Mr Canavan's Arts degree may not have included SOIL1001, but my Agriculture degree did.

I would invite Mr Canavan to spend some time with the amazing regenerative farmers that we have around Tamworth, and see how increasing soil carbon is increasing the productivity of their land. Soil carbon capture can (and does) co-exist with production, the land is not locked up. Conversely the land holds more water and nutrients, enabling higher production rates.

Hopefully his Economics degree did include the basic notion that extra income streams for farmers means more money circulating in rural communities.

Mr Canavan's comment that only 5 per cent of Nationals voters are primary producers is rather telling - it helps to explain why he is so determined to hang Australian farmers out to dry, and deal with the climate crisis alone.

Despite this, the National Farmers Federation and NSW Farmers support net zero by 2050, and Meat and Livestock Australia aim to be carbon neutral by 2030. Both the GRDC and the CRDC have listed moving to carbon neutral reduced emissions systems as a key RD&E investment for the next 12-18 months. It would be great if our government came to the party with the rest of us.

Mr Canavan and Mr Joyce might hate that soil stuff, but the rest of us understand that it's what feeds and clothes us all.

Bronwyn Brennan, North Tamworth

Have your say, send a letter to the editor.

Maybe it's because I'm a farmer's daughter. I actually get that being part of the solution to anthropogenic global warming is a business opportunity for the regions. (Nationals Senator hates soil carbon scheme, 6/7). I suspect Matt Canavan and Barnaby Joyce view trumping it as a political opportunity.

Lesley Walker, Northcote

Daniel Peckham, do you mean to say that it is actually getting colder across the whole planet because you have had a freezing time in Tamworth lately? The warming of the atmosphere and seas through the burning of fossil fuels is a phenomenon that is measurable large-scale in line with human use of those fuels. The effect makes overall for hotter seasons, and more unstable weather patterns. Do you want climate scientists to draw their conclusions from just your own spot on the globe?

Elaine Hopper, Blackburn

Thanks to Andrew Messenger for his article about the dismissal of Peter Sanders as organist of St Mary's Anglican church West Armidale, along with his husband. Of course he is being made a scapegoat - as in Sydney Diocese, Armidale cannot afford to show any acceptance of LGBTI people unless they commit to celibacy. How absurd and cruel this is at any time, and especially now that same-sex marriage is legal in Australia. Fortunately there are many other Anglican dioceses which show the acceptance which surely Jesus Christ would have shown. A handful of texts from St Paul have been allowed to obscure the wider Christian message of love - and many writers have questioned the literal interpretation of those texts. Paul also said that without love we are like clanging cymbals.

It is hard to believe the hypocrisy of Bishop Chiswell, and Dean Chris Brennan, in claiming the couple were not dismissed but left voluntarily. Forcing the condition of celibacy on them is tantamount to dismissal, as they well know. No gay person in Australia today would accept such a condition, I believe. They should never be asked to.

I do hope this issue is taken up by metropolitan and national media. The Leader will be shown to have kicked off a debate which may lead to change within the offending Anglican dioceses, and other churches which keep gay people out.

Rodney Wetherell, Melbourne

The recent article on recycling has raised a number of concerns that should be front and center with our community. The lack of consideration of the Social impact for employees with a disability is of foremost concern as council continues to push for a dollar saving easy fix. Consider this it costs more that 100 dollars per tonne to put rubbish in a Landfill if you then add up the cost of establishing a new landfill site when the current one is full of product that could have been removed it would amount to millions of dollars not to mention the issues with finding an appropriate site.

Over more that 25 years the local recycling operations have removed more than 4000 tones per year of product equating to millions of dollars worth of savings and an extended life of the current site.

This is all at significant risk with lack of community consultation and what appears to be simple cost cutting from the current decision makers.

All the while council continued to use advertising promoting people with disability sorting our product with what appears to be no real intention of retaining a long standing community service.

Chris Buckman, Moore Creek

Daniel Peckham of Tamworth doesn't seem to understand the difference between climate and weather: weather is what we get every day: sometimes it's hot and sometimes it's cold. Sometimes it's hotter than average, and sometimes, though more rarely these days, it's colder than average.

Climate on the other hand is about long term averages, and what I can tell David is that the trend in the world is to warmer temperatures - the warmest 20 years since 1880 have all occurred since 1990.

So, yes some days are cold and some are warm, but the data tells us that long term, the world is heating up.

Joan Selby Smith, Melbourne

Daniel Peckham (in from the cold, 6/7/21) needs to understand that climate change is associated with extremes of weather, both hot and cold. Please go to good scientific sources.

John Oldfield, Burwood, Victoria