SUE Barker and her exceptional volunteers at Dog Rescue Newcastle went above and beyond to rescue 20 cats and dogs from a car on Newcastle foreshore last weekend.
By the owner's admission, the animals had been living in the vehicle for three months.
Most were in poor condition and needed immediate care.
Authorities had been notified but the animals continued to suffer while City of Newcastle and RSPCA continued to debate responsibility.
Ms Barker spoke up for the voiceless and said it was clearly a case of animal cruelty and hoarding.
Surely a quick roundtable discussion and some common sense could have resolved the issue and got the suffering animals into care earlier.
If you would like to help this group of volunteers check out their website. For the price of a coffee a month, you could become a regular donor and do your bit to help ease the suffering and abuse.
Kaye Duffy, Newcastle
Recipe for inaction
METAPHYSICS poses unanswerable questions. It seems Peter Dolan (Letters, 6/7) would have us approach climate science in much the same way. He says nothing in science can ever be truly proven. Strictly correct, but a truism saying nothing useful and leading nowhere. Much like saying we can never really know, or prove we actually exist.
The modern world now relies on scientific knowledge more than ever before, despite its imperfections. Do we forgo the latest cancer treatment because "a single experiment" might suddenly prove wrong all our understanding of the disease? Of course not. Quite rationally, we proceed on the basis of the best scientific knowledge we have.
Although clothed in the respectable garb of scientific caution, Mr Dolan's position is really, therefore, just a recipe for inaction. Which is why it's long been favoured by the denialist industry. Like the mantra of the tobacco lobby it copied, it claims that because the science isn't "settled", action on climate change is unnecessary. And, because science can never be truly settled, action will never become necessary. Neat, hey?
Mr Dolan enlists, of all people, Einstein to this fundamentally anti-scientific cause. But Einstein also said we can't solve our problems with the same thinking that created them. Here lies both the travesty and farcical irony of the denialist position. By focusing on the impossibility of conclusive proof, it claims unique faithfulness to true science, while condemning us to endlessly repeat the mistakes science has been warning us about for almost 50 years.
Einstein said something about that too. "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe".
Michael Hinchey, New Lambton
Climate narrative 'catastrophic'
FOR decades science deniers have been peddling a big lie: that the random incidence of bad or extreme weather was a result of human-caused climate change.
That is a hard line to push in the wake of so much contradicting evidence to those claims. Even the Herald editorial ('Hoping for the best simply won't cut it', Opinion, 6/7) noted the "record inundations of the mid 1950s" as ample evidence that the terrible flooding we are suffering now has happened almost 60 years ago, well before any claims of anthropogenic catastrophic climate change.
When the weather is good and everyone is happy, no-one claims that the good weather is a result of climate change. That doesn't fit the disaster or 'catastrophic climate change' narrative.
Arguing against that is like arguing with a three-year old who only thinks on a shallow emotional level. Science denialism relies on a politically correct narrative which nobody is allowed to challenge because "we know the truth" or "we learnt it in school anyway". The scientific method includes the null hypothesis where the negative of a claim is tested to prove the opposite of the claim cannot happen. The null hypothesis has never been tested on climate change. Why not?
Peter Devey, Merewether
Prime minister's expenses
THE prime minister is dead, long live the prime minister. What a wonderful thing it is to have a new PM who knows just how to use the government expenses properly. Yes, indeedy. To those Liberals who have forgotten what the word liberal means, we might remind you that while you were in government, this PM trip was set up.
A good thing it is that Ants went to France to make friends again and visit our loved ones in Ukraine to see for ourselves what a stupid and pointless adventure war really is for all concerned. And now taxpayers have saved money because all was done while on the one trip and not separate trips as those who were thrown out of government would have done.
Work together with children's joy, energy and love. Not the old roo poo we were used to. As for not commenting on a hail of twitter attacks about all and sundry at all times, good on you Ants, stick to the job in hand mate. We do not want a one man band, they are always out of tune. Many ministers can lend a hand and all hands should be on deck for helping in the current weather. We didn't see too many ex liberal ministers filling sandbags on the idiot box and not many last flood, just big mouths. Let's see what today brings.
Nigel Williams, Redhead
Federal relief fund needed
IF global warming is now a certainty, we need to plan to mitigate its worst effects. Nic Seton, CEO of Australian Parents for Climate Action, thinks that climate change is real and locked in ('We're watching the impact of climate change play out in real time', Newcastle Herald, 7/7).
Climate modelling is notoriously complicated and unreliable. It now appears that wild swings in weather have become the order of the day. Climatologists think that next year, another La Nina weather event, with heavy rains and floods, is more likely than an El Nino event with its droughts and bushfires. We cannot prevent whatever weather event comes our way. We can only roll with the punches.
In recognition of this, after a decade, the federal treasury is going to revive climate modelling as a feed into the federal budget. Presumably, part of the federal budget will include incentives for green energy production and subsidies for the purchase of EVs.
A financial measure within the budget should be a 'global warming relief fund' which would be built up as a separate fund, and be made available to future global warming victims. This would not be a 'contingency' fund but a 'certainty' fund and budget contributions to the fund could be adjusted based on the latest climate modelling. Money from this fund could be spent on subsidising flood victims to rebuild on higher ground and subsidising riparian towns to build levees and flood ways; subsidising sea defences for the victims of rising sea levels and subsidising bushfire victims to rebuild more fire-resilient houses and bushfire shelters.
Geoff Black, Caves Beach
SHORT TAKES
MEMO to Premier Perrottet and John Barilaro: "You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time".
Mark Bird, Maryville
CAN someone please explain how Ponga can play so soon when he is too injured to play for the Knights?
Margaret Allen, Whitebridge
SO Queensland did it yet again. They showed enough skill, tenacity and toughness to overcome us despite our state's numerical advantages. Admirable. Don't ya @#$%^&* hate it?
Bob Salter, Stockton
SO, Telstra recently stated they've relocated all their call centres back to Australia. Well that's funny, I called them a few days ago and had to speak to a centre in the Philippines. They could've fooled me.
David Davies, Blackalls Park
HOW could anyone ever bear to be in the presence of the butcher, Vladimir Putin, whose hands will, forever, be dripping blood, including Australians'? Everyone must fight back.
Graeme Tychsen, Toronto
DENNIS Crampton (Short Takes, 9/7), I think that Anthony Albanese's "jetting" for diplomatic purposes differs greatly from the travel undertaken by Scott Morrison, he who went away on a holiday during a national emergency, and two other times in 2019 alone.
Adz Carter, Newcastle
SORRY Michael Gormly, I forgot to mention that, like my gin, I would put a slice of lime in my Taliban cocktail! I'm not without class, thanks to the British.
Steve Barnett, Fingal bay
GOOD to see PM Albo and Premier Perrottet out together with their respective ministers and local councils and emergency services on the ground in flood regions - in stark contrast to their immediate predecessors. And a timely slapdown for those rabid far-right-whinging snowflakes on here who have been doing nothing but complain and deflect since their beloved Liberal regime was demolished at the polls in May.
David Laurie, Glendale
GREG Hunt (Short Takes, 12/7) shows his own bias. As a retired ABC journalist, I can attest that the only editorial pressure was to be accurate in our reporting. At election time our current affairs programs were required to give equal time to both the Coalition and Labor. Stop watches were used. Small parties were given their say as well. Governments of either persuasion are always scrutinised closely. They are the decision makers, and it is the duty of journalists to analyse and question as well as publish their decisions.
