The Greens have discovered that National is having world heritage areas in Northland and the West Coast aerial surveyed for minerals. They’re exploiting a loophole where some of the heritage areas haven’t been included in Schedule 4 of the Conservation Act. The next stage will be to give away the data to miners and let them rip up our world heritage areas.
Two major new reports out yesterday (from the UN and in Nature) show the earth is headed for a tipping point: our consumption is unsustainable, and we’re degrading the environment. Soon it will be beyond the point of return.
No Right Turn on the World Wildlife Fund report which finds us failing to meet the major commitments agreed to at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 20 years ago.
There are 72 days to the Olympics, which is what many people are counting down to – but the planet will be much more interested in the Rio+20 conference in 36 days. This is the chance for world leaders to put global society on a sustainable path.
Christchurch has declared itself a fracking free zone. Symbolic gesture? Perhaps – but this was how Nuclear Free New Zealand got started…
With just a few clicks of your mouse you can help send a message to the government in support of helping the world’s rarest dolphin – our own Maui’s dolphins.
While most of us talk about “saving the world” some people act.
In 48 hours, Australia could save one million square kms of ocean forever — setting up the largest marine reserve in the world and preserving thousands of delicate species. But they will need an global outcry to beat out commercial fishing and mining companies hoping to destroy the plan.
Is the John Key Party actively trying to trash New Zealand’s fragile “100% Pure” brand?
Quite apart from the broken promise, isn’t it the job of a “Conservation” Minister to, you know, conserve? Instead of leading the mining charge?
3News reports that: Key dismisses Goff’s oil drilling moratorium as ‘pure politics’. He’s right. But not in the way he thinks.
Labour has announced it will put a moratorium on deepsea oil drilling until it’s proven safe. Good. Basic precautionary principle. Clearly necessary given the piss-poor handling of a relatively small spill. Besides, there’s no rush to dig this stuff up. It’s not going anywhere and we can only extract it once. Will only become more valuable over time.
Remember when Key had a super-duper secret plan to end whaling? Turned out the ‘plan’ was to restore commercial whaling as long as they promised to stop some time (the draft ‘phase-out’ plan didn’t actually have any reductions in it). Well, over-promise, under-deliver Key’s made no progress and whaling is resuming.
NRT continues to provide excellent coverage on the governance of Canterbury.
Next week, a report will reveal the abuse of 2,500 foreign workers used as virtual slaves on ships employed by kiwi fishing quota holders in our waters. By rights, we should have a world renowned fishing fleet. Instead, we let our potential go to waste and employ foreign slaveowners and human traffickers to do the work instead.
Two years ago, this government sparked the biggest protests in a generation when it tried to open up the most precious parts of our conservation estate to mining. The policy got canned but the agenda has continued below the surface. Now, 100 DoC staff have been sacked while the MED unit for oil drilling and mining will nearly double its staff.
A little over a year ago the biggest single protest march in this country since 1938 put the final nail in the coffin of the Nats’ amateur hour plans to mine our most precious conservation land. Or so we thought…
José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo are heroes. Like Chico Mendes before them, they have paid for their activism with their lives.
James Hansen was among the first to raise the alarm about climate change, and is sometimes called “the father of climate change science” for his trouble. He’s currently in New Zealand, and had an excellent interview last Saturday with Kim Hill on RNZ. Click through for a schedule of his public lectures, and also two “Dark Ecologies” talks.
When confronted with the scientific evidence on the hollowness of our “100% Pure” slogan John Key, as usual, tried to attack the credibility of the source. Key said “He’s one academic and, like lawyers, I could provide you others who would give a counter view”. Now the source (Dr Mike Joy) has called the PM on his clueless claim.
John Key didn’t much like being confronted with the facts on our dirty water. He tried to pretend that everything is just fine, when it isn’t. No surprise to find this attitude mimicked in National’s policy on water. They are trying to pretend that they’re doing something when they aren’t.
In a poor attempt to make it look like NACT are actually doing something about New Zealand’s incredibly high rate of bio-diversity loss , and warnings that our forests will soon be silent Nick Smith has introduced a National Policy Statement on Biodiversity whilst NACT also announces further cuts in conservation funding .
You’ll remember the disgraceful Schmuck scandal when Minister John Carter had clauses inserted into legislation specifically to legalise Doug Schmuck’s annexation of a public reserve. John Key took no action. Now, Kate Wilkinson and David Carter got in on the act – forcing DoC to sign over more public land for private use.
Since it came to office, National has cut the Conservation budget in real terms by 2% and the cuts are going to get deeper. Now, we learn that DoC is looking at contracting out camping areas on the conservation estate to be run for a profit. Coincidence? I think not. It’s privatisation by stealth.
Like smiling and waving, frowning and looking sombre, is easy. But satisfying the expectations you create can be hard. This is where Key consistently fails. He has failed again over Pike River. The sudden and inadequately explained end to the recovery operation is bad enough. Lying about the promises he made is gravely insulting.
The Commissioner for the Environment’s “Lignite and Climate Change: The High Cost of Low Grade Coal” has been released today. Its release had been postponed because of concerns that it would become entangled with reports concerning the Pike River Mine disaster.
Does anyone have a spare Earth? Or two — or three? If so, could you please speak up, because humanity is going two need two Earth’s worth of resources by 2030.
There has been an interesting ad from Greenpeace running around the site today. It is obviously intended to go viral before the lawyers […]
Well done Kiwis! A rousing show of solidarity and strength has forced the Nats to back down from their plans to mine Schedule 4 land. We have preserved some of the most precious places in our country for future generations. This is a straight craven backdown driven by Key’s relentless need to remain Mr Popular. But whatever the reason – its the right result!
Predictions abound that the Government are today to announce a backdown on plans to mine Schedule 4 land..
New Zealand hero Pete Bethune isn’t one for mincing his words – now that he’s free to speak them. He’s described the New […]
Pete Bethune has had his sentence for bogus charges laid by Japanese whaling interests suspended. My warm congratulations to Pete and his family. […]
Every night before they go to sleep, good little Labour and Green spin doctors pray for another headline involving Gerry Brownlee. The guy has an amazing tin ear for public opinion. He’s had 50,000 people march against his mining plans and, now, he’s made a Treaty breach over the one area of foreshore and seabed that was settled. Gerry, you’re a godsend.
Our mineral wealth is a one-off endowment that belongs to all of us. If we let someone dig it up, it’s gone forever. We shouldn’t let our most precious environments be mined and when we do allow mining we need to get the most for it. It’s not good enough that the mining industry gets away with paying just $70 million in royalties for digging up $6 billion of minerals.
“After the goldrush†Oil painting and words – Chuck Joseph 2010
When the circus left town, we had a parade,
the band played on and floats were made.
I looked sideways as they passed,…
