Welcome to my Canberra in the year 2020; it's a dystopia

The air is sepia and there is a very fine ash falling. Everyone in the ACT is being asked to have a bushfire plan. And a "go" bag with all of your life's essentials in case you have to flee, and your house is not there when you get back.

The only good news is that the smoke might still be here when our politicians come back to Canberra.

That way they will be able to see it and smell it and wonder how it got this bad. We were warned: hotter and drier, more fires, storms, and floods. Did they mention famine and biblical locust plagues?

They maybe didn't mention the tragic loss of life and property; towns actually running out of water; rivers with dead fish; fire grounds with dead animals; the eerie quiet as our biodiversity fades away. This is only the start if we don't really act on climate change.

I ask all our politicians to go out and look and listen. Then commit to doing something. Now.

On Wednesday night I dreamt of a people's movement erupting after one outrage too many.

It started in a cafe in the People's Republic of the Inner North: coffees abandoned, people marched like the un-dead to Parliament House.

They were joined along the way by feral public servants, errant schoolchildren, fed up mums and dads, angry koalas, foot-sore kangaroos and creaking gang gangs. It was a Pope cartoon sprung to life.

Quiet Australians flocked from all over the land, circling Parliament House. They were in for the long haul.

Canberrans offered billets, ferried food to the front line, and, naturally, formed policy committees.

Anyone interested?

I hope that Mr Quarterman (Letters, January 30) corrected his ill-informed UK relatives regarding the bushfires here.

Did he point out to them that the UK relies heavily on nuclear power as it reduces its coal-powered generation and that rather than phasing out coal China is actually increasing coal powered generation faster than the rest of the world is reducing it?

As in Australia, his UK relatives shouldn't believe everything they see in the media.

The bush in the Canberra nature parks including Mt Majura and Black Mountain is clearly stressed or dying.

On current climate scenarios, unless there is significant Australian and global action, it is going to be hard to keep calling Canberra "the bush capital".

We need some expert commentary on what is happening to our bush.

Last month the PM told us "I don't hold a hose, mate, and I don't sit in a control room".

This week the Prime Ministerial marketing team has rebranded him as a hazard reduction burn expert. That's a technically demanding, labour intensive, dangerous operation best done by people expert in holding fire hoses.

This is getting embarrassing I suggest a Go Fund Me campaign to buy the PM some better image advisers. Or perhaps Greg Mullins would do it pro bono ?

How wonderful for public servants. No more toiling over evidence, weighing costs and benefits and considering the best value for the taxpayer's dollar. A quick trip up the Hill to get the words from above, carve them in stone, bring the tablets back to the department and then just get on with it

I am going to list the problems I encounter every week/weekend with the ACTION bus service. They include:

- Frequent late or non-arrivals of services citywide.

- Drivers who threaten to put you off at the next stop for asking why the bus doesn't adhere to the scheduled run according to the internet schedule or according to signage.

- Buses that get lost on normal runs and have to turn around.

- The changing of the weekend schedule to later starting services that do not connect in Civic to previous scheduled connections.

- The weekend services running every two hours instead of one hourly runs. This has a big impact on the elderly, the young, tourism and shift workers. I have seen elderly people in tears at shopping centres and remote bus stops/stations regarding the lateness or non-arrival of bus services, especially on the weekend runs.

- The Christmas day service ran from around 8.30 am and ceased around 6 pm. Why is this given other capital cities can provide public travel from 5 am to midnight?

- No 24 hour contact service to attend to the public's needs. Aren't you a public service. You are leaving a window open for the elderly, the young and the tourist to be left in a dangerous and vulnerable situation due to your -nreliable contact service. Contact service hours are 9 am to 5 pm weekdays only.

I have just received a prayer request from a Christian living 600 km from Wuhan, the centre of the deadly coronavirus epidemic in China.

The message says the situation is really serious and that people are living in fear with about 11 Chinese mega-cities quarantined.

Videos on social media apparently show people falling down on the street, empty stores, and crowded hospitals.

