In a sun blessed country we have it in abundance.

Unlike coal it will always be there while the sun shines.

And it does not emit unhealthy smoke into the atmosphere.

It has also been embraced by business because roof tops are replacing the expansive poles and wires.

 And most importantly it reduces our input of carbon into the atmosphere, complying with the United Nation’s limit needed to contain global warming.

But these sensible measures are not being implemented by a government wedded to coal.

One of its ministers actually bounced a lump of “the lovely stuff” in parliament.

Tony Abbott who agrees with President Trump that climate change is crap is influencing this crap policy.

The rise in sea temperature that is melting the polar ice caps and is causing the Barrier Reef’s coral to disappear is ignored.

Ignored also is the habitat of life that depends on on it.

But then compassion is a commodity scarce in this government.

Reg Wilding, Wollongong

The retort of science deniers regarding climate change is that an individual weather event of extreme hot temperatures is not proof of global warming (climate scientists don’t claim that to be the case).

Interesting then that Adrian Devlin (Illawarra Mercury, July 21) cites the recent cold snap as evidence of the non-existence of global warming (ignoring the above average daytime temps).

What would Adrian make of the European heatwave resulting in the deadly Greek fires, Japan recording its hottest day on record, and the current drought in NSW?

Leaving those issues aside, the warming of the earth’s atmosphere is linked to a trend of extreme weather events of all kinds.

As an example, in 2006 Lake Erie failed to freeze for the first time ever.

The increased precipitation lead to increased snowfalls.

Also, research has also shown that the unprecedented melting of the arctic ice cap causes a process known as arctic amplification which is attributed as the cause of recent extremely cold northern hemisphere winters.

So a few cold or hot days per se is not evidence for or against climate change.

But trends of extreme weather events linked by cause and effect to environment changes reveals the true picture.      

Paul McGillion, Dapto

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