'Do your environment sums'
In The Standard, March 23 another protest against Canberra obsession in wanting to trash our pristine coastline the Save our Bight has been waging an ongoing battle to stop seismic blasting endangering not only the whales but wiping out our crayfish industry E.T.C, so multinationals can sell our gas overseas.
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They were down at Torquay doing their thing on surf boards leaving a new mob to protest about the wind turbines they want to plonk out in our bay. Now these offshore towers are humongous monsters, that the only green thing about them is our taxpayer greenbacks paying for them overseas.
There's no jobs for us locals as even Portland Harbour is too small to unload them. They will need seismic blasting to find suitable seafloor foundations, humongous amount of cement and reinforcement and piles driven in to form the foundations.
Then there is the little matter of the undersea electric cable and this is a whale nursery. On land you are not allowed to have your house anywhere near the wind towers and farmers never let pregnant stock graze under the power lines.
Dan Tehan our local member spoke out against them and never mentioned the N word, Michael Neoh and other speakers spoke well on the damage they will do, to not only the environment but also the cost to local tourism and fishing industry. Yes we all know we need to convert to sustainable energy and we have the best wave and wind energy, but do your environment sums first Bowen.
Robert Rowley, Illowa
'Let's act like adults'
"The health of a child born today will be defined by climate change", medical professionals told an Australian Government inquiry this year.
At the same time the Liberal and National parties launched their anti-renewable energy campaign. Locally we saw this at a renewables protest event last Saturday on Warrnambool Civic Green. Organised by former Nationals candidate, Mike Neoh and supported by our Liberal representative, Dan Tehan, they claimed that wind farms would endanger whales.
The event attracted a thin crowd of one hundred people. Leading up to the event their social media campaign featured conspiracy theories, climate change deniers and cherry-picked 'facts'. Why our elected representative chose to waste his time and our money on this issue is unbelievable. Or is he softening us up for a Warrnambool nuclear reactor?
Every credible voice, from scientists to peak environmental organisations to governments around the world, say that we must urgently reduce carbon emissions. Urgently. For an island continent like Australia, offshore wind is the fastest way to make this happen. Detailed proposals and environmental impact reports have not commenced yet. Let's wait to see these and then assess them carefully.
Let's act like adults and explore this renewable energy option for the benefit of the whole planet, including whales and every child born today
Bruce Campbell, Warrnambool
'Not a decision to take lightly'
Readers deserve the good with the bad in offshore wind reporting.
The Standard owe us balanced and useful reporting on complex issues. "Wind farm zone off Warrnambool could 'displace endangered Southern Right Whales' " (The Standard, March 22) doesn't meet this obligation.
The article publishes claims regarding the possible risk of offshore wind disrupting Southern Right Whales. The journalist did not ask any scientist or expert for comment.
The article also failed to mention that the same Whale Recovery Plan quoted identifies climate change as the biggest threat to the species - a threat that offshore wind developments directly address.
I'm sure readers would like to know whether the report's authors agree with Mr Neoh's interpretation that their report means offshore wind in the south-west is a non-starter.
The plan also identifies existing threats to whales in the south-west, including entanglement, vessel strikes in existing shipping lanes, and seismic blasting. I would like The Standard to ask Mr Neoh and the Member for Wannon whether they are concerned about these existing risks or are they playing politics?
In this period of low trust and increasing misinformation journalists must go beyond republishing quotes and calling 'good enough'.
Offshore windfarms are 10+years away. In the meantime we should demand more research to ensure whales are protected during construction and operation. A hasty NO to offshore wind is also a no to local jobs, cheaper power and a safer future for our kids, with less climate pollution. This is not a decision to take lightly.
Lisa McLeod, Bushfield
- The Standard prefers letters to be less than 250 words, preference is given to shorter contributions. Letters must include the author's name, address and contact phone number for verification purposes. Letters are published on our website standard.net.au and in print.
