ACT ON CLIMATE CHANGE
The Australian Medical Association, Doctors for the Environment and the Royal College of Surgeons have declared a climate emergency.
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The health impacts on people - diseases, allergies, heat stress, deteriorating quality of water and food - of a warming climate must be having serious impacts for these highly conservative groups to take such a step.
Development assessment panels that do not take into consideration the implications of climate change are, in my opinion, irresponsible.
Sea level rise or storm surge impacts, catastrophic fire days, increasing incidences of lightning strikes, increasing numbers of days hotter than 35 degrees, decreasing rainfall and incidents of greater intensity of rainfall and storm events, including damaging hail, are already impacting rural and residential populations in Australia.
It would be wise for all local councils to recognise the above and encourage their communities to be proactive rather than reactive.
The eucalypts in the South East seem to me to be dying in large numbers.
Is your local council alarmed, concerned, disengaged, cautious, doubtful, or dismissive of climate change or do they indulge in Bulverism?
I would have thought it was a no-brainer for Australian rural councils to see the futility of a fossil fuel-powered future for a hot, dry continent.
Heather Heggie,
Naracoorte.
STRENGTHEN PENALTIES
Our current weak and intractable legal system continues to provide examples of its inadequacy and lack of concern for the victims and the community.
The recent release from prison of a repeated sex offender is yet another incredulous decision lacking empathy for all law-abiding citizens.
This protection of the rights of offenders is an insult to our hardworking and diligent police officers who strive to ensure that the adage "do the crime, do the time" is upheld.
With discounts offered and plea bargains made, many of today's criminals are living by the new adage "do the crime, maybe do a bit of time"!
Time for an overhaul of our justice system so that the penalties applied are commensurate with the crime committed.
Ian Macgowan,
Ceduna.
WHY SUCH A RUSH ON GM?
I wish to dispute the assertion by Matthew Cossey ('Agri chemicals subject to rigorous assessment', Stock Journal, August 22) that pesticides assist in the growing of "safe, high quality, nutritious" food.
How can he say that when pesticide and herbicide residues, including glyphosate, have been found not only in food supplies but in the rain that falls out of the sky?
The amount of chemicals that have been ingested by all living things on this planet in the last 60 years is truly frightening and has likely had an impact on the general health of the population.
Also, how much actual testing does the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority actually do?
Why are macadamia plantations in Australia still being sprayed with a chemical that has been banned overseas?
Anyone who has viewed the film The World according to Monsanto will quickly realise the power of these giant corporations and the influence they have.
But, now that a billion-dollar lawsuit regarding glyphosate use causing a dying man's cancer has been settled in the United States, and I believe a class action is pending in Vic, I cannot understand the rush by the SA government to lift a moratorium on genetically-modified crops.
Won't this lead to more and more Roundup being sprayed in our environment?
