The sort of thing we have been discussing about different ways of farminghave met their time for acceptance. This shouldn’t – can’t happen again:
Meanwhile the farmer whose machinery is suspected to have sparked the devastating 1900ha Tasman blaze is “mortified”, fire chiefs say.
FENZ incident controller John Sutton said it was almost certain the fire was the result of agricultural machinery.
The owner was “mortified”, said Sutton who added it was a highly accidental event.
“A totally unintended consequence really.”
Sources told the Herald yesterday that the fire was sparked by a farmer tilling dry fields at around 2pm up Pigeon Valley near Wakefield, about 30km south of Nelson.
The poor farmer was just just doing what he knows, possibly a tad mad out there at that time of day a touch of sunspot making him work too hard… nobody expected a fire from discing soil.
It is a rather freakish thing to happen. I was a bit puzzled as to how someone could be tilling in this weather then it dawned on me: they have irrigation as well. If policy depicts landholders can just plug into water to irrigate they have no real incentive to hold water in the land and help mitigate drought. This lacks resilience. As insurance companies get tighter fisted about climate related matters, which they simply must to survive, it will pay to retrofit and collect your own or at least some of your own water. Resilient systems will be easier to insure, having some in-built insurance. And for you and yours, water security is right up there for basic survival and yes: productivity.
Weather events may be unpredictable, but future fires, droughts and floods are actually a given. No need to be blaming in this instance. But it is a good time to reflect on how we forest, farm and plant.
Still ongoing, this fire. Tasmania just got their first decent rain in a long time. Very happy for them. Their fights not over either, but the nightmare is less.
On the Sunday post How to get there we are finding what can and can’t be done farmwise and waterwise. Farming will be constrained but the ones that can think and act will be able to adapt.
Pigeon Valley is riddled with stones and rocks, probably was an ancient river bed, metal rubbing against stones in these conditions would easily create sparks.
If a tinder dry summer is the new norm, maybe we need stronger rules for using machinery on land next to forests.
When the forests are closed off because the fire risk is extreme (like the last couple of weeks), then perhaps all neighbouring land owners need to be personally contacted and advised not to use machinery that could create sparks.
PS… I’d say the golf course would be the most irrigated piece of land up the Pigeon Valley.
The coming times (as of now) are not a case of being contacted and ‘advised’ it is being ‘ordered’ or else. It’s not about being nice and neighbourly and all working together, it is a case of prevention of emergencies and has to be dictated.
It’s a bit sad to acknowledge, but much of social media or news site commentariat is based around deliberate lying to influence others.
Most of the “fake news” comes from individuals of the public – and one can assume that only some of this comes from (party) shills, those paid to be influencers on media sites.
and one can assume that only some of this comes from (party) shills
Gore Vidal laid blame in his 2008 obituary of William F. Buckley, Jr.
The unique mess that our republic is in can be, in part, attributed to a corrupt press whose roots are in mendacious news (sic) magazines like Time and Newsweek, aided by tabloids that manufacture fictional stories about actual people. This mingling of opinion and fiction has undone a media never devoted to truth. Hence, the ease with which the Republican smear-machine goes into action when they realize that yet again the party’s permanent unpopularity with the American people will cause them defeat unless they smear individually those who question the junk that the media has put into so many heads. Anyone who says “We gotta fight ’em over there or we’re gonna have to fight ’em over here.” This absurdity has been pronounced by every Republican seeking high office. The habit of lying is now a national style that started with “news” magazines that was further developed by pathological liars that proved to be “good” Entertainment on TV. But a diet of poison that has done none of us any good.
I speak ex cathedra now, ad urbe et orbe, with a warning that no society so marinated in falsity can long survive in a real world.
Tim Watkins musing on Waitangi Day this year: …I’m with Peeni Henare when he frets the day may become too “bland”. The MP was speaking in the context of relations between the upper and lower marae, but his point applies more widely.
