YOUR VIEWS
CLIMATE change denialists love to blame China for climate change as an excuse to go slow on well-overdue actions needed here.
The primary reason for the expansion in China’s greenhouse gas emissions is producing cheap goods for western markets. Globalisation has developed countries increasingly consuming goods produced by other countries. The result is geographical displacement of the emissions from the goods we consume.
The per capita carbon footprint of people living in China is still almost a 10th that of the average person living in the US, and a quarter of someone living in the UK. It also seems to amaze some Australians that 1.4 billion Chinese might use a lot more coal than 0.024 billion Australians. But the really amazing thing is just how much CO2 our little 0.024 billion can mine and burn.
Of course, no one can argue China doesn’t consume more coal than the rest of the world combined, and it is the leading emitter of greenhouse gases. Could China do more to avert the coming climate catastrophe? Yes, clearly much more.
However, China has been the world’s leading investor in renewable energy since 2013, and has been buying up raw materials those industries need, such as cobalt mines in Africa. It has three times more renewable energy capacity than any country, and its electric vehicle use is growing. Perhaps the structure of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change helps fossil fuel exporters such as Australia by focusing attention on countries that burn fossil fuels, not the countries that produce them? ANDREW STIMSON, UPPER COOMERA
IF Not For You, Olivia, there would be no House of the Rising Sun nor a cancer and wellness research centre at the Austin Hospital.
If Not For You, there would be no greater presence that touched and gave hope to so many cancer patients along their journey.
It is no surprise your family and the rest of the world are Hopelessly Devoted To You.
Your angelic voice will live on and continue to give hope to so many people and yes there is a Xanadu, Olivia, just the way you sang it many years ago now. PAMELA DELAHUNTYHUNTER, CHIRN PARK
HAD to have a chuckle at the story, City too posh for ugly veg, in reference to a chain only taking the best of the best. Apparently this doesn’t apply to kiwifruit.
My wife and I are on holiday here for a month. We are Kiwis. We worked in a kiwifruit packhouse earlier in the year.
Yesterday we saw kiwifruit priced at 80c each. A horrendous price. The quality of the fruit was so bad we would not have taken it out of a reject bin for free at home.
We thought vege prices were bad at home but the quality and price here leave a lot to be desired. CRAIG WHITESIDE, KIWI