Letter writers from the Melbourne Age

Listen to the scientists, not politicians

The fact that Barnaby Joyce advocates adding nuclear power to our energy mix, while ignoring the fact of the Japanese tsunami, and the resultant pollution caused by the damaged nuclear reactor, convinces me that he is wrong to suggest such a dangerous plan. It's not as if there haven't been other disasters from other nuclear accidents to remind us that accidents do happen. We should heed the warnings of the majority of scientists on this issue.

Rosemary Taylor, Castlemaine

We are at a tipping point. We must act

Dead canaries in a coal mine are a stark warning the mine air is toxic. Koalas are Australia's canaries, and they are burning and dying in our catastrophic fires. They warn that we are terribly close to a tipping point of irreversible global heating. We must turn Australia off coal – faster than we ever thought was necessary. We must reduce Australian coal going to India and China, and super-heating our world.

But our politicians look powerless. I see parallels between Australia's fossil fuel, and America's gun industries. In both countries, whole populations see the problem, politicians feel and talk sad, but they do not act. But money is a big factor.

Australian people can act. The big money in superannuation funds, investment funds and with philanthropists could collaborate together and shift their investments, out of old coal, into sustainable alternatives. Fifteen million Australians hold shares in their super funds. We could switch to the sustainable investments option, today. Acting together, we could shrink share prices, and reduce national dependency on coal tax dollars, a heat source which became toxic. Together we can – with or without our politicians. For our grandkids' world.

Jamie Cooper, Malvern

Australia needs to step up

There is a specious argument about climate action that does not seem to be going away. It says that because Australia's contribution to harmful emissions is roughly 1 per cent, then it makes no difference if we do or do not attempt to reduce our contribution.

What is overlooked in this argument is that while the US, China, Russia and India produce roughly half of the world's emissions, there are dozens of smaller emitters like ourselves who contribute between 4 and 1 per cent each. Taken as a total, countries like ourselves together constitute roughly half of the world's emissions. If each of these smaller countries was to reduce their contribution then the total emissions could be lowered by something like 25 per cent. Middle and small emitting countries like ourselves must each step up to the plate and do their bit.

Trevor Parton, Clayton