Conservation

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Water and cultural values

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, October 8th, 2016 - 60 comments

Day one of the International Days of Prayer and Action with Standing Rock. Here’s a post on NZ’s relationship with water, and whether water is a resource or a taonga.

Maui embarrassment

Written By: - Date published: 2:37 pm, September 19th, 2016 - 15 comments

The government didn’t make much of a show of Conservation Week – which was probably for the best the Conservation stories coming out weren’t exactly positive for it.  US wanting us to do more on dolphins, the Kermadec sanctuary, fish dumping…

The Kermadecs and racist environmentalism

Written By: - Date published: 6:14 pm, September 18th, 2016 - 154 comments

This week has been a revelation in how willing Pākehā are to throw Māori under the bus for the sake of environmentalism.

Conservation Week

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, September 17th, 2016 - 21 comments

It’s Conservation Week.  We should all go and enjoy the great outdoors this weekend… but be careful of the polluted rivers and the wallabies.  But at least we’ll be pest-free by 3300…

Maori Party to make a stand?

Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, September 15th, 2016 - 113 comments

The Maori Party are threatening to pull out of their confidence & supply agreement with National.  This would leave National with a Hair-thin majority in the House. The Kermadec Sanctuary, if handled with competence instead of arrogance, should have been a massive win for National.

Can a national park be a person?

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, September 6th, 2016 - 17 comments

While New Zealand trashes its water and argues over whether we are allow to say ‘dairy cow’ at the same time, this 1 min video on The Guardian Facebook page about the Rights of Nature in NZ gets 2.4 million views

NRT: A death-knell for Ruataniwha?

Written By: - Date published: 12:52 pm, August 31st, 2016 - 54 comments

I/S at No Right Turn writes: If the ruling stands, it won’t just kill the dam, but also National’s policy of trying to crack open reserves for development through an ideology of “net conservation gain”.

What if there were only 34 more whitebait harvests left?

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, August 19th, 2016 - 78 comments

Water is life not merely wadeable.

The Christchurch Commons

Written By: - Date published: 1:50 pm, August 17th, 2016 - 18 comments

Meanwhile, down in Christchurch the plan is to put water back in the centre of our physical, cultural and spiritual lives.

 

Taonga tax

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, August 13th, 2016 - 77 comments

Tourists are coming for our “clean green” image (however undeserved), no reason why they shouldn’t be happy to help contributing to maintaining / strengthening it.

Climate change pedal to the metal

Written By: - Date published: 8:53 am, July 31st, 2016 - 116 comments

Avoiding 2 deg C warming is a ship that’s sailed. Global warming is now happening at about 4.3x the previous long-run rate. And it might go up to 18x the previous rate over the next few years. That’s what the pundits call “abrupt climate change.”

Predator free a fantastic goal – but…

Written By: - Date published: 7:02 am, July 26th, 2016 - 231 comments

Feel-good promises for 2050 are easy. Add this one to the list with a cycleway the length of NZ, a secret plan to end Japanese whaling, the War on P, our emissions reduction (hah!) targets, plans to be a “financial hub”, the promise of pandas, and so on and so on.

Another shocking environmental record

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, June 21st, 2016 - 16 comments

The world’s news is full of new environmental records. Here’s a shocker.

Official climate change fraud

Written By: - Date published: 7:39 am, June 14th, 2016 - 136 comments

Scientists and experts have been knowingly understating the unfolding climate change catastrophe to governments and decision makers. Why? For the sake of what is “politically palatable”.

Scottish Parliament votes to ban fracking. 

Written By: - Date published: 3:14 pm, June 11th, 2016 - 60 comments

Imagine a country where the political divide is over whether to ban fracking outright or to be opposed to fracking but have a moratorium first in order to gather more evidence.

Fine for fox to guard henhouse – says fox

Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, May 31st, 2016 - 26 comments

The Nats are happy for the fishing industry to effectively self-monitor, despite the fact that this has already been shown to be massively ineffective. In other news: John Key questioned on National’s closeness to fishing industry.

Who needs water anyway

Written By: - Date published: 8:09 am, April 30th, 2016 - 46 comments

Or waterways are starting to stink as much as our murky tax havens.

Pure spin vs. pure water

Written By: - Date published: 1:34 pm, March 30th, 2016 - 27 comments

Yesterday a “host” of students marched to the Beehive with a petition of calling for all freshwater in New Zealand to be swimmable.

Norman on the economy

Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, March 12th, 2016 - 58 comments

Russel Norman was right in 2014 when he said that the Nats were daft to gamble on oil and bulk milk production, and he’s right again now to draw attention to the failures. We need a green economy!

Common ground at Abel Tasman National Park

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, February 16th, 2016 - 76 comments

The desire of many New Zealanders to put a beach in the South Island under public control presents the opposition parties with a great opportunity to identify and defend common ground.

Buying Awaroa beach

Written By: - Date published: 1:16 pm, February 10th, 2016 - 50 comments

“There is a pristine piece of beach and bush in the heart of the Abel Tasman up for private sale. Together we can buy it and gift it to NZ.”

Fight to save Christchurch’s trees

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, February 9th, 2016 - 50 comments

Christchurch has already lost so much. Now its “notable trees” are threatened. A small group is fighting to save them. Please help spread the word, or make a donation.

The great big list of John Key’s big fat lies (UPDATED)

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, January 27th, 2016 - 79 comments

How many more lies will John Key tell today in his so-called State of the Nation address? Virtual chocolate fish to whomever guesses the closest number.

Johno Smith explains why he tried to save the Titirangi Kauri

Written By: - Date published: 11:20 am, January 20th, 2016 - 44 comments

Johno Smith has appeared in the Waitakere District Court and has pleaded guilty to trespass. He has set out his reasons for trespassing in an effort to save an ancient Kauri.

RMA announcement

Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, November 26th, 2015 - 24 comments

Changes to the RMA have just been announced.

Updated.

EPA to be gutted – for doing its job

Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, November 12th, 2015 - 24 comments

Looks like National is planning to take over the Environmental Protection Agency.

DoC Staff Striking during Conservation Week

Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, November 3rd, 2015 - 30 comments

How far removed from a ‘cloth-capped mob of union-stirrers and industrial saboteurs’ would the staff of the Department of Conservation be? These people would have to be among the most valued and generally respected public sector workers in the country. And now they are reduced to this. DOC staff to take industrial action as Conservation […]

Fouling our nest

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, November 2nd, 2015 - 38 comments

New Zealand is a beautiful country, and tourism is our second biggest earner of foreign exchange. We’d be stupid to trash the place, right?

Key pinches Labour’s Kermadec Sanctuary Policy

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, September 30th, 2015 - 88 comments

National’s announced intention to create a marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands looks remarkably like Labour’s policy from the last election. And why did John Key not tell his caucus beforehand?

What other countries are doing about climate change

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, September 29th, 2015 - 27 comments

There is hope that the cumulative effect of all the international pledges for the Paris climate change conference may buy the world some time to prevent runaway global warming.  Some countries are pledging to becoming carbon neutral.  New Zealand’s pledge is pathetically weak in comparison.

Oil drilling in Maui’s Dolphin’s habitat

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, September 27th, 2015 - 66 comments

The Government this week proposed at considerable expense the purchase of a couple of panda. But at the same time the Government is again proposing to allow the drilling for oil in the habitat of Maui’s Dolphin which is facing extinction.

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