Victory for Akaroa community as Conservation Minister ordered by High Court to rethink marine reserve proposal

Wellington, New Zealand – After over 17 years of advocating for an Akaroa Harbour marine reserve, a community conservation group has had a major victory after the High Court ordered the Conservation Minister to reconsider their proposal.

The High Court upheld a judicial review brought by the Akaroa Harbour Marine Protection Society against Minister Kate Wilkinson’s 2010 objection to the proposed 530ha marine reserve on the grounds that it would adversely affect recreational fishing in the area.

Kathleen Reid, Secretary of the Society, told WWF: ”We first became interested in having a marine reserve because we were very concerned about the degradation of the fish life and the diminishing biodiversity we were witnessing in our own lifetimes. Akaroa harbour has seen an enormous influx of fishers over the last 30 to 40 years and overfishing has resulted in the red cod disappearing from the harbour.

“A marine reserve in this rugged and beautiful area is important for marine biodiversity, fisheries management and our local nature watching industry – and will help restore this part of Akaroa Harbour to its natural state for future generations.” 

WWF was one of many groups that supported the Judicial Review case. It believes a fully-protected marine reserve would help preserve the special biodiversity of this area, including the endangered Hector’s dolphins. Only about 7270 dolphins remain, and of these, a significant population of an estimated 1200 animals is found around Banks Peninsula.

Rebecca Bird, WWF-New Zealand’s Marine Programme Manager, said: “This is a great victory for the people of Akaroa, who have been visionary and persistent in their advocacy to ensure their precious marine areas are protected for the future.

“It is also an important reminder to the Conservation Minister that the full benefits of a marine reserve must be considered alongside adverse affects. We are confident that Minister Wilkinson will recognise that the value of protecting this important area and declare this area a marine reserve.”

Media release from

21 March 2012

Sinbad Gully sponsorship hugely rewarding

An award-winning environmental conservation project in a World Heritage Area is continuing to demonstrate “uplifting and positive” results half-way through the first stage of work.

Two-and-a-half years ago Southern Discoveries, one of New Zealand’s premier tourism companies, committed sponsorship funds to the Sinbad Sanctuary Project at the base of Milford Sound’s Mitre Peak, New Zealand’s most photographed mountain.

Southern Discoveries is halfway through a five-year sponsorship of the project, working in conjunction with the Department of Conservation (DOC) and the Fiordland Conservation Trust with a view to Sinbad Valley becoming a sanctuary for native species.

The project aims to enable threatened bird, lizard and invertebrate species to increase in number with particular focus on the rejuvenation of the Sinbad Skink population – a skink known only to that area in Fiordland.

Last year Southern Discoveries won a prestigious Southland Environment Award for the Sinbad Sanctuary Project and a recent visit to Sinbad Gully to determine the growth of the Sinbad Skink population revealed the species has taken up a previously uninhabited new location on a vertical rock wall.

DOC rangers and professional climbers helicoptered into the area and abseiled down rock walls up to 300m high to monitor the skink, and were delighted to discover that the Sinbad Skink population was more widespread than previously thought.

They estimate the population may have doubled from less than 500 to around the 1000 mark since monitoring and pest control began.

Southern Discoveries General Manager John Robson said it was “great news” and reaffirmed the importance of the company’s commitment to the project.

“Fiordland is one of the last true areas of remote wilderness in the world, and it’s important to us to help preserve Milford Sound and in particular Sinbad Gully as a spectacular and unique conservation area,” he said.

“Over the past two-and-a-half years, Southern Discoveries has donated hundreds of man-hours to the project, and will continue its commitment to the preservation of this magical area.

“We’re privileged to be working alongside likeminded organisations like DOC and the Trust to preserve this land, and news of skink population growth is hugely rewarding and reassuring that we’re really helping to make a difference.”

Department of Conservation Ranger Hannah Edmonds, who heads up the Sinbad Skink monitoring programme, described the news as “fantastic” and said working with the Southern Discoveries team was “awesome”.

“To work with a company that is as passionate about conservation and the preservation of our natural surrounds as we are, is fantastic and unique,” she said.

