Accept zero growth

In praising the Tarras airport proposal, Denis O’Rourke (Letters, Dec 30) utterly fails to grasp the urgency and scale of the climate crisis.

Presumably he thinkswe can continue with our current mass tourism trajectory while making a trivial tweak to the industry’s overall carbon footprint by flying tourists direct to central Otago rather than via Christchurch or Auckland. That’s a bit like planning to avoid lung cancer by cutting down from 40 ciggies a day to 39.

We have a narrow time window to shift to a drastically lower carbon lifestyle. Not a little bit lower – much lower.

So are we actuallywilling to downscale our expectations and accept zero growth? Or does the allure of extracting a few more bucks from tourists override our concern for our kids’ future?

How will future generations view our current greed, stupidity and lack of moral compass?

Graham Townsend, Christchurch

Racism in NZ

Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon probably has a few historic reasons, still remaining in tiny, narrow-sighted pockets of society, to worry about racism in general ( New year resolutions to help cure racism, Dec 30).

Yes, there may well be the odd antisocial redneck trying to claim superiority or entitlement, but, in general, New Zealand is as full of racism as it is of Covid-19.

We are a lucky country and, apart from the odd extremist, we have nothingmuch to worry about, when it comes to racism. What ‘‘racist’’ individuals do need to understand is that most of us already are the product of amixture of races, cultures and religious or spiritual interpretations.

Nowadays, very rarely does one see opposition to inter-racial marriage or relationships.

On the contrary, it often appears more adventurous and showing an individual’s non-judgmental character.

Nevertheless, if Foon can utilise his passion and his voice to eradicate this very tiny remaining segment of society, we should applaud his dedication towards this worthwhile cause.

Rene´ Blezer, Taupo¯ [abridged]

Different outlooks

The Dominion Post is to be congratulated on its article A place for faith (Dec 24). It provided awelcome set of different outlooks to the one that we are almost exclusively exposed to, especially at this time of year.

Margaret Burgess (Letters, Dec 29) seems to take exception to this article in that Jesus Christ was not mentioned. By claiming hers is the biblical truth she thereby dismisses the religions of those that were represented.

Surely they are equally irrational, all with elements that are good, and other aspects that vary between ridiculous and vile.

Geoff Wood, Papakowhai