It's not climate
"This is what climate change looks like" (Sunday Canberra Times, Focus, November 26, p17) pictures a young woman of very pleasant appearance: married at age 14, now with a new baby; catastrophically and unwillingly launched out of childhood due to climate change, the article would have us believe.
It goes on to report "in Mozambique, 48 per cent of girls are married by the age of 18, and 14 per cent by 15". In Malawi the figures are 46per cent and 9 per cent.
The result of "climate change" or whatever, such an obscene rush into child-bearing does a lot to explain Africa's current population trajectory from a present 1 billion people towards 4 billion by 2100.
How can women access education, have just the number of children they are able to nurture and enjoy, when their country's governments – and supranational religions and entities – are unwilling to provide and encourage access to reproductive health, including contraception?
Colin Samundsett, Farrer
Coal hazards
The article "Titanium released by coal" (November 26, p10) points out that nanoparticles of titanium suboxides released by coal combustion, potentially harmful in themselves, carry with them hydrochloric acid and arsenic.
According to the US organisations the Union of Concerned Scientists and Sourcewatch, coal combustion also releases into the atmosphere mercury, lead, cadmium and "dozens of other substances known to be hazardous to human health".
The three named heavy metals are cumulative: therefore, the only safe amount of them is zero.
Coal burning has little to recommend it. It is a practice of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and does not belong in the 21st.
Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin
Correct measure
On Sunday, November 26, you ran a report that the ABS had $20 million left over from the same-sex marriage survey. The money would be very well spent if it was used to run a pilot study on measuring a Genuine Progress Indicator [GPI] in addition to the GDP.
The GDP measures "diseconomies" like crime and environmental damage but takes no account of volunteering work of all descriptions nor house work etc. Not only does a GPI seek to correct these anomalies but it includes other factors like unemployment, income inequality and land degradation.
However there is an even more important role for the GPI. For any nation, if both GDP and GPI are plotted, they at first rise together but at some point the GPI will start to fall away from the GDP. This point is usually at a lower level of income for less developed nations than for developed but in both cases, the experts advise, it indicates the point at which further economic growth is costing more than it delivers – growth has become "uneconomic" [Herman Daly].
Dick Varley, Braidwood, NSW
Ribbon in a knot
The article "What White Ribbon could learn from a series of tweets by police in Scotland" (Sunday Canberra Times, November 26), and one on Saturday which preceded it, gloss over an issue with White Ribbon in that it gives no funds to help the actual victims of domestic violence – all is spent on administration and publicity.
Indeed, Rosie Battie has criticised it for diverting funds from her own organisation set up in memory of her son, a victim of domestic violence. It is never clear if White Ribbon is campaigning against violence, which has halved in 10 years according to ABS data, domestic violence (where 30 per cent of perpetrators of partner to partner violence are women) or about male violence to women.
Originally male victimhood was not even surveyed by ABS but the latest People's Safety Survey shows female to male domestic violence now comprising a third of all partner to partner violence, so when will White Ribbon campaign against that?
John Coochey, Chisholm
Cosmetic change
The government is about to shovel through another set of shonky oil and gas deals. The Australian Petroleum Producers and Explorers Association has welcomed new offshore rules to increase industry transparency ("Rule changes aim to improve offshore oil transparency", November 30, p24).
Small wonder! Hidden behind this concerted PR exercise, which would come into effect "too late to impact current projects poised to drill in the Great Australian Bight", is the news in the final paragraph. "The federal government will also explore the potential of Queensland and South Australia's Cooper Basin" for fracking.
The changes do not include any improvement to operational transparency, that is production and profit, the critical industry data which establish government revenue. They are essentially cosmetic concessions.
Gary J. Wilson, Macgregor
Devilish dilemma
The self-assured prophet controlling Brindabella "Christian" College insists the devil is the demon preying on our democratic society ("Families question principals turnover", December 1, p1).
Which is the greater evil? Tolerating, subsidising, being silently complicit while innocent young minds are frightened and warped by delusional teachers, or requiring those who wear the cloak of religious freedom to substantiate their versions of truth, goodness, right and wrong?
Don Burns, Mawson
Loose talk costs
The old wartime posters with the warning "Loose talk costs lives" may need to be updated given Twitter and the various forms of "social' media', especially for politicians.
We have all sent off that email too swiftly and sometimes to the whole office although the worst that could probably happen is the opportunity to find a new job.
The concern is what happens when the messages are sent by the world leaders. The passing comment in 1984 by president Ronald Reagan that they had solved the Russian problem – "We begin bombing in five minutes" – nearly started a nuclear war.
The modern version of quick-fire commentary is Donald Trump's Twitter account. The latest controversial tweet seeming to support British right-wing organisations can be considered a poor choice and at least offensive to the British people that he is intending to visit as a "friend".
The words of our leaders should inspire and provide a direction for their citizens to follow, so perhaps they should be few, significant and released through official channels.
Stop, think, rethink and then speak.
Dennis Fitzgerald, Box Hill, Victoria
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