Growing food from sea water:
“In a desert region of southern Australia is a farm that – without the use of soil, fresh water, or fossil fuels – grows and supplies 15 percent of the entire country’s tomatoes through state-of-the-art technology.
Mike Dixon, director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CESRF) – a department at the University of Guelph in the Canadian province of Ontario – told Al Jazeera as “food security becomes a pressing issue with growing populations … energy is usually a limiting variable”.
He said although Sundrop Farm’s system may work well in desert regions in the Middle East, it would not be practical economically in places with an abundance of fresh water such as Canada.
I’m pretty sure that we used to have an abundance of fresh water at one point. Now it’s pretty much polluted because of the farms.
Asked whether Sundrop Farms’ techniques could be applied globally, he said it depends on each case.
“It all comes down to money. This bussiness plan will last only as long as its profit margin is in the black … if the company can economically use seawater.
Yep, this guy doesn’t understand economics.
A farm which massively decreases it’s inputs is, by definition, far more economical than one that doesn’t. Amazingly enough, quite often those processes which use more resources are more profitable which tells us that profit isn’t a good measure.
You can not compete with conventional farming … it [greenhouse production] will never achieve the same on those staple products. You need hundreds of thousands of acres for staples like rice to produce it in a highly competitive way.
So, what you’d do is build hundreds of thousands of acres of greenhouses.
If you’re not having to desalinate the water first then you can use the energy saved for other things.
Part of the appeal of the saltwater greenhouse system is that in addition to produce and salt they produce a modest but continuous supply of fresh water. Merge that technology with land with productivity constrained by perenial droughts like the area around Ward and you have a means of generating a gradual sustainable development. Green growth and jobs. We shall see none of those from this execrable government of course.
Monocropping massive amounts of tomatoes under glass (and I’m guessing for mass transport) probably can’t qualify as green or sustainable, even with the solar panels. I doubt that their carbon claims stack up either if you take into consideration cradle to grave and food miles.
We know how to restore land and grow food in dry climates in actual sustainable ways, might be good to focus on that.
Monocropping massive amounts of anything under glass for mass transport isn’t sustainable.
Polyculture, great 🙂
We could eat seasonally as well as locally.
“Knowing how is great but as a country we have to start actually doing it.”
True, but that’s a different conversation than the one about the link. Fortunately for NZ, many farmers and growers are just getting on with it and I think we will find that the transition will be easier because of that (we’re not doing very dry climate well yet though).
Sundrying makes sense, and I’m not suggesting all importing/exporting stops. We just need it to be an add on to our local food supply, not something we rely on economically or of sustenance.
I hope that NZ never gets to the point of having to desalinate water, but given what we’re doing, who knows?
Low entry cost – contemporary technology, and, like hydro, a relatively long productive life. The really good feature of the technology is that, unlike other desalination processes like membrane osmosis it leaves no salt fraction to accumulate in soil, and it requires little or no external energy input. Even the marine intake impact is likely to be modest – and warm controlled environments present multiple crop or culture options.
If we take Draco’s Permian doco seriously this sort of thing is the lowest level of radical change we need to entertain.
You don’t of course want a glass monoculture – but break up arid areas somewhat with these and trees and you should have a somewhat diverse and thus robust locality. Something to space the dairy farms out anyway.
Why would we need desalination in NZ? I’m not understanding the point. I get it in places where the rainfall is low and the ground water is fucked and the watershed no longer functions properly (although there are other solutions to that). But why here where we still have water?
If you take somewhere like Ward, or parts of central Otago, though they may be lush as compared to the Negev, existing water supplies are already in use – either for commercial or domestic use, or for wild use – (which may be preserving things the importance of which has thus far escaped us).
This form of development makes low demands on critical resources like water, in fact it is designed to alleviate water shortage. If my neighbour wants an intensive dairy farm I might have good ecological grounds to oppose them, but if these kinds of systems are properly engineered they are modestly enviro positive. Not needing to fight for water rights in the oversubscribed Waitaki catchment for example, is not a trivial advantage.
Are you suggesting desalinating water and pumping it up the Waitaki, or into Central? That’s massive infrastructure and it would use huge amounts of renewable power. We really shouldn’t be building more dams and there is limit to how many wind farms we can build, so wouldn’t it be better to just do sustainable agriculture instead?
