Matter of trust
The current ocean outfall sewage treatment for Merimbula is a matter of trust.
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We, the residents of Bega Valley Shire, should trust the elected council and their appointed experts and specialists (both local and those from further afield). They have carefully investigated and researched all the options for the sewage treatment. They have taken considerable time to do so.
We should trust the specialists' advice - based on education, training, science and years of experience. They are employed by the council to make decisions that benefit Bega Valley Shire, not ones to hinder or ruin the shire and its residents.
We should be thanking the council for employing these experts and specialists and for considering all options available. We should be thanking them for diligence, thoroughness and preparedness. We should be listening to and then heeding the advice of the Bega Valley Shire Council and its team of scientists for this important issue.
Jenny Weber, Bega
Solar pie in the sky
It's great when something unites a community, and the drive for the good people of Tathra to reduce their carbon footprint appears to be a laudable example. On that note I saw a painting of an exalted solar panel at the Spiral Gallery recently in Bega.
Owners of solar panels are of the opinion they're reducing their carbon footprint and saving money. None of them mention the carbon footprint used in manufacturing the panels or the conditions under which they were manufactured, the cost to the tax payer for their government subsidy or the carbon footprint of installing them in Australia.
Also many fly by night solar panel installers have taken the subsidies and disappeared with no after sales service. The solar companies that remain charge exorbitant fees to maintain solar systems. Ask anyone that's had to do it. I as an electrician have received two shocks off solar systems, one at the showroom of a solar company!
Supply authorities are already experiencing voltage irregularity issues with all the solar systems on line and fire authorities will not hose a burning roof with solar panels on it.
While Australia has plenty of space to install solar farms northern Europe does not. Solar farms there have proved inefficient and require grid backup. The cost of intermittently firing up power stations is exorbitant and passed on to the consumer.
While lithium batteries offer some promise for overnight storage they represent a fire hazard and inevitable waste problem, as will the solar panels - they have a use by date. Will we export that waste for another country to sort through?
Wind power is intermittent, requires grid or battery backup and kills apex aerial predators such as eagles, owls, falcons and other raptors. Also in a dry country like Australia re-diverting water up and down an incline for hydro-power is a political and environmental football.
Whilst nuclear fission has a dangerous waste issue, it has an extremely low carbon footprint. On the other hand nuclear fusion and nuclear thorium offer safer alternatives. They need to be investigated and encouraged.
John Cafe, Bega
Stop animal testing
At a recent scientific conference, not one but three pharmaceutical companies announced the stunning failures of experimental Alzheimer's drugs that had tested successfully in mice, who have to be genetically engineered to develop a pseudo-Alzheimer's condition.
The compounds - known as BACE inhibitors - actually appeared to hurt patients, by worsening their cognitive abilities and causing brain shrinkage.
The journal Nature described this ever-growing list of treatment disappointments: "Drug companies have spent billions of dollars searching for therapies to reverse or significantly slow Alzheimer's disease, to no avail."
As one molecular biologist put it, "The biggest mistake you can make is to think you can ever have a mouse with Alzheimer's disease."
For the sake of humans and other animals, experimenters must adopt superior, non-animal research methods that are actually relevant to human physiology. For example, a just-published landmark study using cells from human brains has provided new insight into how Alzheimer's develops, and may lead to effective treatments.
When charities ask you for your contribution, ask if they test on animals. If they do, find a better cause.