Each of us can play our part

The IPCC has released its latest update on climate change. Apparently we lose 70-90 per cent of the world’s coral reefs at 1.5 degrees Celsius warming, practically 100 per cent at 2C. (We’re already at 1C.)

Apart from the devastating impact on humans (floods, droughts, loss of crops and property, island nations disappearing beneath the waves, insurance premiums escalating massively), climate change affects other life on this planet. If we let it get up to 2C, we lose an extra 400,000 species. Letting one species die out is a great moral wrong.

So here’s what you can do: Use your car less and switch to an electric one as soon as possible. Use public transport or cycle. Sign 350 Wellington’s current petition asking mayor Justin Lester to rule that fossilfuel organisations such as Pepanz not be allowed to use council facilities any more. Energy-efficient light-bulbs, home insulation, take your investment money away from fossil-fuel companies, eat less meat, vote for parties that are actually taking action on this, talk to people and encourage them to educate themselves about this and do their part too. Marcus Newton-Howes, Johnsonville

In the wrong place

Greater Wellington Regional Council now tells us the whole purpose of the new bus system was to reduce the number of buses clogging up the Golden Mile between Courtenay Place and the railway station.

It would have been much better to put the hubs at either end of the Golden Mile and have a free regular double-decker shuttle system along the Golden Mile. A free service would speed up loading and unloading. It would be useful for tourists, who are likely to want to use cash for tickets. This would obviate the need for hubs in the suburbs in places like Newtown, Miramar, Karori and Johnsonville. The idea of hubs is that connections need to be frequent and reliable.

The railway station has always been a transport hub because it connected the rail services to the bus service. Courtenay Place has also been a hub to a lesser degree but this could be enhanced.

Having the hubs centralised in the inner city may be a hassle for people travelling from northern suburbs to the hospital but would be no worse than the current situation.

There is also an option of having bypass buses travelling across town along Customhouse Quay, Jervois Quay, Cable St and Wakefield St, away from the Golden Mile.

Peter D Graham, Island Bay

The beauty of buses

Proponents of light rail appear seriously misguided.

One claims that with light rail thousands of shoppers will be able to access Newtown’s Riddiford St shops, thereby enhancing local business. He is presumably under the impression there are thousands of potential shoppers eager to visit Newtown, currently with no means to get there. He also wants the footpaths widened to accommodate this influx of pedestrians, plus cycle lanes, effectively choking the street.

Another claims that light rail is more efficient because ‘‘. . . one train can carry 300 passengers’’. So can seven buses, which occupy the same amount of space but are far more flexible. Buses pull into the kerb for the convenience of their passengers, trains cannot. Buses can be diverted to alternative routes in an emergency, trains cannot. Buses can access the city’s hilly and remote suburbs, trains cannot. Buses can operate when the power grid is down, electric trains cannot.

I wonder if the light rail proponents are the same ‘‘experts’’ who backed the new ‘‘smart highway" out to Ngauranga, which cost $50 million and achieved nothing?

Light rail works in flat cities with populations of millions, many without private vehicles, housed in vast tracts of apartments. That isn’t Wellington. Peter Maxwell, Wilton

Hateful attitudes

I was appalled by many of the comments in a Stuff article about the ‘‘compassionate’’ release of David Jackson Mahia (Mahia ‘‘should have died in jail’’, Oct 8).

The vitriol, the hate, the malevolent malice is indicative of what is wrong with the country in the present climate of violence, spitefulness, cruelty and revenge. Is it any wonder some people cannot cope with today’s back-stabbing and vengeful attitudes in society?

The world is in turmoil; threats are ever on the verge of conflict, the rich still get richer, workers still struggle to make ends meet and children rarely have the luxury of their mother at home.

Something’s got to give. People need to relearn how to give and share with each other, instead of being at each other’s throats.

Maureen Dunn, Levin