I was pleased to read the emphasis ACT Heart Foundation chief executive Tony Stubbs (Letters, May 18) placed on the role of physical activity in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease when obesity usually grabs all the headlines.
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It's well established now that sensible daily physical activity reduces risk of chronic disease in its own right, quite independently from the risk associated with obesity. An added bonus of physical activity, of course, is its important role in maintaining a healthy body weight.
Related to this, many might perceive our mushrooming parking meters to be just another ACT government revenue raiser ("More than a $1m in triangle parking fines", Canberra Times, May 18). However, is it too optimistically altruistic to suggest this is part of a "big picture" government strategy to reduce our cardiovascular risk? Canberra motorists are now seeking out streets free of both parking restrictions and meters and habitually walking further to and from work each day!
Dick Telford, Forrest
Moral degeneracy
It is decadence at its best to have "Dogs doll up in their Sunday best to nab a world record" (Canberra Times, May 18, p3), while in the Andaman Sea, a new moral record is being set for international moral degeneracy, represented by total abandonment of 6000-8000 Rohingyas asylum seekers.
Albert M. White, Queanbeyan
PM ignores solar benefits
It should be easy to make a Pope cartoon from your May 17 story "Australian households chase sun to lead world on solar adoption".
We all recall the Prime Minister's gauche Global Ambassadorship for Coal and his startling hissy-fit over the Lake George wind turbines. Before that, we all recall state and territory governments galloping to slash home-solar rebates in response to unsubtle smoke signals from the power utilities.
Now the Prime Minister wants to rebirth the quaint chip-heaters of my childhood in the larger form of wood-fired power plants. Behind all the fun, there is a serious lesson. Genuinely attuning to the wishes and wisdom of the broad community, as something distinct from the loud whine of the rent-seekers, is these days a painfully difficult and barely remembered skill for LibLab.
Even before home-solar batteries reach the mass market, there are sensible reasons why Australian households of all social classes, from Mandurah right across to Logan City, are "having a go" at home solar faster than anywhere else on the planet.
There's plenty of sun, it's still saving us money, it increases our independence, and it might even reduce emissions.
At what point exactly would Know-It-All Tony stop fighting us?
Stephen Saunders, O'Connor
Right side of history
How delightful it was to see the report of the Norwegian national day celebrations ("Norwegians come out to play", Sunday Canberra Times, May 17), with shows of military might being conspicuously absent. Norway has a lot to be proud of, much of it under-reported. The country has played significant roles in reducing armed conflicts and has a mediation unit for this purpose in its foreign affairs department.
In 2013 Oslo hosted a major intergovernmental conference to focus global attention on the catastrophic human and other impacts of nuclear weapons. This was the start of a process, including further and larger conferences in Mexico and Austria, that has greatly increased pressure for the abolition of these horrific devices.
This pressure is playing out right now at the UN where the Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference is being held. An overwhelming majority of governments have expressed great concerns over the increasing risk of use of nuclear weapons, and are calling for them never to be used again under any circumstances. The Austrian government has called for all nations to join in it in pledging to fill the legal gap whereby nuclear weapons are not yet explicitly banned; 85 thus far have done so and that number is growing. Australia is arguing strongly against such a ban.
Thank you, Norway and Austria. You will be on the right side of history.
Dr Sue Wareham, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Solar better than coal
It would seem NIMBYism is alive and well in Canberra as yet another community objects to a solar farm in their backyard ("Solar Wars reignite", Sunday Canberra Times, May 17 2015, P1).
I was led to recall watching last week's Australian Story on the ABC where yet another agricultural area in the Hunter region is to be sacrificed to the lure of short-term wealth from coal mining. I would like to ask the latest protesters to consider where most of the electricity they use comes from. It comes from the huge holes in the ground in the Hunter Valley. The iconic village of Bulga seems next to be doomed to disappear as yet another mine chews up the earth in search of the "black gold".
Before you engage in another spiteful spate with Elementus Energy and the ACT government, please consider what it is like living next to a huge hole in the ground with lots of noise, dust and noxious fumes 24/7, destroying your pleasant, productive environment and rendering it a useless desert. And of course that means more carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere to stoke up the engine of climate change even more.
At least solar energy is quiet and pollution free. It provides almost free energy from the sun without destroying the environment yet allows farming to continue unaffected. I know which scenario I prefer!
Gavin O'Brien, Gilmore
Norfolk Island bullied
All Australia needed to do was to build a deep-water jetty for Norfolk Island, enabling tourist ships to make direct day calls on this beautiful island that wants to be otherwise left alone. Instead our ignorant government uses bully-boy tactics and takes it over. Shame, shame, shame!
Keith Hammond, Campbell
Go easy on pensioners
Telstra in a letter to its pensioner customers has written that it won't charge a fee if a pensioner customer fails to pay in time. This is a kind gesture. I wonder when our financial institutions will show this kind of gesture to the pensioners if they fail to pay in time for some unavoidable circumstances?
Sankar Kumar Chatterjee, Evatt
No respite for Glenloch
Andrew Barr, in trying to justify the expenditure for his light rail project, failed to address one major aspect.
This project will in no way assist the hundreds of commuters who live in the northern suburbs and commute daily via the GDE and Glenloch Interchange to Kambah, Woden, Weston Creek and Tuggeranong. He should try the journey by car about 8.15am on any weekday when schools are also in session; Glenloch should be renamed Gridlock.
N. Bailey, Nicholls
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