That Waitangi Day acts as a stone in our national shoe is something I’m proud of as a New Zealander. Many countries use their national days to parade – sometimes literally – banal cultural myths or ceremonies of false unity. They trade in triumphalism and grandiosity. But here in New Zealand we dare to face down our failings and demand better. We don’t always do it well; I don’t take any pleasure from Prime Minister’s being almost knocked form their feet or racist speeches from any side. But it is good that we are not complacent and smug. https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/reflections-on-a-day-at-waitangi-and-the-c-word
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Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Monday’s contentOranga Tamariki, state care of children, adoption Bonnie Sumner (Newsroom): Māori ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Senior research fellow, Southern Cross University Humans’ distant ancestor Australopithecus africanus had a unique approach to raising their young, as shown in our new research published today in Nature. Geochemical ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Curious Kids is a series for children. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au You might ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joyce Y.M. Nip, Senior lecturer, Department of Media and Communications; Department of Chinese Studies, University of Sydney As China grows more powerful and influential, our New Superpower series looks at what this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Trent Yarwood, Infectious Diseases Physician, Senior Lecturer, James Cook University and, The University of Queensland This year’s flu season is off to an early start, with 144,000 confirmed cases so far in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Todd Denham, PhD Candidate, School of Global, Urban & Social Studies, RMIT University Governments are looking to fast rail services to regional cities to relieve population pressures in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zsuzsanna Csereklyei, Lecturer in Economics, RMIT University Wholesale prices in the National Electricity Market have climbed significantly in recent years. The increase has coincided with a rapid increase in the proportion of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Koa Whittingham, Psychologist and Research Fellow, The University of Queensland Bluey is a ground-breaking Australian children’s television series and the most downloaded show in ABC iView history. Since premiering in October 2018, ...
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Both PM and deputy PM in action on foreign relationships, major climate report being released today, and DOC staff facing escalating threats. Both the PM and deputy PM are in action ...
The Auditor-General's investigators are to look into the National Party's complaints about taxpayer funding being used to underwrite KiwiBuild homes. ...
Cancer can happen to anyone, even if they have followed the advice. While healthy living is not a guarantee, it does stack the odds in your favour. ...
Food researcher George Henderson assesses best-selling NZ low-carb cookbook What The Fat, and asks: How did it become so popular, and why is a laxative included in the sausage roll recipe? ...
Practical steps to take right now if you’re appalled at the news coming out of the United States.This article was originally published in June 2018 and has been updated with current information.From the far side of an ocean, we in ...
Grant Robertson, a cricket fanatic whose day jobs include being minister for finance and minister for sport, raced from Wellington to northwest London on the weekend to watch the Black Caps in what turned into the greatest one-day international ever ...
Ātea editor Leonie Hayden headed out to the hui for a Māori-led inquiry into Oranga Tamariki, the Ministry for Children, and found a unified Māori force that has decided enough is enough.When first announced, Saturday’s Oranga Tamariki hui was to ...
A vulnerability has hit users everywhere, New Zealand included, and it reveals something very troubling about the way the tech world worksNew Zealand Schools, district health boards and even the perhaps the halls of power have found themselves compromised by ...
By RNZ Pacific New Caledonia has a healthy lead on the Pacific Games medals table after the first week of the competition. The French Territory has won 42 gold medals after the first six days of competition and more ...
Daily Review 07/02/2019 
The Interim Climate Change Committee's report on Action on agricultural emissions: Evidence, analysis and recommendations was finally released today, and as you might guess from the title, it is recommending that we actually act, rather than let farmers keep ...13 hours ago
On Sunday July 7, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter announced their intention to review the Ministry of Health’s Funded Family Care policy and repeal Part 4Aof the 2000 NZ Public Health and Disability Act. These are festering injustices ...14 hours ago
Belle is a lovely fifteen year-old border collie who belongs to our friends and neighbours at Bryan’s Beach, Michael and Judy Corboy. Belle, in her old age, can hardly see or hear, but – as a constant participant at social ...17 hours ago
Later this month, thousands of people are expected to march to parliament as part of the #HandsOffOurTamaraki movement. At its heart, the movement is about preserving whānau and demanding that the state stop removing children from their whānau, hapū and iwi. ...2 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh The recent statements made by the former FARC commander, Carlos Lozada (legal name Julian Gallo), where, from his seat in Congress, he praised the Colombian Army demonstrate how low the farianos have sunk. Lozada began by ...2 days ago
A Woman’s Place is on the Podium was a public meeting in London on 10 July to discuss women’s sports and the impact of transwomen competing against women. The venue was sold out with a packed hall of 750 people. ...3 days ago
