RE climate-change letters: The issue of climate change is one of the biggest issues we as a human race will have to deal with.
Our survival and the survival of many animal and plant species is dependent on our ability to rally together in order to prevent the earth from warming even more than it has in the past decade.
The Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPCC ), a world body of climate scientists, CSIRO, the Australian Academy of Sciences, NASA, the National Atmospheric Administration and the Bureau of Meteorology are all saying that we are contributing to the climate change that we are experiencing and that we need to act now to prevent catastrophic “runaway climate change”.
Ian Plimer and Bob Carter are geologists and their research is disputed. This issue is not popular with coal mining companies, particularly here in Queensland, where much of our income is derived from it.
Many new jobs have been created overseas in the renewable energy industries and we can do it here.
Melbourne University and Beyond Zero Emissions Group are independent of government and industry and have done research to prove that we can produce base load power, that is, for 24 hours a day, from renewable sources for Australia’s needs by 2020.
There would be many jobs created in this process. Once established, there would be no fuel costs and we would not be ravaging the earth for coal mining or coal seam gas which risks our valuable farming land and food security.
We have a moral obligation to do whatever we can for our children and our earth’s future. We are supposed to be “caretakers” of God’s creation.
Thus far, our ignorance and consumerism have contributed to the state we find ourselves in. We cannot afford to “sleep” on this issue any longer and all of us need to “wake up” and take whatever action we can muster.
PATRICIA FUNNELL
Ashgrove, Qld