The problem with the Waitaki is that people are trying to wet climate farm in a very dry place. That shit is going to be a disaster as CC kicks in more, financially and environmentally. Plus peak phosphate. But the Waitaki Valley is a huge water reservoir, much of it being wetland originally. Regenag techniques would work with that to grow food, not ignore that and try and impose something that has to work against the elements all the time.
Monocropping massive amounts of anything under glass for mass transport isn’t sustainable.
True, but diversity growing under glasshouses probably is. Done properly I believe that it will allow us to return a large part of what’s presently farmed to wilderness and the normal life-cycles that maintain the ecosystem.
I don’t have too much of a problem with localised food being done under glass. Plastic is a huge problem though, and even with glass there are issues in terms of the whole infrastructure and embodied energy. The energy may eventually be renewable, the materials aren’t. At some point we can probably reach a steady state in terms of long term repair and recycling as well as manufacturing from renewable materials e.g. for framing. But I think the ideal is to use things like glasshouses for specific needs e.g. extending growing seasons, rather than using it as a core technique for our staples.
Re farmland and wilderness, there is a third thing, which is managed wilderness. This is what humans have traditionally done. We could restore much of the farmland to true wilderness, and still use some for managed wilderness food production and the rest for intensive sustainable food production.
Alan Savory’s work is a good example of managed wilderness, but reading Robery Guyton’s work I can also see the potential for forests.
here you go, https://murrayhallam.com/12mnths9497624
all your veggie needs 23 square meters
regulations regarding keeping fish (edible) need to be overhauled for NZ,
Australia you can breed and own tasty fish, regulations to ensure closed system would be good, not total bans of costly licenses.
tl;dr get the design right at that start, focus on retaining and harvesting all moisture, in a desert you need more land in trees than crops/grazing. Trees provide the long term stable fertility that underpins sustainability.
I am rather bemused by a couple of things after reading todays posts.
Firstly the discussions are being overrun by RWKJs, making them boring to the point of skipping large sections.
Secondly it amuses me to see CV being accused of being of the radical right. What a load of bollocks.
Today Labour MP – now mayor of Auckland – Phil Goff has appointed a National Party guy as deputy mayor. That came just weeks after John Key had vigorously supported Helen Clark for the top UN job.
Yet again we see National and Labour complement each other as the A and B team for capitalism. While it’s true that National are not as xenophobic as Labour, there’s little else that they disagree on. National-Labour really are an alliance, and it’s obvious to all except those who are wilfully blind.
@ Daphna
1) This is NOT about national (small n) politics in any shape or form.
2) It seems they are good friends and Goff obviously believes he can trust him.
3) Goff gave the undertaking prior to the Local Body elections that he would do his utmost to bring the Auckland Council together for the betterment of the city.
4) I do not know this new deputy mayor personally, but from all accounts he is well liked across the board.
5) To have a National Party member in a senior position will assist Goff to gain positive access to central government over matters that affect the city.
Just some of the reasons off the top of my head which indicates to me Goff is being pragmatic and sensible.
I don’t care all that much about political allegiances in Local Body politics. I want to see a united council working in the interests of the city as a whole. Goff is the best person available to bring this about.
Regardless of the political affiliation, if they showed any propensity to sell off assets they wouldn’t get my vote. That would probably rule out the majority of the rw candidates. But as a case in point. There was a National Party candidate in my part of Auckland who has a very good cv. Had it not been for the fact there was a lw candidate with an equally good cv, I would have considered voting for her.
Goff’s not left wing, and I suspect that many in Labour are relieved to see him not a Labour MP. I don’t think Labour can be held responsible for his actions as mayor except at the level of having endorsed his career all these years. Which is a substantial responsibility but not a lot current Labour can do about it.
True. I think I was more meaning they’re not part of his decisions now as mayor. But yeah, they certainly are responsible for him being in a position to make whatever decisions he does.
Gable Tostee verdict has come through – he has been aquitted. Phew, I don’t know how to comprehend this, it was a very weird case from the start. I thought the jury might come through the middle and give a manslaughter verdict. It is a case which will perturb some for the difficulty of it, certainly it is disturbing and hopefully we won’t see another like it.
Yep I thought he was a real obnoxious dickhead and I would shudder if he was around my daughters. But I did not think he should be convicted of murder on the facts.