An occasional series where I will ponder allegations of anti-Semitism directed at the British Labour Party and its members.In this case, we are thinking about an allegedly anti-Semitic image shared by a Labour Party member. Its origins appear to be ...6 days ago
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Welcome to another heaping helping of research publications related to climate change drivers and mechanisms, the effects of climate change and how we might yet grope our way into systems approaches to dealing with the mess we're making, despite ourselves. ...2 weeks ago
The People's "Friend": In this masterpiece of revolutionary propaganda, the homicidal political psychopath, Jean-Paul Marat, has been transformed by Jacques-Louis David, the French Revolution's most accomplished artist, into a martyred hero of the ordinary people of Paris. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, ...2 weeks ago
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I have been working my way through a 47,000 document tranche of declassified US government communications related to Argentina and the “Dirty War” of 1976-83. I grew up in Argentina in the period leading up to the March 24, 1976 ...2 weeks ago
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When people slate the current Government for taking too long on certain issues, or not getting everything right, just check the outrage and quit helping National manufacture consent for their decade of Disaster Economics and much more. Bill couldn’t ...3 weeks ago
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More people have died in the shower this year than will die in a KiwiBuild home. KiwiBuild home owners are experiencing a surprise windfall this month, as the price of their houses have begun to rise dramatically, due to growing ...3 weeks ago
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Statistics New Zealand has released a new report on New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions, with a sectoral breakdown shown how much is caused by different sectors of the economy. The data is crystal clear: half our emissions are caused by ...3 weeks ago
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A new digital platform aims to make it easier for small businesses to access services from multiple government agencies, leaving them more time to focus on their own priorities. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister for Small Business Stuart Nash ...17 hours ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Harry Hobbs, Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has announced that the state will begin a conversation about a pathway to treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ...8 hours ago
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Sam Brooks reviews Mean Mums, the new sitcom from Three that manages to make putting a great show together look easy.When it premiered as part of Three’s Pilot Week last year, I called Mean Mums the winner of the bunch. Nearly ...11 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Last week on this podcast we talked to Ken Wyatt about the government’s plan for a referendum – hopefully this parliamentary term – to recognise ...11 hours ago
Imagine if we treated our native birds with as little care as we do our precious fish stocks, writes ecologist Stella McQueen.Earlier this year, 900 at-risk native mudfish were relocated to make way for a wastewater development. But despite a ...12 hours ago
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Renaud Joannes-Boyau, Senior research fellow, Southern Cross University Humans’ distant ancestor Australopithecus africanus had a unique approach to raising their young, as shown in our new research published today in Nature. Geochemical ...19 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Curious Kids is a series for children. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au You might ...19 hours ago
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A change of wind has freshened the fire and raised its intensity in Nelson.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12201426
The sort of thing we have been discussing about different ways of farminghave met their time for acceptance. This shouldn’t – can’t happen again:
Meanwhile the farmer whose machinery is suspected to have sparked the devastating 1900ha Tasman blaze is “mortified”, fire chiefs say.
FENZ incident controller John Sutton said it was almost certain the fire was the result of agricultural machinery.
The owner was “mortified”, said Sutton who added it was a highly accidental event.
“A totally unintended consequence really.”
Sources told the Herald yesterday that the fire was sparked by a farmer tilling dry fields at around 2pm up Pigeon Valley near Wakefield, about 30km south of Nelson.
The poor farmer was just just doing what he knows, possibly a tad mad out there at that time of day a touch of sunspot making him work too hard… nobody expected a fire from discing soil.
It is a rather freakish thing to happen. I was a bit puzzled as to how someone could be tilling in this weather then it dawned on me: they have irrigation as well. If policy depicts landholders can just plug into water to irrigate they have no real incentive to hold water in the land and help mitigate drought. This lacks resilience. As insurance companies get tighter fisted about climate related matters, which they simply must to survive, it will pay to retrofit and collect your own or at least some of your own water. Resilient systems will be easier to insure, having some in-built insurance. And for you and yours, water security is right up there for basic survival and yes: productivity.
Weather events may be unpredictable, but future fires, droughts and floods are actually a given. No need to be blaming in this instance. But it is a good time to reflect on how we forest, farm and plant.
Still ongoing, this fire. Tasmania just got their first decent rain in a long time. Very happy for them. Their fights not over either, but the nightmare is less.
irrigation or no….farming is time constrained
Absolutely agree with you Pat.