“The Southern Discoveries team has stuck by us and I’m looking forward to sharing more great results like this with them.

“While our recent visit to Sinbad Gully tells us the security of the species in on the rise, and that’s hugely encouraging, the Sinbad Skink is still vulnerable as we are yet to discover them elsewhere in Fiordland.

“We’ve still got our work cut out for us.”

Sinbad Gully background information

The Sinbad Gully is located close to the head of Milford Sound within Fiordland National Park and the Te Wāhipounamu – South West New Zealand world heritage area.

In 1974 Sinbad Gully was set apart as a “Special Area” because of the presence of kakapo and the largely unmodified state of the vegetation.  This status was lifted in 1992.  At this stage deer had become established in Sinbad Gully and kakapo were thought to be no longer present, therefore it was considered no longer necessary to restrict public access under the special area status.  Sinbad Gully is now classified as part of the “Eastern Remote Zone” under the Fiordland National Park Management Plan (2007).

The Sinbad Gully has a natural barrier of steep terrain, combined with a cold, wet climate which has limited the invasion of mammalian predators. These attributes have contributed to making it a safer refuge for the rare lizard species such as the Sinbad and Mahogany skinks and the Cascade gecko.  All three were only recently discovered in the Sinbad Gully and the Sinbad skink is known only to the Sinbad Gully. Other species present include rock wren, kea, whio, kiwi, weka, large weta and other large colourful invertebrates.  The valley was also one of the last refuges of kakapo in Fiordland.

The animal pests that DOC proposes to control have a serious impact on native wildlife through direct predation and competition for food.  Control of both possums and stoats will be the key focus for the project.  In time if funding allows rodent and deer control may also become a focus in the Sinbad.

Once the initial knockdown of possums and stoats has been achieved, ongoing control work will be required to maintain low predator densities.  Maintenance control will be achieved through regular servicing of stoat traps and by monitoring possum densities and controlling as required.  The valley walls surrounding the Sinbad Gully form a natural barrier that will limit the re-invasion of introduced predators.

West Coast’s Denniston Plateau under microscope

Conservation organisation Forest & Bird is shining a scientific spotlight on the West Coast’s Denniston Plateau on March 2-4 with a BioBlitz to search for new types of plants and animals there, as part of its proposal for a new Denniston Reserve.

About 150 scientists and volunteers will be searching areas on the Denniston Plateau for all the plants and animals living there during the two-day, night-and-day BioBlitz.

“Forest & Bird knows this is a special place – with its great spotted kiwi and unique land snails – and we’re keen to find what else makes this plateau a treasure house for New Zealand nature,” Forest & Bird Top of the South Field Officer Debs Martin says.

Forest & Bird is working to protect the conservation land on the Denniston Plateau from a large open-cast mine planned by Australian-owned Bathurst Resources. Forest & Bird and two other groups are appealing against a resource consent granted to Bathurst last year. The nature conservation group has proposed that the Denniston Plateau and adjoining publicly owned land be protected in a new 5900-hectare reserve.

Forest & Bird has agreed to allow representatives from Bathurst mining company to join scientists and other volunteers in the search for plants and animals at the BioBlitz. “In the interests of transparency, we are keen to have an honest discussion about the unique plants and animals that are on the plateau,” Debs Martin says.

“Bathurst has plans to open-cast mine all the high ecological areas on the Denniston Plateau. It is the only conservation land on the Buller plateaus and we are keen to ensure it is protected for the future. If Bathurst destroys these habitats, it will be goodbye to the rare and complex relationships between native plants and animals on the Denniston Plateau. In combination and in their structure they are not found elsewhere in New Zealand.

“Denniston Plateau is publicly owned conservation land. Forest & Bird wants to make sure it is protected for the benefit of the creatures there and all New Zealanders.”

The BioBlitz has sparked strong interest among scientists and conservationists who want to learn more about the species living on Denniston Plateau. After receiving an overwhelming response, Forest & Bird has closed registrations to finalise the logistics of working on the often extreme environments of the plateau.

