Credit: Cathy Wilcox
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It is interesting to read of the study of the low level of tree canopy in inner Melbourne, and how this adversely affects urban temperatures and the emotional and physical health of residents (″City fails tree canopy test after count falls short″, 20/11). Living in leafy Blackburn, I was struck by the radiant heat off pavements and the lack of shade when visiting Richmond on a recent warm Saturday. I did not feel like lingering.
Unfortunately, the tree cover in our leafier suburbs is also under attack. For example, Balwyn has become the epicentre for mega-mansions with significant loss of tree cover. Just in the past week, in our neighbourhood in Blackburn, which is well-known for its canopy of eucalypts, chainsaws have been busy removing three magnificent gums on two different private properties. Presumably, the council approved these tree fellings, despite its objective of trying to reduce the loss of tree canopy in our municipality.
If we are to maintain urban tree cover and enjoy the many benefits, including ambient temperature reduction, habitat and protection for birds and other wildlife, and the absorption of carbon so important to meeting climate targets, then each of us, together with councils, must consider the societal and environmental effects before we decide to bring down precious trees.
Andrew Trembath, Blackburn
Cutting down a tree is quick, growing one is not
Heatwaves kill more Australians each year than any other natural disaster. Those who work outside, the elderly, those who have pre-existing medical conditions, those living in areas with poor tree cover and those that don’t have access to or can’t afford to run an air conditioner, are particularly vulnerable to death from extreme heat. Trees play a vital role in cooling our cities. It is imperative that we grow Melbourne’s tree canopy cover. This is something we need to urgently plan for. It’s quick and easy to cut down a tree, but takes considerably longer to establish a canopy tree.
Yvonne Bowyer, Surrey Hills
Consider cemeteries in environmental plans
Congratulations on giving prominence to the important research on the need for tree canopy in Melbourne. The City of Melbourne has an impressive urban forest strategy with a goal of 40 per cent tree cover. However, sadly, it is being let down by the Victorian government which is responsible for the Melbourne General Cemetery, which is Crown land despite being within the city’s boundaries. The cemetery is three kilometres from the centre of the city and larger than our lush botanic gardens. But it has only 8 per cent tree cover and there are no plans to increase the canopy. It is a heat island with hard road surfaces and marble and granite graves only scarcely mediated by trees and shrubs. It is time that our cemeteries were included in environmental planning.
Jane Miller, North Carlton
Development’s threat to tree cover
The evidence that there’s inadequate tree canopy in much of inner Melbourne comes as no surprise. The beneficial connection between greenery, open space and community wellbeing has been demonstrated before. Despite this, the government is hell-bent on replacing established suburbs and their gardens and mature trees with high-rise housing in so-called activity centres and encouraging second dwellings in backyards everywhere. Tree cover will inevitably decrease. A similar heat island phenomenon is a sad feature of our sprawling urban growth areas where black roofs, tiny back gardens and unnecessarily extensive road surfaces mean that these new suburbs will never provide adequate tree cover, to the permanent detriment of those communities.
Jim Holdsworth, San Remo
THE FORUM
Man of no grace
Alan Jones’s sexuality is his business only. Specific allegations against him will be duly tested in a court of law. His stance against risk to water, farms and environment from coal seam gas exploration deserved credit.
However, for years, his Trumpian narcissism reigned supreme as a prototype of toxic influencers as he wielded his megaphone power ruthlessly, hatefully, vindictively, destructively and divisively.
His supporters were those whose power and wealth he promoted; and advertising revenue, until it “died of shame”, bribed tolerance by his radio station.
His hypocrisy in the “cash for comment” scandal, his dangerous, racist incitement of the infamous Cronulla riots and his abhorrent, misogynistic treatment of Louise Herron, Sydney Opera House head, (abetted by Gladys Berejiklian’s capitulation), of Jacinda Ardern when NZ PM (suggesting Scott Morrison should “shove a sock down her throat” and “give her a few backhanders”), and of Julia Gillard (suggesting she and Bob Brown should be “shoved in a chaff bag and taken out to sea″, and that her father had “died of shame”), to name three, merit utter contempt.