On the Sunday post How to get there we are finding what can and can’t be done farmwise and waterwise. Farming will be constrained but the ones that can think and act will be able to adapt.
Pigeon Valley is riddled with stones and rocks, probably was an ancient river bed, metal rubbing against stones in these conditions would easily create sparks.
If a tinder dry summer is the new norm, maybe we need stronger rules for using machinery on land next to forests.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pigeon+Valley+7096/@-41.3700929,172.9212285,13895m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x6d3ba2c2a5f79e0d:0x500ef868479c160!2sWakefield!3b1!8m2!3d-41.4044308!4d173.0485304!3m4!1s0x6d3b9f35642330fd:0x500ef868479d130!8m2!3d-41.383764!4d173.0254841
When the forests are closed off because the fire risk is extreme (like the last couple of weeks), then perhaps all neighbouring land owners need to be personally contacted and advised not to use machinery that could create sparks.
PS… I’d say the golf course would be the most irrigated piece of land up the Pigeon Valley.
The coming times (as of now) are not a case of being contacted and ‘advised’ it is being ‘ordered’ or else. It’s not about being nice and neighbourly and all working together, it is a case of prevention of emergencies and has to be dictated.
If that’s what it takes Grey.
I can’t imagine what you’d be using machinery for at this time of year.
Mowing, track/run maintenance, driving posts……?
Chainsaw for a wind felled tree is all I can come up with.
Sleep time for me.
It’s a bit sad to acknowledge, but much of social media or news site commentariat is based around deliberate lying to influence others.
Most of the “fake news” comes from individuals of the public – and one can assume that only some of this comes from (party) shills, those paid to be influencers on media sites.
Gore Vidal laid blame in his 2008 obituary of William F. Buckley, Jr.
The unique mess that our republic is in can be, in part, attributed to a corrupt press whose roots are in mendacious news (sic) magazines like Time and Newsweek, aided by tabloids that manufacture fictional stories about actual people. This mingling of opinion and fiction has undone a media never devoted to truth. Hence, the ease with which the Republican smear-machine goes into action when they realize that yet again the party’s permanent unpopularity with the American people will cause them defeat unless they smear individually those who question the junk that the media has put into so many heads. Anyone who says “We gotta fight ’em over there or we’re gonna have to fight ’em over here.” This absurdity has been pronounced by every Republican seeking high office. The habit of lying is now a national style that started with “news” magazines that was further developed by pathological liars that proved to be “good” Entertainment on TV. But a diet of poison that has done none of us any good.
I speak ex cathedra now, ad urbe et orbe, with a warning that no society so marinated in falsity can long survive in a real world.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/gore-vidal-speaks-seriously-ill-of-the-dead-2/
Hocking off your gold reserves seems to be the go-to move when you’re circling the gurgler.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-gold/venezuelan-government-sold-73-tonnes-of-gold-to-uae-turkey-last-year-legislator-idUSKCN1PV1XE?il=0
Lololol
Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter.
If you see something…. say something
Do I get a t-shirt if I sign up?
Lmao.
You crack me up Joe90 that was funny as.
“Residents in Wakefield are being asked to prepare to evacuate if needed. The village has an estimated population of 3000.”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/110400124/live-large-forest-fire-in-nelson-intensifies
Stay safe over there.
Scarey stuff.
They are doing an incredible job making sure people are safe.
Wind seems to have gone, fingers crossed it the fire won’t make it to the village.
I’m sure they err on the side of caution in preparing people and that is good imo. And I agree – amazing work people are doing to help.
Tim Watkins musing on Waitangi Day this year:
…I’m with Peeni Henare when he frets the day may become too “bland”. The MP was speaking in the context of relations between the upper and lower marae, but his point applies more widely.
That Waitangi Day acts as a stone in our national shoe is something I’m proud of as a New Zealander. Many countries use their national days to parade – sometimes literally – banal cultural myths or ceremonies of false unity. They trade in triumphalism and grandiosity. But here in New Zealand we dare to face down our failings and demand better. We don’t always do it well; I don’t take any pleasure from Prime Minister’s being almost knocked form their feet or racist speeches from any side. But it is good that we are not complacent and smug.
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/reflections-on-a-day-at-waitangi-and-the-c-word