Looked a lot like the Sounds murder to me – frightened guy departs to cook up defence. Scot free doesn’t do it for me – he didn’t let her out, he effectively imprisoned her on his property.
Misadventure? This wasn’t some drunken game to emulate spiderman. From my read of it his manipulative and threatening behaviour played a big part in her death, there’s just no smoking gun. The justice system has really failed in this case in my view.
I think lot of people would struggle with the fact of his recording the entire drama. If he had not done this, absolutely no-one would have believed his version of the events.
And oddly enough resonates with the emerging reality that we are rapidly heading to a world where everything everyone does gets recorded 24/7/365. We are remarkably close to ubiquitous surveillance now, and within two decades it will be complete.
Having said this, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tostee finishes up facing other charges.
“absolutely no-one would have believed his version of the events.”
There is a witness who saw her climbing down his balcony, before she fell off.
So that there is fairly good evidence that he didn’t push her. May be difficult to infer that he wasn’t on the balcony threatening her in some way, though.
Prior to the trial Tostee had fully admitted that he had a long-standing problem with binge-drinking. Plus being a good looking bloke he seemed to have no problem with finding any number of women happy to have sex with him. Perhaps it’s not terribly surprising this resulted in an unhealthy, cynical attitude towards women. While it’s true many young men are far too naive and idealistic about relationships, Tostee’s experience seems to have pushed him to the other extreme.
And a recipe for trouble. Prior to the trial he said the reason why he was in the habit of recording his drunken escapades was to “protect” himself. How and why he learned that little life lesson is an interesting question in of itself. I’m not aware of him using the recordings afterwards for any other nefarious purpose, so we have to take him at face value on this.
Nor can we entirely overlook Warriena’s behaviour that night. What I cannot help but wonder is that if the gender roles were reversed here, and it was Gable who’d been repeatedly violent, Warriena who’d managed to lock him onto the balcony for her safety, and he’d plunged to his death … would this have ever gotten to trial?
A sad, sorry and tragic glimpse into two lives that should never have met.
“The problem with these and many other scenarios that emerge in the mainstream, is the intellectual editing that occurs before they even begin. Most share two overwhelming, linked characteristics that strictly limit any subsequent room for manoeuvre. Firstly the demand for energy itself is seen as something innate, unchallengeable and unmanageable. It must be met, and the only question is how.
Secondly, the assumption remains that the principles and practices of the economic model that has dominated for the last 30 years will remain for at least the next 30 years. There is no sign yet of the ferocious challenge to neoliberal orthodoxy happening at the margins of economics shaping mainstream visions of our possible futures. The merest glance at the history of changing ideas suggests this is short-sighted.”
…unfortunately the current paradigm is short sighted in spades
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Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
“Our exporters should, therefore, be deeply concerned that the Fast-track Approvals Bill was not assessed for consistency with any of our free trade commitments prior to being introduced to the House,” says Gary Taylor, Chief Executive of the Environmental ...
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff is calling on all political parties to support the new Member’s Bill from Labour’s workplace relations and safety spokesperson Camilla Belich MP that would ensure negligent companies are held accountable when their employees ...
A historian with an uncanny track record of predicting US election winners tells RNZ's Sunday Morning that President Biden looks to be on track for another term, but things could still go very wrong for him. ...
A historian with a track record of predicting US election winners tells RNZ's Sunday Morning that President Biden looks to be on track for another term, but things could still go wrong for him. ...
Ngaio Marsh House is one of Christchurch’s best kept secrets – and contains more than a few mysteries of its own.Trust Ngaio Marsh to leave more than a few mysteries scattered through her house long after her departure. For a start, there’s the curious concrete portal in the garden, ...
Appointment viewing has been lost to the mists of time, but memories of Montana Sunday Theatre can still be conjured by hitting play on a particular piece of classical music. “You’re not going to be able to sell it.” Over 30 years on, Karen Bieleski still recalls how the task ...
Performance Review King Luxon sat behind His massive polished oak desk. It is Performance Review time. There is a knock on the door. “Enter!” says the King. In steps Minister of Disabilities and Carer Pedicures, Penny Simmonds. “I can explain everything …” she begins. “Fine,” says King Luxon, pressing the ...
