Society has learned little after centuries of war

Alas for the hopes of a rational future. The 20th century was the bloodiest on record, and the 21st has started little better. Today we have a savage power struggle in Sudan, a vicious elective war in Ukraine, adversarial military pacts threaten each other, a climate crisis needing unlikely cooperation, and looming overall the threat of extinction via weapons we have invented and carefully fine-tuned.

Vale, Tom Paine! Do not come to revisit us (we would be ashamed), but rest in peace.

Your interesting article "Moss turns competitors green with carbon envy" (May 3) on how mosses captured vast amounts of carbon reminded me of the critical role fungi also play in helping forests absorb carbon. Sadly, fungal networks are under threat because of agricultural expansion, the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, deforestation and urbanisation.

Our current practice of clear-felling and burning forests destroys the trees, the mosses and the fungi. As Peter Wohlleben, the author of The Hidden Life of Trees says: "When we step back, we will see forests re-establish and re-wild themselves." Let's step back now before it's too late.

The article about the co-housing project for Watson (May 1) was very interesting. It is an excellent way of providing necessary housing that gives children space to run around and play.

As well as encouraging organisations like Cohousing Australia, I agree with a letter (May 2) that said the government should go back to providing housing itself. Developers will only ever be interested in lining their own pockets, hence ugly high-rises like the ones that have been built in Belconnen.

Putin's obsession with Ukraine is rooted in his version of history and his murderous ambition to restore Russia to the tsardom that was. From the middles ages Ukraine has been a part of the ebb and flow of European history. Its royal houses had intermarried with the royal houses of Europe. During that time Muscovy was a minor settlement deep in the forests on the distant frontier of the Kievan Rus realm, and would not emerge until two centuries later.

Ukraine's rich earth has made it the food bowl of Europe and the world.

Throughout Ukraine's history, its people have been peace-loving and democracy-seeking. Whereas, in stark contrast, through the centuries the Russian state has sought to subdue and suppress its neighbours.

Ukraine does not demand the downfall of Russia, nor its destruction. Ukraine only seeks the removal of Russian and other foreign invaders from its territory and that they desist from meddling in Ukraine's internal affairs.

Indications are the government proposes to be mean with job-seekers in the budget. The principle ought to be poverty elimination, not no available funding.

The record low unemployment requires an affordable budget outlay and job-seeker poverty should trigger action for all, not just the over-55s. There are 1 million unemployed and if the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee recommendation of providing all another $20 per day to the present $50 per day, the additional cost for the under-55s would be some $4.5 billion. If the government has to be prudent then it ought to find in its heart $3b. Most Australians feel that this is justified and would applaud the government.