OWEN Keegan ("Power shifting way too fast", Letters 19/6): regarding Australia's carbon footprint. You say if it ain't broke don't fix it. You are obviously not aware of the obvious fact coal fired power stations are nearing the end of their lives and they are indeed breaking, making coal fired power far more unreliable. In other words, coal fired power stations are broken and need fixing.
As well as the carbon footprint repercussions, coal fired power is more expensive than renewables to build which are much more reliable; especially hydro, but also solar when it is combined with storage.
My own home solar power and battery work perfectly well. They have never broken down, and the CSIRO has made it blatantly clear that nuclear is too expensive. In summary, coal fired power stations are indeed broken and need replacing and the only viable cost effective solutions are renewables.
Glen Wilson, Cardiff
Shortfall looms in battery shift
IT'S easy to see most politicians, including our prime minister, didn't come from a tradie background when they don't realise that lithium battery power tools need a lot more than just one battery when required to work for long periods of time.
Not knowing this, Labor is willing to subsidise a 500 megawatt storage battery to help replace the Liddell power station. It's bad enough this battery costs millions of dollars, but adding in the others we'll need will cost a fortune just to match Liddell's power output. This is assuming that solar and wind farms can power everything for eight hours a day, which is highly unlikely, plus during the same time charge these batteries. From my perspective it's simply impossible.
Why is something so simple to explain and understand so hard to accept? Why do we continue this path of economic self-destruction when there is simply a better choice? How can we save the world when we can't save ourselves?
Carl Stevenson, Dora Creek
October 7 made deaths inevitable
MICHAEL Hinchey states the war in Gaza can't be reduced to a contest of good over bad or who started shooting first.
If it hadn't been for the October 7 barbaric attack, and the years of firing missiles from Gaza into Israel, I believe life would be going along as normal in Gaza.
After October 7, Israel had no choice other than to wipe out Hamas in Gaza to prevent another murderous attack into Israel.
So if an Hamas-style army basing itself in Indonesia or New Guinea was to launch similar attacks into northern Australia and then retreat back, Australia would say 'nothing we can do about it'? Yeah sure.
In every war, large numbers of civilians die. I wonder why this is the only one where we get a daily casualty list like a football scoreboard ticking over? In every other war in the Middle East, people in their millions take refuge in surrounding countries.
The reason this hasn't happened this time is that Hamas would prefer to use families as human shields and sacrifice them to make it as hard as possible for the Israelis fighting Hamas.
After watching the barbarity of October 7, it comes as no surprise to me that the insurgents of Gaza would resort to this.
Jan Phillip Trevillian, Fennell Bay
Take some off the top at Redhead
I HAVE sent Lake Macquarie council several messages regarding the state of the sand dune that is situated next to the café, car park and shower area at Redhead.
The council spent thousands relocating the showers away from the café and put them near the dunes. These dunes over the past 15+ years have slowly grown in size due to the techniques they have used to stabilise them. Those include numerous layers of silt fencing, copper log fencing and countless numbers of hay bales. These techniques have not only stabilised the sand, but the sand cannot move as it once would. Now the dunes are taking over the wash-down areas, walkways and car park.
The council has been out three times in the past three months to clean the sand away. This is a band-aid solution as everyone that lives in the area knows. Stop wasting council money with band-aid solutions, take the top off the sand dune, remove all the unwanted debris that has been buried over the years and fix this issue once and for all.
Matthew Kent, Redhead
Don't over-egg shortages that spark a frenzy
THIS latest scare on the supply of eggs is nothing short of a joke. One or two suppliers in Victoria had an issue to start with. There are scores of other suppliers. When I saw the empty shelves, it reminded me of the panic buying of toilet paper during COVID; grown women fighting in supermarkets for toilet paper. Maybe people should read a bit deeper on issues of concern, rather than take social media as gospel.
Shane Tull, Redhead
Expand our animal exchange
CHINA'S giving us two new pandas. Could the Chinese officials do Australia a real favour and take the lodge liar-bird and the Bowen constictor home with them?
Steve Barnett, Fingal Bay
Consider upsides to occupation
IF China invades and occupies Australia as Steve Barnett suggests ("Are we ready if war is brewing?", Letters, 14/6), and as a consequence they ban drivel in letters to the editor, it could be a positive.
Brian Rose, Carrington
We're too late on industry front
IT is disappointing that often some sections of our media do not publish considered and unbiased analysis of government policy or direction, preferring instead to align with a particular political focus. Take for example the Albanese government's rhetoric that we will have a "Made in Australia" industry. It is conspicuous that a country close to us has already achieved such a policy. Indonesia has more than 250 operational coal-fired power plants and is building several new ones to supply nickel, cobalt and aluminium smelters which last year produced 1.8 million tonnes of nickel, decimating our nickel mining and smelting industry. It is not rocket science that to have a heavy manufacturing industry you need competitive and 24/7 reliable energy supplies. Looking at Indonesia, we appear to be going in the opposite direction.
John Cooper, Charlestown
Warm and fuzzies don't fuel grid
MAC Maguire ("Dutton seems to lead a 'Noalition'", Letters, 18/6), interesting analysis regarding your opinion on Dutton. Seriously, have you actually thought how ridiculous it is, that anyone who thinks that reducing the one per cent of Australia's carbon emissions globally will make one iota of difference? Wrecking the economy for a warm and fuzzy feeling just sounds "idiotic" to me.
