Climate change means we need to plan better for the future

Political philosophy professor Jeremy Moss has his heart in the right place but his naive solution to the household insurance problem is just another unaffordable pipe dream (“ ‘Sleepwalking’ into climate insurance hell”, 2/12). Household insurance is all about risk, and those who have less risk should not be expected to pay for those at more risk. With due respect to those more knowledgeable than I am in these matters, instead of proving the definition of insanity by doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, shouldn’t we be doing something radical for a change instead of just procrastinating? If The Netherlands can keep out the North Sea, surely we can control our occasional floods. Surely we can construct permanent and impenetrable levees around our towns instead of helplessly watching desperate residents filling individual sand bags year after year. Surely we can build more mitigation dams from which water can be quickly pumped away to other dams when necessary. We, and especially government authorities, can stop building where we know we will be flooded again. Bushfires have an easier solution. We know that clearing trees and bush from around our properties and allowing backburning will dramatically alleviate the problem, but we allow our governments and councils to cower before well-intentioned but unrealistic environmentalist groups. There is nothing new about the above suggestions, but why have we been wasting time?

Ross McDonald, Gordon, NSW

Anthony Albanese is considering capping prices for coal and gas. For this to be effectively implemented he requires co-operation from the NSW and Queensland governments. There has been pushback from these state governments over federal compensation. The NSW government must take some responsibility for this crisis due to their reluctance to develop local resources, thus forgoing royalty income, yet wanting the Australian taxpayer to compensate them for capping coal and gas prices. Is this a case of “have your cake and eat it too”?

Don McMillan, Paddington, Qld

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen says it will take a “substantial effort” for Labor to meet its emissions targets, and he is right. But this is our best option under the circumstances. We are already facing the cost of extreme weather disasters, intensified by climate change. This could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars in coming decades, according to a recent IPCC report. In addition to clean energy projects, we need a plan to substantially reduce fossil fuel production. According to the AAP, there are more than 100 coal and gas projects in the pipeline in Australia. The considerable swing to the Greens and teal independents in state and federal elections this year indicates that a large number of voters want stronger action on climate. Labor has a challenge ahead, but it is worth tackling.

Anne O’Hara, Wanniassa, ACT

Times change

Troy Bramston is sufficiently credentialed to write a biography of Gough Whitlam (“50 years on: new bio on legacy of Whitlam”, 2/12). He has previous penned The Whitlam Legacy and produced tomes with Labor luminaries Paul Keating and Bob Hawke as the centrepiece. I suspect he has lived experience of the Hawke-Keating era but not of the Whitlam years.

Those of us who have remember a government so riven with dysfunction and finally scandal that it suffered the ultimate humiliation – its dismissal. In a comprehensive endorsement of that decision, the electorate took its vengeance against Whitlam at the 1975 double-dissolution election and once more at the 1977 general election.

Many on the left remember Gough with dewy eyes, and it’s true that much of his progressive legacy survives him. As Bramston proffered in his column this week, for some the times were “thrilling and exciting”.

Somewhat similar, others would suggest, to falling from an aircraft without a parachute.

Kim Keogh, East Fremantle, WA

Defence priorities

The Pentagon’s 2022 Chinese military report, as your editorial disturbingly indicates (“China accelerates nuclear reach”, 2/12), calls out the People’s Republic of China as the most consequential and systemic challenge to US and global security. Integral to China’s new approach to modern warfare is identifying the key vulnerabilities across an adversary’s operational system, including nuclear, cyber, space and counterspace. Once identified, it would then launch precision strikes uniquely targeted against those vulnerabilities. But China’s activities in space are of the greatest concern. A recent testing of its secretive space plane has left Pentagon officials completely baffled as to the true nature of its anti-satellite capabilities. While this report stresses conflict with China is not inevitable, the US remains on the defensive as China mounts a challenge that will chart the future course of human history.

Vincent Zankin, Rivett, ACT