Letter to POST newspaper

      As a former high school teacher and a mother I agree with Nevin Watson who made the point that our youth seem be led by emotion rather than facts. (Drowning islands - Emotion or sober facts? – POST August 24). Young people tend to see everything as either black or white and to believe whatever they are told, especially when the information is constantly being pushed by main-stream media.  It seems they are no longer taught to think and reason for themselves.  I also agree with Nevin that relentless misinformation needs a response.

     Carbon, oxygen and hydrogen are elements which support life.  Far from being a pollutant carbon dioxide is indispensable to life.  In the presence of sunlight plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen.  This process, known as photosynthesis, is basic science.  Without CO2 Earth would lose its atmosphere and life dependent on oxygen would die. All life takes in (consumes) and gives out (excretes).  We breathe out CO2 and take in oxygen while plants take in CO2 and give out oxygen.  As CO2 is food for plants the more CO2 there is, the more plants will grow, the greener the planet will become and the more oxygen will be available for humans and all life.  Surely that’s good and will be saving, not destroying, Planet Earth.  As humans are carbon-based life forms, a ’war on carbon’ is a war on humanity.

     The vapour coming from the towers of coal fuelled power stations is clean water vapour.   We export our clean coal to other countries instead of using it to produce cheap electricity for Australians.  Alternative sources of electricity, such as solar panels and wind farms, are far more expensive to produce, pollute the environment as well as covering acres of arable land and are unreliable and inefficient.  Wind turbines are also responsible for killing birds, bees and other insects as well as affecting the health and wellbeing of people living close to them.  This does not seem very ‘green’ to me.

     Tuvalu is in the Pacific ring of fire, long known to be a geologically active area.  Subsidence is very common and sea levels can rise and fall.  This has nothing to do with so-called man-made global warming - now known as ‘Climate Change’. The climate is constantly changing and has been for millions of years, long before humans were on this planet.  True climate change is inevitable and has nothing to do with CO2, so constantly quoting past CO2 levels against today’s CO2 levels may sound scientific but is absolutely pointless.  The real reason for global warming (and cooling) has to do with Earth’s proximity to the sun; it’s solar orbit.  The natural ‘wobble’ in the Earth’s rotation and its orbital dynamics perfectly explain observed variations in global warming and cooling.  NASA has confirmed this.

     The striking school students need to be diligent in their studies and do more research.  Students, if you’re really crying out for the truth Google “50-1 project with Dr. David Evans”, former modeler for the Australian Greenhouse Office.  Please don’t waste any more time and effort on CO2 caused climate change.  Realise that the People’s Extinction Rebellion is more likely to be a move towards people’s extinction rather than saving the planet!

Marguerite Henshaw