How many hydrogen atoms does water have?

www.gippslandtimes.com.au

Melbourne Cup to the region

are continuously exposed to saturation levels of sports betting advertising. These extremes are newsworthy stories about which we are right to be concerned, but the negative effects of gambling can be more subtle. So subtle, in fact, that those affected sometimes don’t make the connection between how they are feeling or behaving and their gambling activities. Are you feeling anxious or stressed? Do you have an underlying sense of regret about money lost or time spent gambling? Perhaps you’re having difficulty concentrating or sleeping. Or maybe you’re more irritable or short-tempered than usual. While these signs of gambling harm may seem relatively minor, they can build up over time, which is why Victorians are being encouraged during this year’s Gambling Harm Awareness Week (October 17-23) to pause and consider whether gambling could be affecting their wellbeing. For more information, visit effectsofgambling. com.au

Shane Lucas,

Vic Responsible Gambling Foundation

Support for Loch Sport

I WRITE to publicly thank the members of the Loch Sport and surrounding communities who signed, shared and supported my petition for funding to implement immediate action to prevent further erosion on the Lake Victoria foreshore. While these petitions may have fallen on the deaf ears of Labor, the clear call for action did not go unheard by my colleagues in The Nationals who have joined me to commit $5 million to take action if we are elected. I know for many this will be seen as a long time coming, as we have already seen the need to relocate the walking track in the Seagull Dr and Boulevard areas due to erosion and now the Seagull Dr carpark and toilet are even under threat. I want to thank the tireless community members who have continued to raise the importance of immediate action with me and never given up despite years of uncertainty from the Andrews Labor Government as they commissioned report

The Melbourne Cup made its way to the region recently, much to the delight of local race lovers.

after report. While Labor continues to dither, only The Nationals in government have committed to take action.

Danny O’Brien,

Gippsland South MP

The need to adapt

THERE has been much in the media recently claiming that climate change is the cause of the large fires and floods around Australia and the world.Hiding behind climate change is not a strategy to address the increasing number and intensity of fires and floods across Australia according to the Howitt Society. The Howitt Society is a group of experienced land and fire managers and acknowledged bushmen who are concerned for the health and safety of the Australian bush, and in particular fire management. Even if all burning of fossil fuels was stopped across the world tomorrow, climate change is not going to shift into reverse. In reality genuine climate change reversal strategies are years away from being internationally adopted, and decades away from beginning to impact fire and flood regimes. So we need to adapt our management strategies to deal with the changed conditions as they are today. Following the recent floods across Victoria, there have been calls for increased permanent levees to protect people and assets and hopefully these mitigation works will be completed now and not when the next disaster is imminent. From a fire perspective, the Howitt Society supports the call from parts of the community for better fuel management in the bush. While the climate is becoming warmer and drier, it is not this that is making the fires more intense and more difficult to control, but rather the unprecedented amount of fuel that land managers have allowed to accumulate. Mitigation works are required urgently. There are three factors that allow fires to burn: An ignition source, oxygen and fuel. The only one that we are able to influence is the amount of fuel available when ignition does occur, whether it be lightning, an arsonist, a campfire or any other source. The science tells us that as fuel availability doubles, fire burns four times more intensely and that this formula also works in reverse and so there are great benefits in reducing fuel loads said Howitt Society Secretary Garry Squires. We also know that fuels can be reduced over large areas using existing and familiar technologies. All that is required is policy change at a government level and appropriate funding. A well-funded, well-led, state-wide, even nation-wide fuel mitigation campaign would be an effective first step in protecting Australian lives and property and the bush itself from the grip of a warmer and drier climate he said. The Royal Commission into the 2009 fires identified the threat of climate change on future bushfire risk and it identified the need to fuel reduce at least five per cent of the forest area annually to help mitigate the threat. The recommendation was only implemented for a couple of years before it was dropped by government in favour of the current residual risk approach, which clearly is not achieving the area of fuel reduction required to mitigate the current conditions. The Howitt Society calls on the government to implement the minimum five per cent of forest area to be fuel reduced annually as per the 2009 Royal Commission recommendation.

Rick Cooper,

Howitt Society president