Reader opinion: We’re paying the price for trusting the science; Scramble to find skilled workers

The planet is polluted with plastic, a reader writes. Photo / Bevan Conley

OPINION

Letter to the editor:

It seems like a long time ago that I used to subscribe to Time Life books and I remember opening the latest of its publications, titled Polymers, with some real anticipation of enlightenment to a science-based future that would change the world.

Okay, I was in my early 20s and excitable, I grant you, but I was soon poring over it, the promise of a brave new world seemed at our very fingertips.

Synthetic polymers, of course, are another name for plastics made largely from petrochemicals. This book told us how engineers could splice together atoms and molecules to form any material to fill any need.

Science, it seemed, would become the vehicle that could make humankind a creator, once the sole precinct of God so eliminating the need for Him.

Today, just 50 years later, we’re cursing those heady times of discovery as we see a planet so polluted with the stuff that it has entered our food chain, slowly killing us, and blamed for climate change.

So often recently we’ve heard the cry, “Trust the science”.

Why? We’ve largely rejected God and now we’re paying the price.

Why don’t we listen?

John Williams

Ngongotahā

Premium comments: Job market drops

Job listings in the Bay of Plenty have fallen 15 per cent in a year on the employment site Seek as more employers take don’t replace staff as recessionary pressures begin to bite.

The news comes as companies are sourcing skilled migrants from overseas because they can’t find Kiwis to do the work.

Read the full story: Employers not replacing staff as recession hits while others scramble to find skilled workers.

From what I am seeing in the boardrooms across the company the recession is already here, with many companies planning to “right size” in response to the Government overcooking the economy and now the RBNZ having to react with the only tool it has (OCR). If this Government does not rein in its own spending, we need to get ready for a hard landing.

- John M

Just waiting for the mass exodus to Australia. NZ will become the back door for immigrants wanting to get to Australia, who don’t yet qualify under Australian rules. Watch this space.

- Peter M

Recession in NZ. Better wages and conditions in Aussie with cheaper basic prices. We’re off to the airport ... one-way tickets only.

- Tim T

We don’t have people to do critical jobs and on the other hand, very capable people are getting made redundant? Can we conclude that we have reached a state of absolute chaos? This happens when those at the top think that the economy is like a rubber band and they can stretch and ease it at their own will.

- Rajbir S

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