Letters: Climate change 'experts' may have their sums wrong

Global warming experts may have it wrong, suggests a reader. Photo / File

So, the experts are claiming we have too many cows.

Well, think about this for a moment.

When the palefaces landed in America, there was an estimated 50,000,000 bison - an animal twice the size of the domestic cow.

Africa had an estimated 10 times that number of varied elephants, antelope, cattle, hippos, big deer and little deer and people etc.

Then Asia, India, South America, Russia, China all had vast numbers of domestic and wild animals - numbers that dwarf the cow stock we have here, and yet, during the Victorian period we entered a mini ice age - the Thames in London froze over.

On top of that, we had several cataclysmic volcanic eruptions.

What I am suggesting is this, I sincerely believe the "experts" looking into "global warming" have got their sums wrong - they need to get back to the drawing board.

Jim Adams
Rotorua

Car parks

It's a shame some car parks are going to be moved from the Lakefront.

How will the elderly people and people with a disability enjoy sitting and viewing the lake especially on a wet day?

Too far to walk from the new parking area on Tutanekai St.

Jessica Pickering
Rotorua

Councillor independence

Pauleen Wilkinson hopes that council candidates standing as a group will be comfortable in making their own decisions (Letters, May 13).

I suspect that she is hoping in vain.

According to a report of May 1, Reynold Macpherson refuted the suggestion that the RDRR candidates would be a replacement power bloc on council, saying that "They are all so independently minded."

Unfortunately, this is hard to believe.

In the past, Macpherson has referred to the need for a "Loyal Opposition".

This, in my view, seems to indicate a clear intention for a bloc to vote en masse.

Also, his insistence that the endorsed candidates are independent seems to contradict the RDRR constitution, which provides that the criteria for selection as an RDRR-endorsed candidate include a "track record of service to the RDRR" and "the capacity of nominees to achieve RDRR's policies".

This sounds very like something that would be produced by a political party.

My vote will be going to candidates that I am confident are standing as true independents.

Keith Garratt
Ngongotahā

Lakefront revamp

I see we now have another version of what the revamped Lakefront will look like (News, May 10).

In theory it might be a modern approach to consult children about what they'd like to have in a playground but what about what the very young ones would like.

I didn't see any slides, or little merry-go-rounds or other small child equipment.
Nothing I'd take my young grandchildren to.

I'm wondering, too, where machinery and personnel will access the water's edge and boardwalk to remove the inevitable bundles of stinking weed without doing too much material damage.

That type of clean-up operation is going to be frequent.

If the council can't keep the current Lakefront and cobblestone area clean, how is it going to manage a far more labour-intensive exercise?

I can picture orange cones closing off the boardwalk and sections of the lake edge for major clean-ups on a regular basis.

I wonder, too, is there going to be a speed limit for the path encircling the playground? Just thinking health and safety, and council responsibilities. (Abridged)

Paddi Hodgkiss
Rotorua

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