Any council, or indeed government be it state or federal, has a core responsibility to adopt an apolitical, scientific and facts-based approach to managing risk to its assets, infrastructure, the community and ratepayers.

As someone who works in this field I am confident that unabated climate change poses an immediate and significant risk to Port Stephens, and indeed civilisation. At any given moment there are over 160 satellites monitoring climate change, with the help of some of the world's largest supercomputers, and modelling being done by the world's top physicists.

I am very comfortable with the expertise and positions of organisations such as NASA, CSIRO, BOM, Australian Department of Defence, the Pentagon and many other institutions around the world when it comes to climate change risk.

Not taking immediate action on this risk and failing to adapt and plan for coming decades would be a reckless and irresponsible approach.

Therefore I strongly commend Climate Action Port Stephens for their hard work in this area and applaud Port Stephens Council on the adoption of their first Climate Change Policy.

Letters to the Editor: September 17

For the benefit of Daryl Ryan [Examiner letters, September 17] , except for the councillor under his scrutiny, all Port Stephens councillors have declared themselves as independent. Politics is well and truly alive at Port Stephens Council and to the detriment of our natural environment.

Local councils will pay a high price in the future for not acting now on a decent Climate Change Policy as the consequences will cost us much more in extreme storm clean ups, road repairs and foreshore erosion.

Far from being self interested, the young councillor is, in my opinion, quite the opposite - interested in us all and asking all the tough questions.

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I refer to Mr Gittoes' letter on September 17 ['Sand erosion threat'], claiming his and his neighbours' wall is preventing erosion. There may not yet be any erosion where the wall is but there is at either end because the wall is deflecting waves to either end. Eventually wave action against the sheer surface will undermine the wall, as has happened elsewhere that similar, unauthorised structures exist on public space.

There are many in this community who know that a three tiered zone of trees, shrubs, grasses and ground covers is the best protection against beach erosion, not the ad-hoc structures and mown grass that dominate the foreshore from Taylors Beach to Tomaree Head

It if my belief that if Mr Gittoes and his neighbours had looked at what effective engineering options were available to address the inevitable increased wave action resulting from more intense storms and sea level rise caused by climate change, he would have sought development approval from Port Stephens Council to plant more vegetation and place a tumble of rocks, rather than erect an erosion enhancer on public space.

On the Friday morning after my letter was published [Examiner, September 17] regarding faulty lights on the pathway between Bagnalls Beach Road and Sergeant Baker Drive, Corlette, Port Stephens Council workmen arrived with a cherry picker and attended to the problem. I am happy to report that the pathway lights are now in working order.