He has not “fallen from grace”; he possessed no grace from which to fall.
Joe Di Stefano, Geelong
How to handle Trump?
The articles by David Crowe and Ross Gittins (20/11) illustrate how finely balanced is the management of workable international relationships. Different ideologies determine friends or adversaries and the resultant strategies for defence, trade, economic prosperity, environment etc. With Donald Trump threatening to start a trade war with both friends and foes and renege on the Paris Agreement, he may be on the receiving end of a Pandora’s Box of penalties and changing alliances – including carbon tariffs from those nations still holding the line on carbon emissions. How do the nations of the world manage a president who doesn’t believe the planet is going through an existential threat?
Peter Thomson, Brunswick
No regard for trees
Humans’ total disregard for trees and the benefits they provide is most profoundly shown in the destruction of the culturally significant Indigenous site of the birthing tree, cut down to make way for a freeway in western Victoria.
Imagine for a moment the uproar if we knocked down the “culturally significant” church on the corner of Flinders and Swanson Street to make way for a left-turning lane to improve traffic flow.
Andrew McGee, Nagambie
Target the bottom line
Many practical difficulties make it difficult to force social media companies to stop delivering rip-off content to their users (Editorial, 20/11). Most of the companies are based in America or other overseas countries. As for the scammers, they can easily cover their tracks, hiding their identity and base location in the ″brave new virtual world″.
Certainly Meta, Google, X, TikTok and the rest should ″shut the doors to scammers″. But whatever the government’s scams prevention bill includes, it may be hard to enforce.
The solution has to be to encourage these social media companies to want to comply with Australian law. The best way would be to hit what they care about, namely their revenue and profits.
Hit those who facilitate scams where it hurts – their financial bottom lines.
John Hughes, Mentone
Litany of errors
VCAA appears intent on making students suffer more for its inexcusable errors. It was cruel and ill-timed to announce the hidden exam question debacle while some students were still studying. VCAA then issued the confounding advice to students via their schools this week that it may use an anomalous grade method to review exam responses and it now may delay the issue of results.
Rather than grasping at fixes, VCAA needs to focus on the knowns and unknowns. It is not possible to identify or quantify the number of students advantaged by release of the hidden exam questions. It is not possible to differentiate between a student who has studied hard for these life-changing exams and may not have applied themselves with so much vigour earlier in the year (aka my comeback kid), and a student who may have prepared a response to one of these questions without the knowledge that it would be on the final exam.
VCAA needs to acknowledge that there is no reliable fix and that it is likely to disadvantage a greater number of students by interfering further. The exam responses should be accepted as presented, and VCAA should issue results on time so the university preference review period remains unchanged and allow these exhausted and disillusioned young adults to finally celebrate their achievements and enjoy their holidays.
Louise Lowe, Burwood East
Facing up to reality
Consumer advocate advocate Choice has promoted a petition calling for strong laws to keep facial recognition technology out of retailers’ databases. Choice is calling on the government to pass a new law that would effectively ban the use of facial recognition technology by Australian retailers.
I will not be signing the petition.
Theft and malicious damage in stores are indirectly costing consumers big bucks. Ultimately, consumers pay the price for the misdemeanors of others. Providing major operators clearly inform patrons that their identity is being captured on film, stored for a given period, used for no other purpose and then deleted, I fully support their actions.
If prospective customers are then unhappy with the capture of their image, they have the option to go elsewhere. No doubt Bunnings and other retailers take this into account and are comfortable with the outcome.
It is time that we woke up to the fact there must be deterrents to safeguard the broader interests of the public.
On balance, facial recognition technology is a realistic method of deterring criminal elements. Others may have altruistic standards for privacy, but containing the cost impost of theft no doubt has the support of the overwhelming majority.
Mike Reece,
Doncaster
Not a pretty picture
Angus Delaney’s Comment (20/11) on his negative experience of attending a concert where attendees preferred filming to ″experiencing″ brings to mind sad experiences when travelling, where there appears to be a similar preference for taking photos or videos as a substitute for drinking in the splendour or the excitement, then storing it in one’s memory for the future.
In particular, I recall several visits to see Da Vinci’s The Last Supper in Milan.