Forest & Bird wants the 5900-hectare reserve created to protect Denniston Plateau’s nature and heritage. “Extensive mining is expanding over the nearby Stockton Plateau so this is the only way we can ensure the survival of this unique ecosystem into the future,” Debs Martin says.

Contact: Forest & Bird Top of the South Field Officer Debs Martin, 027 684 0599 or 03 989 3355

SodaStream shows Kiwis how to enjoy fizz with less guilt

We all know recycling is good for the planet, and us, so why isn’t the message getting through? On average, only 23% of plastics were recycled in New Zealand over recent years*. More worryingly, approximately 252,000 tonnes of plastic waste appears in landfills across the country every year.

To tackle this head on, SodaStream will be out and about across New Zealand this summer to help show Kiwis how many bottles end up as landfill, and promote an alternative to the plastic bottle and aluminium can consumption that is on the rise globally.

The SodaStream Cage, on tour from late January, will be filled with empty beverage cans and bottles, representing the average number a Kiwi household uses in a three-year period. All of which could be replaced with one reusable SodaStream bottle. One SodaStream gas cylinder makes 30 litres or 80 cans of soft drink, which can then can be re-filled and reused.

And New Zealand is not alone, 340 billion bottles and cans are not recycled every year worldwide***. With one bottle taking 450 years to decompose***, the time has come for New Zealanders to do their bit and help free the world from bottles!

The SodaStream Cage will kick off its tour by filling the cage with bottles at Bloom Family Festival in Matakana on 20-22nd January, and then will be stopping at popular regional events and SodaStream stockists around the country to demonstrate the extent of the plastic waste problem in New Zealand.

SodaStream is the best option for every New Zealand soda lover who cares about our environment. SodaStream has six styles of machines and with a wide range of over 25 flavours available, something is sure to tickle everyone’s tastebuds. Join the SodaStream eco-friendly force on Facebook – www.facebook.com/SodaStreamNZ.

12 Simple Steps for Going Green in 2012

As we ring in the new year, here are twelve steps that we can all take to reduce our impact on the environment

Washington, D.C.—-As we head into 2012, many of us will be resolving to lose those few extra pounds, save more money, or spend a few more hours with our families and friends. But there are also some resolutions we can make to make our lives a little greener. Each of us, especially in the United States, can make a commitment to reducing our environmental impacts.

“The global community, and particularly people living in industrialized societies, have put unsustainable demands on our planet’s limited resources,” says Robert Engelman, President of the Worldwatch Institute, a global environmental research organization based on Washington, D.C. “If we expect to be able to feed, shelter, and provide even basic living conditions to our growing population in years to come, we must act now to change.”

The United Nations has designated 2012 as the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. Broadening access to sustainable energy is essential to solving many of the world’s challenges, including food production, security, and poverty. “With so many hungry and poor in the world, addressing these issues is critical,” says Danielle Nierenberg, director of Worldwatch’s Nourishing the Planet project. “Fortunately, the solutions to these problems can come from simple innovations and practices.”

The Nourishing the Planet team recently traveled to 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and will be soon traveling to Latin America, to research and highlight such solutions. The project shines a spotlight on innovations in agriculture that can help alleviate hunger and poverty while also protecting the environment. These innovations are elaborated in Worldwatch’s flagship annual report, State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet.

Hunger, poverty, and climate change are issues that we can all help address. Here are 12 simple steps to go green in 2012:

(1) Recycle

Recycling programs exist in cities and towns across the United States, helping to save energy and protect the environment. In 2009, San Francisco became the first U.S. city to require all homes and businesses to use recycling and composting collection programs. As a result, more than 75 percent of all material collected is being recycled, diverting 1.6 million tons from the landfills annually—-double the weight of the Golden Gate Bridge. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for each pound of aluminum recovered, Americans save the energy resources necessary to generate roughly 7.5 kilowatt-hours of electricity—-enough to power a city the size of Pittsburgh for six years!

What you can do:

Put a separate container next to your trash can or printer, making it easier to recycle your bottles, cans, and paper.

(2) Turn off the lights

On the last Saturday in March—-March 31 in 2012—-hundreds of people, businesses, and governments around the world turn off their lights for an hour as part of Earth Hour, a movement to address climate change.

