Climate change blamed again
Dear Echo News,

Whilst I am sure they are well intentioned your story State climate change experts converge on Parliament  steps (Echo News,  April 26) remind me somewhat of those stories we learnt in history of religious zealots moving about the countryside banging drums and saying repent now.

Somehow climate change has become a new phenomenon and one blamed for every unusual weather event that we experience.

The reality is climate change has always been happening and thank goodness it has because it lets us know that the things that really influence climate change such as the sun and the earth’s planetary forces are still working fine.

But somehow, we have allowed a mantra to develop where climate is never supposed to change.

I am not being flippant about the environmental consequences of climate change, there are plenty, good and bad, but it is part of the natural process and maligning carbon, which is actually the linchpin of life, is just ignorance.

Our self-appointed climate experts should just calm down a little, save their preaching for the pulpit and let the planet keep on doing what it has done very successfully for many millions of years.

H Dawson
Millendon

Talbot 4G tower bush fire risk
Dear Echo News,

Over the years catastrophic bushfires in WA have caused loss of life, destruction of hundreds of homes and buildings, massive financial loss and traumatic pain and suffering for those affected.

Some communities have never recovered.

Mobile phone communication and electric power were disabled during fires causing chaos and confusion and crippling emergency services during vital response periods.

Ignoring this experience, the Shire of York has approved construction of a long-awaited 45m high phone tower in Talbot to service a local blackspot area.

But the isolated site and access to it are zoned high fire risk, being on a high ridge completely surrounded by huge areas of flammable cereal crops and remnant wandoo woodlands.

The tower and sensitive equipment are 2km  from the nearest public road, accessible only via a steep dirt track.

There is no local water supply to replenish tankers. Electric power is supplied by a flammable power line that runs through seven kilometres of high fire risk pasture crops and bushland from the Great Southern Highway.

Common sense says this vital tower should be located in Talbot Brook or Talbot West on a public road, supported by fire brigade appliances with a permanent water supply, and readily accessible secure reliable electric power.

If not, history is likely to repeat itself.

D Grimwood
Talbot

Call for compulsory military training
Dear Echo News,

I heartily agree with D d’Lima’s Call for compulsory military training (Echo News, May 3).

Back in the early 1950s we had what was compulsory National Service training for all 18-year-olds.  This consisted of three months basic training and five years Reserve training.

The Reserve training included frequent weekends and the occasional two-week camps, and meant that Australia was ready for any war contingency.

This was not just infantry training, but included all aspects of the armed services requirements (example, I was in the survey corp).

The added bonus to the National Service Training was its effect on 18-year-olds who were straying into the wrong way.

I saw the change in many young guys who, coming from poor, anti-social backgrounds, came in with a ‘chip on their shoulder’ intending not to give into authority – “I’m not going to do that!”, “they can’t make me do this!”.

Initially they baulked and created problems and the rest of us felt like giving them a hiding, but as time went on, they learned to enjoy the camaraderie of working as a team, both in the field and on the parade ground.

So, besides being trained to defend Australia, if necessary, the majority finished the three month basic training camp with a much better attitude to life and society.

In meeting with them at the various NS camps over the following few years, it was obvious that they were still enjoying their new way of life and had become proud Australians ready to do their part.

As your letter writer says, many countries have compulsory military training and, with the world as unstable as it is, so should Australia.

The 1950s system I mentioned above gives this preparation without interfering with the normal youth’s life of an apprenticeship or university plans.

S Oliver
Ellenbrook

Underpass call for Cale St
Dear Echo News,

Why didn’t they build an underpass at Cale Street, and a second McIver-like siding at Brockman Street end  for the hospital carpark  through to the Officeworks complex with more car parking there too.

That would have been more useful  to commuters and pedestrian traffic if housing rezonings were included in that Sayer Street block.

As to overpasses they don’t work except in uber high pedestrian usage  like the central Perth CBD. Great for more night-time muggings in Midland.

One gets the feeling that Midland’s political leaders in a place that once built trains have come up with a main train terminal that is more of an opera house starring politicians than a simple transit terminal for bus and train commuters.

They could also have closed off that road back to Lloyd Street behind McDonalds, it's blooming dangerous as hell.

R Wood
Lesmurdie