Too soon to be partying as if Covid is all gone

DOES anyone else find the response — both globally and locally — to the lifting or easing of Covid19 restrictions as disconcerting as it seems illogical?

I refer to the seeming orgies of partying, ‘‘clubbing’’, and I would suppose its logical outcome in many cases, ‘‘hooking up’’, to verge upon madness; as if somehow, like Cinderella’s coach and party garb, the world had flipped back to its preCovid19 state on some arbitrary stroke of midnight.

Can these people not see as they wait, likely in vain, for a solution to this problem that a measure of caution should be a first priority despite changed rules governing their conduct?

Other countries have reacted in the way our population is very likely headed, and their mass attitudes have led to what are popularly known as second waves of the virus running rampant.

Who is to say if a second wave will finally see the end of Covid 19, or will there be subsequent waves poised to break out, as with many other diseases, into an indefinite future?

I think it would be much more prudent to take an attitude of ‘‘new era — new set of rules’’, to act accordingly, and with due regard for the possible consequences; or is that asking too much? Reckless ‘‘it won’t happen to me’’ attitudes endanger not only themselves, but put at risk the wider population as a whole.

Ian Smith

Waverley

Weather forecasting

IN an editorial last week, the Otago Daily Times extolled the accuracy of MetService reporting on the impending weather bomb two weeks ago.

It certainly could not be missed. Today (ODT, 6.10.20), Southland farmers complained that there was little indication of heavy rainfall that flooded parts of the province.

Yesterday, the forecast was for galeforce winds hitting Oamaru and exposed areas. It was dead calm first thing and through the day except for a rising northerly breeze later. It seems obvious that forecasters are targeting populated areas such as large cities.

I say that the old groundbased district weather spotters generally had it right for the rural areas.

As a MetService volunteer spotter for the Lakes District in the early 1990s, I had a 6am schedule to report local conditions, such as cloud cover percentage, layers, wind direction, barometer readings and temperature, to the Invercargill Airport office.

In return, I was given sightings from Puysegur Point lighthouse and fishing vessels, able to spot a front on its way up from south of Stewart Island. I would then get a sighting from Routeburn Station at the head of Lake Wakatipu and report to the local radio station, which would issue a warning for climbers and trampers if necessary.

It could pay to bring back groundbased weather spotters, occasionally. Jim Childerstone

Hampden

Tiwai

RIO Tinto has again sucked in Labour/ Green to increase the offer of subsidised electricity supply for five years.

Rio Tinto is the biggest single manufacturing producer of pollution in New Zealand: carbon dioxide from the anodemaking unit (using imported coal), toxic dross stored all over Southland, and cyanide and fluoride discharges from the smelter chimney.

Apart from disrespecting our environment, it has no respect for cultural history, as shown by the destruction of 50,000yearold caves in Australia for a few bars of iron ore.

Rio Tinto should remember that Labour is developing a slogan of ‘‘we promise a lot but deliver little’’.

M. Barra

Cromwell ...................................

BIBLE READING: Be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share. — 1 Timothy 6.18.