Toondah wetlands, fuel prices and the cash economy

Protecting the Toondah wetlands, high fuel prices in Redlands and the cash economy’s implications for compliance with COVID public health directions are discussed in letters to Redlands2030.

Have your say by writing to theeditor@redlands2030.net

Who should protect the Toondah wetlands?

Scientific advances are making it easier to attribute the damages of climate and environmental breakdown to companies’ and governments’ activities.

More than 1,500 legal actions have been brought against multinationals who generated the emissions that have played a major role in building carbon in the atmosphere, according to a recent story in The Guardian..

Earlier this month, a Belgian court ruled the government’s failure to tackle the climate emergency was an infringement of human rights.

The development proposed for the Toondah wetlands will destroy 40 hectares of critical habitat and result in irreversible damage to the ecological character of the wetland. 

The environmental importance of the Toondah wetlands is considerable. It acts as a natural climate regulator to combat global warming, buffering us from the devastating impact of climate change.

Wetlands plays a crucial role in the water cycle for life on earth in many ways including: 

• natural sponges that absorb and store more excess carbon from the atmosphere than any other ecosystem on earth

• mangroves and seagrasses are biological supermarkets providing food for wildlife including dugongs, dolphins, whales and sea turtles

• effective carbon sinks, absorbing and storing twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests combined

• protection against storm surges

• global home to 40% of the earth’s plant and animal species

• performing as the earth’s kidneys by filtering runoff before it hits the sea

• migratory waterbirds and waders rely on them for refueling and breeding sites during their long migrations

• spawning and nursery areas for commercially important fish species

About 64% of the world’s wetlands have disappeared since 1900 and development is driving much of this loss.  

Does Morton Bay really need another 3,600 unit high-rise luxury apartments built on our precious wetlands?  

Stop the proposed development and save our bay and all that depends on it.  

V.S.
Ormiston

Editor’s note: a petition to save the Toondah wetlands is attracting lots of support.

Why is petrol pricing in Redlands so high?

Thank you for the latest R2030 newsletter and I have noted that one of your aims is to shine a light on what is happening in our Redlands and increase community awareness of important issues that affect Redlanders.  That is a broad and worthy agenda.

In my view, one overlooked issue that Redlanders face every day is the cost of fuel in Redlands. We are consistently paying 20-30cents a litre more than other parts of southeast Queensland. It appears that our politicians (local and state) either don’t care,  are unaware, or don’t want to address the issue.

The point of writing this letter is to ask Redlands2030 to air the issue and see if your readers have any ideas or contacts that may be able to assist in getting community awareness and political action.

J.T.
Cleveland

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Compliance and the cash economy 

There is very significant reliance on cash incomes in some areas of Brisbane as would be the case in similar areas of Sydney.

There will be massive numbers of local and foreign workers in construction, manufacturing, food, hospitality, etc all paid in cash.

Nothing illegal or wrong with cash, problems come when it comes to government assistance. Cash income can’t be substantiated, and that is a big problem.

There must be allowances made for those people, probably totaling millions in our major cities, who are caught in this dilemma if reasonable compliance is to be expected during prolonged COVID lockdowns.

If suddenly you don’t have money to eat, let alone pay for rent and utilities, my guess is many will take drastic action. It is my guess that those in the cash economy and the threats to their livelihood imay explain the spate and scale of protests we’ve seen.

R.H.
Brisbane

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More Letters To Redlands2030

White Water Facility, Loss Of Koala Habitat And Toondah Petition

Small lot housing, LNP preselection for Bowman and Toondah History

Council Censorship, A COVID Royal Commission And Missing Koalas

Redlands2030 – 14 August 2021