The pair opened their first fully collaborative exhibition, Nina for Flowers, last Saturday. Gabi Lardies visited their studio to find out who Nina is and what working together was like.‘It didn’t start out like, ‘This is a show about Nina,’” says Josephine Jelicich, gripping a thermos of peppermint tea. ...
Thank you, Dr Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner, for your brilliant invention. I’m another mid-20s Kiwi who had an OE last year. I hopped on my bicycle where France meets the Atlantic and cycled east. I pedalled through the Loire Valley, down rivers lined with willows and ancient wisteria-draped chateaus. I relished ...
Asia Pacific Report From France to Australia, university pro-Palestine protests in the United States have now spread to several countries with students pitching on-campus camps. And students at Columbia and other US universities remain defiant as campuses have witnessed the biggest protests since the anti-Vietnam war and anti-apartheid eras in ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)New Zealand Government’s Fast Track legislation. Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government ...
Tara Ward talks to presenter Naomi Toilalo about the new TV show that turns food waste into a three course feast. Naomi Toilalo is standing in the warehouse at Good Neighbour Tauranga, helping unpack the two-and-a-half tonnes of rejected food that will arrive at the community support hub that day. ...
Scout is our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Scout’s human, Avril, for her support. Dog name: Scout (named after the little girl in To Kill a Mockingbird – she inherited the independent spirit ...
Megan Alatini takes us through her life in TV, including ‘terrible’ daytime TV, the class of Carol Hirschfeld and her most embarrassing TrueBliss moment. When she responded to a vague newspaper ad asking “do you have what it takes to be a popstar?” 25 years ago, Megan Alatini never guessed ...
A new exhibition in Wellington showcases the faces behind your local goods and services. Back in 1977, when I was a fine arts student at the University of Canterbury, I took a series of photographs of Christchurch shopkeepers. The photos were for a calendar – a project for my end ...
Toomaj and his resistance to tyranny through his songs have become an icon for the youth of Iran, so his sentence has hit the nation hard. Toomaj Salehi is not the first artist to pay the price for standing with the people. ...
My cousin Dylan and I spotted these big eels under the bridge that summer. We watched them lounging under the dark weed, facing into the flow of water, their mouths frozen open. Dylan and I couldn’t stop thinking about those eels. The night we went down to the creek, we ...
Newsroom, home of satire. My long-running weekly satirical series The Secret Diary has moved to Newsroom and will appear every Saturday, with Victor Billot’s wildly popular satirical Odes continuing to appear every Sunday. Diaries, Odes – while serious political columnists toil at meaningful opinions and stroke their chins to an ...
Tara Ward unravels the many nuanced layers of a cartoon about talking dogs.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. It’s not often an episode of a children’s cartoon has adults sobbing into their sleeves, but that’s exactly what happened this week when ...
Working as a doctor in developing countries to help communities achieve better health outcomes is nothing short of a life goal for Jessica Tater. The University of Otago medical student has her sights firmly set on joining the international humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when she qualifies ...
There’s an island in the far reaches of Auckland’s territory, sitting off the tip of the Coromandel Peninsula, 30 minutes by air from the city or four hours on the slow boat. Aotea Great Barrier is off-grid, it has a population of fewer than a thousand people … and most ...
Asia Pacific Report An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces. “A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in ...
Asia Pacific Report The Freedom Flotilla is ready to sail to Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. All the required paperwork has been submitted to the port authority, and the cargo has been loaded and prepared for the humanitarian trip to the besieged enclave. However, organisers received word of an “administrative ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
Growing food from sea water:
“In a desert region of southern Australia is a farm that – without the use of soil, fresh water, or fossil fuels – grows and supplies 15 percent of the entire country’s tomatoes through state-of-the-art technology.
“Earlier this month Sundrop Farms marked the launch of what it called the “first commercial-scale facility of this calibre in the world”, which uses solar power to de-salinate seawater and operate greenhouses in order to grow more than 15,000 tonnes of the red fruit each year. ” http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/10/growing-food-seawater-solar-power-161019174224231.html
I’m pretty sure that we used to have an abundance of fresh water at one point. Now it’s pretty much polluted because of the farms.
Yep, this guy doesn’t understand economics.
