Accessibility vision welcomed
I read through all the manifestos of the candidates nominated for Port Stephens Council.
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Unless I misread what had been printed in the Port Stephens Examiner, on November 30, there was only one candidate who mentioned people living with disabilities in our community.
I have lived in Medowie, Central Ward for 36 years and written letters about how inaccessible some of our infrastructure and amenities are.
So I hope that Mr Jason Wells, of the Labor Party team, an advocate for people living with disabilities, if indeed elected, will do something about the issues of accessibility and inclusion, and update Port Stephens Council's policy and strategy.
Ernest To, Medowie
Something is better than nothing
In response to Steve Barnett's letter, (Examiner, December 2), I sincerely hope most Australians don't share his seemingly defeatist attitude of, 'if we can't do it all we should do nothing'.
Sticking our head in the sand and dreaming of the 1950s, will only result in the rest of the world leaving Australia behind.
Regardless of how backwards Australia becomes, eventually we will have no choice but to join the 21st century.
Soon no one will want our coal and no one will be selling ICE [internal combustion engine] cars.
To think the only way to act on climate change is for us all to individually leave the grid and become hunters and gatherers, shows, in my opinion, a lack of understanding of the modern technology.
Renewable energy is far cheaper and if planned correctly, more reliable than putting all your eggs in one basket with individual coal power plants.
While solar and wind have proven how easily renewables can replace fossils fuels, there are many more options, for example tidal, thermal, biomass etc.
The extensive storage options we have can make sure the grid runs efficiently, eg batteries, hydrogen, hydro, sand heat storage, gravity, molten salt and liquid air.
Australia is the only country with nine out of 10 of the minerals required to make lithium batteries, yet we don't.
Giving up on our kids' future because a politician got into a plane isn't the answer.
Steve is right that it can be hard to walk the walk, but only because we have to carry so many others that hold Australia back.
If we all do what we can, that is a start, however it's far more important to pressure our government to act now and drag Australia into the 21st century.
PS, I'm happy with my efforts over the last week and I'm planning on doing a lot more.
Conrad Ball, One Mile Beach
Devil is in the detail on CO2
There are many fun facts that awkwardly exist behind a lot of the issues that occupy our conversations these days.
Take for instance, the drive to urgently reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
Experts have stated that humanity puts 26 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every year and that this must be reduced to zero or we are all doomed.
A quick comparison: the surface area of the earth is 510 million km2, the weight of the atmosphere in the first 100m of height above the ground is around 62.5 trillion tonnes.
CO2 released by humanity represents 0.04 per cent of the portion of atmosphere used in this analysis.
Further to this, our atmosphere consists of 78 per cent nitrogen (weighing 28g/mol), 21 per cent oxygen (weighing 32g/mol) and 3 per cent other gases.
CO2 weighs 44g/mol.
So, all that CO2 settles close to the surface of the earth where.... trees process it?
Mike Hayes, Medowie
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