What you can do:

Earth Hour happens only once a year, but you can make an impact every day by turning off lights during bright daylight, or whenever you will be away for an extended period of time.

(3) Make the switch

In 2007, Australia became the first country to “ban the bulb,” drastically reducing domestic usage of incandescent light bulbs. By late 2010, incandescent bulbs had been totally phased out, and, according to the country’s environment minister, this simple move has made a big difference, cutting an estimated 4 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. China also recently pledged to replace the 1 billion incandescent bulbs used in its government offices with more energy efficient models within five years.

What you can do:

A bill in Congress to eliminate incandescent in the United States failed in 2011, but you can still make the switch at home. Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) use only 20-30 percent of the energy required by incandescents to create the same amount of light, and LEDs use only 10 percent, helping reduce both electric bills and carbon emissions.

(4) Turn on the tap

The bottled water industry sold 8.8 billion gallons of water in 2010, generating nearly $11 billion in profits. Yet plastic water bottles create huge environmental problems. The energy required to produce and transport these bottles could fuel an estimated 1.5 million cars for a year, yet approximately 75 percent of water bottles are not recycled—-they end up in landfills, litter roadsides, and pollute waterways and oceans. And while public tap water is subject to strict safety regulations, the bottled water industry is not required to report testing results for its products. According to a study, 10 of the most popular brands of bottled water contain a wide range of pollutants, including pharmaceuticals, fertilizer residue, and arsenic.

What you can do:

Fill up your glasses and reusable water bottles with water from the sink. The United States has more than 160,000 public water systems, and by eliminating bottled water you can help to keep nearly 1 million tons of bottles out of the landfill, as well as save money on water costs.

(5) Turn down the heat

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that consumers can save up to 15 percent on heating and cooling bills just by adjusting their thermostats. Turning down the heat by 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit for eight hours can result in savings of 5-15 percent on your home heating bill.

What you can do:

Turn down your thermostat when you leave for work, or use a programmable thermostat to control your heating settings.

(6) Support food recovery programs

Each year, roughly a third of all food produced for human consumption—-approximately 1.3 billion tons—-gets lost or wasted, including 34 million tons in the United States, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Grocery stores, bakeries, and other food providers throw away tons of food daily that is perfectly edible but is cosmetically imperfect or has passed its expiration date. In response, food recovery programs run by homeless shelters or food banks collect this food and use it to provide meals for the hungry, helping to divert food away from landfills and into the bellies of people who need it most.

What you can do:

Encourage your local restaurants and grocery stores to partner with food rescue organizations, like City Harvest in New York City or Second Harvest Heartland in Minnesota.
Go through your cabinets and shelves and donate any non-perishable canned and dried foods that you won’t be using to your nearest food bank or shelter.

(7) Buy local

“Small Business Saturday,” falling between “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday,” was established in 2010 as a way to support small businesses during the busiest shopping time of the year. Author and consumer advocate Michael Shuman argues that local small businesses are more sustainable because they are often more accountable for their actions, have smaller environmental footprints, and innovate to meet local conditions—-providing models for others to learn from.

What you can do:

Instead of relying exclusively on large supermarkets, consider farmers markets and local farms for your produce, eggs, dairy, and meat. Food from these sources is usually fresher and more flavorful, and your money will be going directly to these food producers.

(8) Get out and ride

We all know that carpooling and using public transportation helps cut down on greenhouse gas emissions, as well as our gas bills. Now, cities across the country are investing in new mobility options that provide exercise and offer an alternative to being cramped in subways or buses. Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. have major bike sharing programs that allow people to rent bikes for short-term use. Similar programs exist in other cities, and more are planned for places from Miami, Florida, to Madison, Wisconsin.

What you can do:

If available, use your city’s bike share program to run short errands or commute to work. Memberships are generally inexpensive (only $75 for the year in Washington, D.C.), and by eliminating transportation costs, as well as a gym membership, you can save quite a bit of money!
Even if without bike share programs, many cities and towns are incorporating bike lanes and trails, making it easier and safer to use your bike for transportation and recreation.