Visits are restricted to 15 minutes, and groups of visitors are limited to maybe 20. Each time I have visited, as soon as the doors opened, everyone rushed towards the fresco, cameras aloft, and the whole 15 minutes was spent taking videos, selfies, whatever.
No one just sits and takes it in: a ruined but beautiful painting, made by one of civilisation’s great geniuses and with such a poignant history, including its miraculous rescue from Allied bombing during World War II.
And as for people, young and old, who prefer to look at their ″feeds instead of at the sky, or the trees, or the faces of their children or their pets...
Angus, I despair.
Jane Stephens, Carlton
Onus on VCAA
It is outrageous that students might have their marks docked either directly or through the use of derived scores merely because their marks are better than predicted (“Pupils could lose marks after exam row”, 19/11).
As a teacher, we work hard with our students to help them improve over the year. Using SAC grades and GAT results is not fair in these circumstances and assumes that students are not capable of learning growth. At the very least students should be notified and given a right of appeal if their marks are changed. After all, it is VCAA’s fault that the exams were potentially compromised and it should be VCAA, not our diligent students, who have the onus of proving that a student actually did gain an advantage from seeing any questions in advance.
Stephen Anderson, Camberwell
The same songbook
Anyone who doubted that Peter Dutton was playing from the same songbook as Donald Trump can be in no doubt after Dutton’s blocking of Labor’s efforts to put a limit on student immigration. After bleating for months about the need to curtail immigration, Dutton opposes a genuine proposal from Labor to do just that.
This is the same strategy Trump used in stopping the bipartisan border bill in the US. Dutton has the gall to claim he has a better, as yet undisclosed, proposal that he will announce before the election. This is cynical politics. Dutton is prepared to reject useful progress on an issue of concern in order to keep the issue unresolved so that he retains the ability to weaponise it.
Graeme Henchel, Yarra Glen
Looking up from the gutter
Maggie Zhou’s opinion piece (20/11) makes for compelling reading. That so many Australians, namely young Australians, are, like her, taking to dumpster diving should be cause for the government to act. Wherever we are in life, however stable things might be, the gutter is never far away. As someone who has relied upon goodwill, rationed medication and even slept under a bridge to get by, I am pleased to learn that supermarkets no longer seem to lock their bins as they did in the past. A prosperous nation like Australia should not allow charities to serve the needs of its people.
Anders Ross, Heidelberg
Credit: Matt Golding
AND ANOTHER THING
Trump
With the likes of Donald Trump and the federal Coalition here trumpeting fossil fuels and deriding renewable energy I fear for the world our grandchildren will inherit.
Phil Alexander, Eltham
Donald Trump will deny climate change even when his Miami estate is under water. He will simply blame the Chinese for leaving the tap on.
Paul Chivers, Box Hill North
Perhaps Peter Dutton should apply for the job as Trump’s new head of the US Atomic Energy Commission, he has all of the qualifications that Trump needs.
Robin Jensen, Castlemaine
Furthermore
You can’t be serious re “Cramped kitchens stopping more home meals”, 20/11). What’s a gas ring, oven, microwave and a pot for?
Margaret Skeen, Pt Lonsdale
I can’t cook your dinner tonight dear because the kitchen’s too small. And the dog ate the ingredients. Really?
Barbara Lynch, South Yarra
Ross Gittins (Comment, 20/11) says our shift to clean energy is unstoppable. The Coalition’s nuclear option just delays – a red herring swimming against the tide.
Greg Curtin, Nunawading
So, the prime minister has a solution for the Ukraine conflict: Russia simply must withdraw inside its own borders. If that applies to Israel, we could settle two wars in a trice, No? Didn’t think so.
Tony Haydon, Springvale
I watched the SBS show on Volodymr Zelensky last night and saw Vladimir Putin address the Russian crowd just after his invasion of Ukraine. God forbid the similarities to Trump and his crowds.
Ken Finley, Mount Martha
Seems like most of Peter Dutton’s thought bubble costings and details will be ″revealed in due course″. Would be nice to know when that might be, after the election perhaps?
Marie Nash, Balwyn