A farm which massively decreases it’s inputs is, by definition, far more economical than one that doesn’t. Amazingly enough, quite often those processes which use more resources are more profitable which tells us that profit isn’t a good measure.
So, what you’d do is build hundreds of thousands of acres of greenhouses.
If you’re not having to desalinate the water first then you can use the energy saved for other things.
Part of the appeal of the saltwater greenhouse system is that in addition to produce and salt they produce a modest but continuous supply of fresh water. Merge that technology with land with productivity constrained by perenial droughts like the area around Ward and you have a means of generating a gradual sustainable development. Green growth and jobs. We shall see none of those from this execrable government of course.
Monocropping massive amounts of tomatoes under glass (and I’m guessing for mass transport) probably can’t qualify as green or sustainable, even with the solar panels. I doubt that their carbon claims stack up either if you take into consideration cradle to grave and food miles.
We know how to restore land and grow food in dry climates in actual sustainable ways, might be good to focus on that.
Doesn’t have to be tomatoes.
New Alchemists used to do a polyculture of tomatoes/water hyacinth/tilapia/machobian prawns. 40 years ago.
Many NZ tomatoes now come from Oz – the energy equation of changing that probably won’t be too bad.
Knowing how is great but as a country we have to start actually doing it.
Monocropping massive amounts of anything under glass for mass transport isn’t sustainable.
Polyculture, great 🙂
We could eat seasonally as well as locally.
“Knowing how is great but as a country we have to start actually doing it.”
True, but that’s a different conversation than the one about the link. Fortunately for NZ, many farmers and growers are just getting on with it and I think we will find that the transition will be easier because of that (we’re not doing very dry climate well yet though).
I don’t think there’s a single saltwater greenhouse in NZ. You’d need too many permits.
There was a solar still project in Africa about thirty years ago – producing parasite free drinking water indefinitely at a setup cost of $2 per unit.
It’s a sunk cost deal – few or no moving parts, very long lifetime given decent design.
Sundrying makes transport feasible if there were bulk crops – especially in arid areas.
Sundrying makes sense, and I’m not suggesting all importing/exporting stops. We just need it to be an add on to our local food supply, not something we rely on economically or of sustenance.
I hope that NZ never gets to the point of having to desalinate water, but given what we’re doing, who knows?
Low entry cost – contemporary technology, and, like hydro, a relatively long productive life. The really good feature of the technology is that, unlike other desalination processes like membrane osmosis it leaves no salt fraction to accumulate in soil, and it requires little or no external energy input. Even the marine intake impact is likely to be modest – and warm controlled environments present multiple crop or culture options.
If we take Draco’s Permian doco seriously this sort of thing is the lowest level of radical change we need to entertain.
You don’t of course want a glass monoculture – but break up arid areas somewhat with these and trees and you should have a somewhat diverse and thus robust locality. Something to space the dairy farms out anyway.
Why would we need desalination in NZ? I’m not understanding the point. I get it in places where the rainfall is low and the ground water is fucked and the watershed no longer functions properly (although there are other solutions to that). But why here where we still have water?
Because the excessive farming is polluting/polluted our fresh water?
yeah, I was meaning if we stopped doing that 😉
If you take somewhere like Ward, or parts of central Otago, though they may be lush as compared to the Negev, existing water supplies are already in use – either for commercial or domestic use, or for wild use – (which may be preserving things the importance of which has thus far escaped us).
This form of development makes low demands on critical resources like water, in fact it is designed to alleviate water shortage. If my neighbour wants an intensive dairy farm I might have good ecological grounds to oppose them, but if these kinds of systems are properly engineered they are modestly enviro positive. Not needing to fight for water rights in the oversubscribed Waitaki catchment for example, is not a trivial advantage.
Are you suggesting desalinating water and pumping it up the Waitaki, or into Central? That’s massive infrastructure and it would use huge amounts of renewable power. We really shouldn’t be building more dams and there is limit to how many wind farms we can build, so wouldn’t it be better to just do sustainable agriculture instead?
The problem with the Waitaki is that people are trying to wet climate farm in a very dry place. That shit is going to be a disaster as CC kicks in more, financially and environmentally. Plus peak phosphate. But the Waitaki Valley is a huge water reservoir, much of it being wetland originally. Regenag techniques would work with that to grow food, not ignore that and try and impose something that has to work against the elements all the time.
