Crikey readers discuss climate change and other issues of the day.

On Gamergate

Ross Lumbus writes: Re. “Secret gamergate pollie” (Tuesday). Why are you lying to your readership? Too brutal? Okay, can you please show proof that the 10,000+ people in Gamergate (including thousands of women) have been endorsing or behind ANY harassment. I KNOW troll groups like Baphomet, GNAA, Something Awful forums and Ayyteam have been targeting BOTH supporters and people against Gamergate, Women AND Men. NO these groups have nothing to do with either supporters or detractors. NO, I had not heard of them either before Gamergate. So, as you made the claim please show how 10,000+ men and women of all nationalities, race, age, and religion and political persuasion have organised this. No? Struggling to find definitive proof aside from what journalists (I use the term loosely) have written? Why are you lying? If you want to know what Gamergate is you could, I dunno, ask someone in Gamergate or look at the www.Gamergate.me or www.deepfreeze.it or something. No? Prefer to just call me and every supporter a harasser?

On employment

Kerry Henry writes: Re. “Ignore the headlines and hardliners – employment is holding up” (yesterday). Referring to today’s article, no serious analysis or commentary on the state of the Australian economy can exclude “under-employment” levels, as this is the real barometer in an environment of changing work practices and processes. My estimate is that the combination of both “unemployed and underemployed” tallies 20%+ and that level isn’t the basis of a sound or confident economy.

Coal is (not) good for humanity

Peter Matters writes: Re. “Coalition’s fight for coal defies reality” (yesterday). The Carmichael Mine hassle has highlighted our incompetent governance which fails to understand the deadly serious dangers we homo(Non)sapiens, all other creatures and Mother Earth herself face. We talk a lot about global warming, sustainable power, pollution, etc, without the slightest notion of the cause of all these threatening calamities and if we do not find the cause, we will not be able to solve our emergencies. It is all very well to try to change to sustainable power, but this improvement by itself will at best delay our Goetterdaemmerung.

The basic cause of all our troubles is out of control, profligate, decadent consumerism; imposed on us by brainwashing us to change our inherent social values to values we can buy at the shopping centre. Our immediate reaction would be to demand to impose some sort of control on our free marketing capitalism, but can the law really control such a basic problem? Big Tobacco has changed its structure to be now registered in Hong Kong, which enables them to take Australia to the International Court, because we have an agreement with Hong Kong to enable big tobacco to charge Australia for damages for loss of income due to our strict regulation of the appearance of cigarette packets – a proceedings which so far has cost the Australian taxpayer $50 million. Clearly this trend will rapidly intensify as Monsanto, Nestle’s, Bayer etc. get into their stride.

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But even without big money enriching the legal profession, we ourselves are the worst offenders. When the next model of I-this, I-that or I-whatever is put on the market, do we have to immediately throw out the superceded, perfectly adequate model and rush to beat Jones next door to be first in buying the new model. Do toddlers need to get their latest electronic toys to help trivialising their minds instead of reading books — whether hard copy or IT? Do we have to have a car to get us safely from A-B, or a car to brag about? To we have to dream of owning a McMansion ?

We, the people, are beginning to realise that we must radically change our mindset and our lifestyle, but big money has not learned that their mountains of products presume an unending supply of raw materials, an unending space for garbage disposal, an unending market to sell to and an infinite willingness of consumers to buy goods, half of which are not needed and quite a few harm ourselves and land, sea and air of this small globe and yet are supposed to supply an infinite ability to attain ever rising profits. Controlling them by regulation will not work, we and our means of communication must convince them that for all of us, including themselves, to survive they must get it into their thick skulls that their first responsibility is not to their shareholders’ profits but to the benefit of the seven and a half billions of us.

On Q&A

Keith Binns writes: Re. “Forget Q&A: the ABC is likely to surrender its independence, and Media Watch is next” (yesterday). Just what we need, a gutless ABC Board. Q&A has improved with no cabinet ministers. (Anyone else noticed that we’re drifting towards totalitariansim?)