"The worst thing is when the doctors, in tears, say that everything that is in the news is not true," the message continues.

"They say that there are much more infected and dying... Mostly everyone is sitting at home... filter masks have become worth their weight in gold; other masks are simply useless".

Chinese believers are united in prayer, and invite us to pray with them. Amen!

I note the Chief Minister is lobbying the Federal government to create a paved northern road to Canberra Airport after access was restricted by the recent fire.

The Prime Minister should agree to it immediately as the airport is a strategic stronghold not only for fighting fires but for democracy itself.

Mr Barr should not ignore the strategic importance of other roads in the ACT which have fallen into such a state of disrepair that they represent real and present dangers for firefighters and people fleeing fires.

The Brindabella Road is the only western access road out of Canberra that takes firefighters to the top of Namadgi. It is also the only escape route for Canberrans evacuating the Brindabella Valley. The last nine kilometres of this road up to the NSW border is unsealed and filled with tyre-slashing rocks.

It reaches its worst condition every year at the height of the bushfire season.

To assure the safety of fire crews and people evacuating from the west of Canberra this small section of road needs to be sealed ASAP.

Dan Buchler claims that "by the middle of this century many of our coastal communities will face inundation" (Letters, January 25). He may well be right. According to Wikipedia, sea levels will rise about 30 cm by 2050 in a "low emission scenario", or by 34 cm in a "high emission scenario".

In either scenario, rising seas will cause dramatic increases in coastal erosion, including in Sydney's northern beaches, such as Narrabeen and Collaroy, which were severely eroded in 2016. Rising sea levels will also cause dangerous coastal erosion along the Gold Coast as well as inundating large areas farther inland.

This could just be the beginning: by the end of this century sea level rises are projected to be 69 cm (low-emissions) and 111 cm (high-emissions scenario). Such rises in sea level would see many coastal cities inundated, as well as much of Bangladesh and the Mekong Delta.

All nations must work together to reduce emissions of the gases that cause global warming and sea level rise.

The article "A brief history of pork barrelling" (Forum, January 25) failed to mention what is perhaps the best example of this practice right on our doorstep in Canberra.

That is the pork barrelling exercise by the ACT Labor Government, to the tune of a billion dollars, to secure The Greens support to form government.

Surely this is right up there?

The PM addresses the National Press Club to outline the government's agenda for the coming year. The ABC's 7.30 Report leads with an interview with a distant former UK PM. I guess the ABC couldn't find anything of interest in Morrison's speech.

When Scotty emerged from the National Press Club on Wednesday did he notice that it was a bit smoky?

While the Federal government certainly botched its initial response to the bushfire emergency, its cautious response to the coronavirus crisis is commendable. At last we are getting something back from all the money spent on Christmas Island.

I presume Scotty and Dutton are sending coronavirus refugees from China to Christmas Island on the grounds it is a matter of "national security". How long will they be kept there given they had probably gone to China to celebrate Chinese New Year with family.

I was almost sold by the Prime Minister's National Press Club address. I was about to put a deposit on the vacuum cleaner he was selling until I realised it not only sucked but also blew rubbish at the same time.

This frog in the pot is getting hot. Next time my vote will go to those who turn off the gas.

I am appalled that ScoMo wants to run this country using gas rather than renewables for our energy. It's a ghastly error from a climate denialist.

Much as we appreciate the defence force's significant efforts to respond to the devastating flow-on effects of climate change, in future can their surveillance vehicles load a couple of knapsacks of water when they venture into tinder dry locations.

Shall we all pray that Scott Morrison gets 2020 vision this year?

It's hard to believe a Rhodes scholar can come up with the kind of rubbish Tony Abbott routinely delivers. His assertion climate change advocates are akin to religious zealots is pure hogwash.

Does the emergence of the coronavirus at this time mean mother nature has come up with her own solution to the related problems of overpopulation, human carbon dioxide emissions and global heating?

I see Israel Folau's off to play for Catalan Dragons. What has God got against the French?

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