True, but diversity growing under glasshouses probably is. Done properly I believe that it will allow us to return a large part of what’s presently farmed to wilderness and the normal life-cycles that maintain the ecosystem.
I don’t have too much of a problem with localised food being done under glass. Plastic is a huge problem though, and even with glass there are issues in terms of the whole infrastructure and embodied energy. The energy may eventually be renewable, the materials aren’t. At some point we can probably reach a steady state in terms of long term repair and recycling as well as manufacturing from renewable materials e.g. for framing. But I think the ideal is to use things like glasshouses for specific needs e.g. extending growing seasons, rather than using it as a core technique for our staples.
Re farmland and wilderness, there is a third thing, which is managed wilderness. This is what humans have traditionally done. We could restore much of the farmland to true wilderness, and still use some for managed wilderness food production and the rest for intensive sustainable food production.
Alan Savory’s work is a good example of managed wilderness, but reading Robery Guyton’s work I can also see the potential for forests.
here you go,
https://murrayhallam.com/12mnths9497624
all your veggie needs 23 square meters
regulations regarding keeping fish (edible) need to be overhauled for NZ,
Australia you can breed and own tasty fish, regulations to ensure closed system would be good, not total bans of costly licenses.
https://murrayhallam.com/fish-food#
waste veggies can go back into system as fish food.
Some issues, but cuts out transport and makes people self reliant, pros and cons but worth investigating
How not to do it.
http://www.ecowatch.com/europes-dirty-little-secret-moroccan-slaves-and-a-sea-of-plastic-1882131257.html
Yep, without proper regulation it gets fucked up by the capitalists.
Just like anything really.
Fuck, that is intense.
Antidote, in Jordan, organic polyculture and food forest,
Design – http://permaculturenews.org/2010/08/06/letters-from-jordan-on-consultation-at-jordans-largest-farm-and-contemplating-transition/
3 years later – http://permaculturenews.org/2013/12/10/desert-food-forest-organic-commercial-production-three-years-update-wadi-rum-consultancy/
year 4 video update – http://permaculturenews.org/2014/02/01/desert-oasis-4-years-jordan/
tl;dr get the design right at that start, focus on retaining and harvesting all moisture, in a desert you need more land in trees than crops/grazing. Trees provide the long term stable fertility that underpins sustainability.
I am rather bemused by a couple of things after reading todays posts.
Firstly the discussions are being overrun by RWKJs, making them boring to the point of skipping large sections.
Secondly it amuses me to see CV being accused of being of the radical right. What a load of bollocks.
Today Labour MP – now mayor of Auckland – Phil Goff has appointed a National Party guy as deputy mayor. That came just weeks after John Key had vigorously supported Helen Clark for the top UN job.
Yet again we see National and Labour complement each other as the A and B team for capitalism. While it’s true that National are not as xenophobic as Labour, there’s little else that they disagree on. National-Labour really are an alliance, and it’s obvious to all except those who are wilfully blind.
@ Daphna
1) This is NOT about national (small n) politics in any shape or form.
2) It seems they are good friends and Goff obviously believes he can trust him.
3) Goff gave the undertaking prior to the Local Body elections that he would do his utmost to bring the Auckland Council together for the betterment of the city.
4) I do not know this new deputy mayor personally, but from all accounts he is well liked across the board.
5) To have a National Party member in a senior position will assist Goff to gain positive access to central government over matters that affect the city.
Just some of the reasons off the top of my head which indicates to me Goff is being pragmatic and sensible.
I don’t care all that much about political allegiances in Local Body politics. I want to see a united council working in the interests of the city as a whole. Goff is the best person available to bring this about.
“I don’t care all that much about political allegiances in Local Body politics.”
How about when councils predominantly made up of right wingers start selling assets off? For example:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/6596585/When-we-sold-off-Wellingtons-power
Regardless of the political affiliation, if they showed any propensity to sell off assets they wouldn’t get my vote. That would probably rule out the majority of the rw candidates. But as a case in point. There was a National Party candidate in my part of Auckland who has a very good cv. Had it not been for the fact there was a lw candidate with an equally good cv, I would have considered voting for her.
Crony capitalism.
