Coupled with a general lack of activity, this goes against the very principles of being a living, moving, human being. The result is a national epidemic of widespread obesity. The current levels are both shocking and alarming.

In the vast majority of cases this obesity epidemic is the result of a combination of over-consumption of food, poor food choices, and a lack of regular exercise. In our society too many have succumbed to gluttony and slothfulness!

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Our consumerist society has resulted in so many important things being far too big.

Our meals, our houses and our cars are all far too big. As well as having deleterious health effects (both physical and mental) on individuals, our predilection for things "big" adversely affects the environment in so many ways - as well as on the hip pocket of the taxpayer.

Unfortunately, obesity has become normalized and accepted.

When we have the knowledge and resources to live a healthy, responsible life in consideration of ourselves and the environment, we have instead created major personal, social and environmental problems.

What is required is less consumption, consumerism and desire for everything to be "big", and more appreciation and action in seeking a healthy life both for self and the environment.

Ian Anderson, Ballarat

With fire now having killed over a BILLION animals just in Victoria and NSW, this is an urgent issue demanding change. Like most of our neighbors in rural Victoria, we feel blessed with the wildlife we are lucky to have.

Compared to non-native animals, kangaroos are easier on the land, eat and drink very little, require no shearing or crutching and are quiet, gentle, adorable creatures who not only bring us much joy, but income.

Paying guests come to see their outstanding love for each other and comical antics; the mothers whose tireless care for their young is humbling, and the joeys learning to control their huge legs for the first time out of the pouch, tearing around the paddocks in the sheer joy of life.

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But we can't protect them from a minority who shoot them for miniscule commercial gain.

The gut-wrenching horror of unannounced blasts of high powered rifles, spotlights shining through our windows at night, of waking to the sight of the beautiful defenseless creatures we were admiring the day before, slumped twisted and lifeless along the fence line, is real.

What damage were they really doing? What non-lethal options had been deployed iff they were a pest?

If their heads aren't bashed by shooters, Joeys - dependent on their mothers for up to 18 months - are left abandoned and frightened, to die alone from lack of warmth, milk and protection.

This is a hideously cruel activity, to our iconic native animals found nowhere else on earth and to the overwhelming majority of people - local and tourists - who love them. And these animals don't grow on trees.

Only 1.4 million roos were counted in Victoria in 2017 (compared to over 150 million farm animals) in a process widely criticized for over exaggeration. In 2018 fewer.

Of 16 Kangaroo species, 7 are already extinct. Three more are on the brink. With over a billion animals lost to fires, with drought and human sprawl forcing others closer to our rural backyards to survive, is it not time we afforded them some care?

To not do so is what gives farmers a bad name, enrages constituents about apathetic government pandering to minority commercial groups and only strengthens Australia's position as the laughingstock of the globe killing off our unique native wildlife - our true assets.

Now more than ever, these beautiful creatures should not be fugitives in their own homeland but protected and cherished. It's time to have a bloody heart.

Chris Jacobs Ballarat

I mentioned to friends Victoria's Black Thursday (February 6 1851) fires burnt 5 million hectares.

A simple fact, nothing more. One response was "Are you saying, climate change isn't real?"

The second was "See, the climate just cycles."

I just hung my head in shame and walked away.

What has become of our community?

Greg Adamson, Griffith NSW.

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