many natural processes are temperature sensitive and that small changes can have big effects.
This does not mean we understand or can predict all the changes that will occur. That climate change and sea level rises would bring changes and surprises was predicted at Australia’s first major climate change conference organised by CSIRO in 1987. I was there. There was no alarmism, just exploration of the possible consequences of the global warming already evident.
Bushfire risks are a good example. The 1987 conclusion was that the bushfire risk could be greater than at the time of the 1982/83 Ash Wednesday fires. Increased floods and cyclones are another example. We knew then that a warmer atmosphere has increased energy and water.
It is not alarmist to assume that energy will be expressed through rain, storms and cyclones, and that the impacts for some people and places will be severe. It would be reckless to assume that the coastline protection systems in operation on the Gold Coast for the last twenty-odd years can withstand these greater pressures from sea level changes and flooding.
It is time for our leaders to start thinking about the future and stop acting as if these dramatic changes are just a temporary blip in our return to an imagined wonderful past.
NELSON QUINN, SOUTHPORT
ANY person who refuses to be vaccinated against coronavirus, and then contracts it and ends up in hospital, should be ashamed of themselves.
Unfortunately most are too self-centred to do so. Because of their attitude, people with other medical problems, sometimes lifethreatening, are being refused treatment in hospital simply because bed space is wasted on selfish individuals who think only of themselves.
Not only do they take up beds, they put the lives of health workers at risk. And with little or no thanks, claiming it’s their right. Shame. Shame. Shame.
Get vaccinated and reduce the strain on our health system. You don’t deserve any sympathy if anything bad happens to you.
IAN TIMMINS, MERMAID BEACH
SO they finally told that tennis bloke to pack his swag, hump his bluey and shoot through.
Took them long enough, but it was the right decision and he deserved to be told.
DAVID LISSENDEN, MAIN BEACH