Goff’s not left wing, and I suspect that many in Labour are relieved to see him not a Labour MP. I don’t think Labour can be held responsible for his actions as mayor except at the level of having endorsed his career all these years. Which is a substantial responsibility but not a lot current Labour can do about it.
Labour actively helped Goff with his campaigning for the mayoralty.
True. I think I was more meaning they’re not part of his decisions now as mayor. But yeah, they certainly are responsible for him being in a position to make whatever decisions he does.
Goff may not be left-wing enough for many on this blog…but for the general population Goff = Labour.
Any decisions now as mayor, be it good or bad will reflect on Labour.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/national/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503075&gal_cid=1503075&gallery_id=166151
A spot of humour at the expense of Her Majesty’s NZ Police Force.
http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/suspect-leads-police-on-harrowing-13-hour-chase-round-panmure-roundabout/
lols.
Keystone cops !
Gable Tostee verdict has come through – he has been aquitted. Phew, I don’t know how to comprehend this, it was a very weird case from the start. I thought the jury might come through the middle and give a manslaughter verdict. It is a case which will perturb some for the difficulty of it, certainly it is disturbing and hopefully we won’t see another like it.
Yep I thought he was a real obnoxious dickhead and I would shudder if he was around my daughters. But I did not think he should be convicted of murder on the facts.
Fully agree. Seems to be death by misadventure rather than any sort of intentional plot
Looked a lot like the Sounds murder to me – frightened guy departs to cook up defence. Scot free doesn’t do it for me – he didn’t let her out, he effectively imprisoned her on his property.
Misadventure? This wasn’t some drunken game to emulate spiderman. From my read of it his manipulative and threatening behaviour played a big part in her death, there’s just no smoking gun. The justice system has really failed in this case in my view.
yeah – the jury asked whether words could be considered force. Judge said no.
In NZ, assault includes the threat of force. Must be different in Aus, or a gap for an appeal.
Murder is a big ask, but I’m surprised he walked completely.
I think lot of people would struggle with the fact of his recording the entire drama. If he had not done this, absolutely no-one would have believed his version of the events.
And oddly enough resonates with the emerging reality that we are rapidly heading to a world where everything everyone does gets recorded 24/7/365. We are remarkably close to ubiquitous surveillance now, and within two decades it will be complete.
Having said this, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tostee finishes up facing other charges.
“absolutely no-one would have believed his version of the events.”
There is a witness who saw her climbing down his balcony, before she fell off.
So that there is fairly good evidence that he didn’t push her. May be difficult to infer that he wasn’t on the balcony threatening her in some way, though.
Prior to the trial Tostee had fully admitted that he had a long-standing problem with binge-drinking. Plus being a good looking bloke he seemed to have no problem with finding any number of women happy to have sex with him. Perhaps it’s not terribly surprising this resulted in an unhealthy, cynical attitude towards women. While it’s true many young men are far too naive and idealistic about relationships, Tostee’s experience seems to have pushed him to the other extreme.
And a recipe for trouble. Prior to the trial he said the reason why he was in the habit of recording his drunken escapades was to “protect” himself. How and why he learned that little life lesson is an interesting question in of itself. I’m not aware of him using the recordings afterwards for any other nefarious purpose, so we have to take him at face value on this.
Nor can we entirely overlook Warriena’s behaviour that night. What I cannot help but wonder is that if the gender roles were reversed here, and it was Gable who’d been repeatedly violent, Warriena who’d managed to lock him onto the balcony for her safety, and he’d plunged to his death … would this have ever gotten to trial?
A sad, sorry and tragic glimpse into two lives that should never have met.
“The problem with these and many other scenarios that emerge in the mainstream, is the intellectual editing that occurs before they even begin. Most share two overwhelming, linked characteristics that strictly limit any subsequent room for manoeuvre. Firstly the demand for energy itself is seen as something innate, unchallengeable and unmanageable. It must be met, and the only question is how.
Secondly, the assumption remains that the principles and practices of the economic model that has dominated for the last 30 years will remain for at least the next 30 years. There is no sign yet of the ferocious challenge to neoliberal orthodoxy happening at the margins of economics shaping mainstream visions of our possible futures. The merest glance at the history of changing ideas suggests this is short-sighted.”
…unfortunately the current paradigm is short sighted in spades
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/19/conventional-thinking-will-not-solve-the-climate-crisis