Letters: Tribute to a real character Ed Boyd

Ed Boyd with items up for auction.

Tribute to a real character
My son, Simon, and I attended a car auction Ed Boyd had in Whanganui East back in 2010. My son had just turned 16 years old. Our hope was to buy Simon's first car at Ed's auction. Simon soon spotted a car he liked but the starting bid was too high for our budget. However, the little car Simon was keen on did not sell.

After the auction, we asked Ed if he would take $700 for the car. Ed agreed and we drove home with Simon's first car. However, on the way home, it was obvious the clutch was completely worn out. Disappointed, I visited Ed the next day to explain the situation. He surprised me when he said he didn't want my son to have a bad experience with his first car. Ed offered to pay for the clutch replacement.

Thanks to Ed, my son drove the car to Whanganui High School for his remaining years there. Simon studied the automotive course, did well, and was offered an apprenticeship at a local automotive shop. He has completed his apprenticeship and works for a firm in Palmerston North as a mechanic. I certainly feel Ed Boyd had a positive influence on my son.
PHILIP PATERSON
Whanganui

Your letters welcome.

Humans aren't to blame
In response to Alan Taylor's letter on Thursday, I would like to make the following points.
I feel quite sad for the young people who have been convinced that their world is about to end in a giant climate cataclysm. I grew up in a time when the threat of global nuclear war was such a real threat that we had instruction at school about what to do if one happened.

Not that hiding under our desks would have helped much as the following nuclear winter would really have wiped out most of the world's creatures. I don't believe that that is a serious risk in today's changing climate. That doesn't mean it is impossible, but we could be also be destroyed by a giant asteroid next week. We should avoid creating panic about unlikely scenarios. I would not deny that the climate is changing, but how much of that is a result of our activities is open to question. To those who would say that there is a "scientific consensus" that it is mostly us, I would point out the following "scientific consensus" that have ended badly.

The scientific community once came to believe the answer to growing obesity in the population was cut out the fat in our diets and eat more low density carbohydrates. Hence the proliferation of low fat, high sugar foods. Wasn't that a good idea?

In most of these cases brave researchers risked, and sometimes lost their careers, to go against the consensus. I believe the same situation has happened to an extreme degree in the current "man-made climate change" debate. DENNIS NITSCHKE Marton World still spins Climate change has been going on forever and a day. And it's one of the elements that made us humans who and what we are.

A very numerous species, which is obsessed with a belief of its own importance, over and above every other life form which dwells upon this tiny oasis floating through a vast universe. Are we responsible for the situation in which we find ourselves? Can we do anything about it? There have also always been many "end of days" prophets on the grounds that we are habitual fornicators. Hell, we are only doing what comes naturally. But Mother Earth will continue on her merry way and I shall continue to enjoy my brief period of self awareness for as long as possible. It's all quite entertaining and, if there actually is a supreme entity out there who created it all, he, she, it, will probably find it all entertaining too. So don't panic. What will be will be as the old song says.
POTONGA NEILSON
Castlecliff

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