(9) Share a car

Car sharing programs spread from Europe to the United States nearly 13 years ago and are increasingly popular, with U.S. membership jumping 117 percent between 2007 and 2009. According to the University of California Transportation Center, each shared car replaces 15 personally owned vehicles, and roughly 80 percent of more than 6,000 car-sharing households surveyed across North America got rid of their cars after joining a sharing service. In 2009, car-sharing was credited with reducing U.S. carbon emissions by more than 482,000 tons. Innovative programs such as Chicago’s I-GO are even introducing solar-powered cars to their fleets, making the impact of these programs even more eco-friendly.

What you can do:

Join a car share program! As of July 2011, there were 26 such programs in the U.S., with more than 560,000 people sharing over 10,000 vehicles. Even if you don’t want to get rid of your own car, using a shared car when traveling in a city can greatly reduce the challenges of finding parking (car share programs have their own designated spots), as well as your environmental impact as you run errands or commute to work.

(10) Plant a garden

Whether you live in a studio loft or a suburban McMansion, growing your own vegetables is a simple way to bring fresh and nutritious food literally to your doorstep. Researchers at the FAO and the United Nations Development Programme estimate that 200 million city dwellers around the world are already growing and selling their own food, feeding some 800 million of their neighbors. Growing a garden doesn’t have to take up a lot of space, and in light of high food prices and recent food safety scares, even a small plot can make a big impact on your diet and wallet.

What you can do:

Plant some lettuce in a window box. Lettuce seeds are cheap and easy to find, and when planted in full sun, one window box can provide enough to make several salads worth throughout a season.

(11) Compost

And what better way to fertilize your garden than using your own composted organic waste. You will not only reduce costs by buying less fertilizer, but you will also help to cut down on food and other organic waste.

What you can do:

If you are unsure about the right ways to compost, websites such as HowToCompost.org and organizations such as the U.S. Composting Council, provide easy steps to reuse your organic waste.

(12) Reduce your meat consumption

Livestock production accounts for about 18 percent of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and accounts for about 23 percent of all global water used in agriculture. Yet global meat production has experienced a 20 percent growth rate since 2000 to meet the per capita increase of meat consumption of about 42 kilograms.

What you can do:

You don’t have to become a vegetarian or vegan, but by simply cutting down on the amount of meat you consume can go a long way. Consider substituting one meal day with a vegetarian option. And if you are unable to think of how to substitute your meat-heavy diet, websites such as Meatless Monday and Eating Well offer numerous vegetarian recipes that are healthy for you and the environment.

The most successful and lasting New Year’s resolutions are those that are practiced regularly and have an important goal. Watching the ball drop in Times Square happens only once a year, but for more and more people across the world, the impacts of hunger, poverty, and climate change are felt every day. Thankfully, simple practices, such as recycling or riding a bike, can have great impact. As we prepare to ring in the new year, let’s all resolve to make 2012 a healthier, happier, and greener year for all.

About the Worldwatch Institute:

Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute’s State of the World report is published annually in more than 20 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

Forest & Bird media release for immediate use

Forest & Bird today congratulated dairy giant Fonterra for introducing a new requirement on their farmer suppliers to keep stock away from waterways.

“We welcome this initiative by Fonterra as a really good idea as part of efforts to halt the continuing decline in our water quality,” Forest & Bird Advocacy Manager Kevin Hackwell said.

“Many farmers have already taken steps to fence their waterways and we are pleased to see Fonterra is ensuring that those who are lagging behind will now be required to do what has been expected of them.”

Fonterra said yesterday it would require all its suppliers to fence waterways on their farms within 18 months as part of their supply contract. Many farmers have already fenced waterways voluntarily as part of the Clean Streams Accord but others have been slow to act to stop cows defecating and urinating in streams and causing erosion to the banks of waterways.

“We are encouraged to see that Fonterra’s move acknowledges that voluntary steps by farmers will not always achieve full compliance. Including environmental requirements in these commercial contracts is a valuable way to step up efforts to turn around the decline of our water quality,” Kevin Hackwell said.

“Forest & Bird would like to see other dairy companies follow Fonterra’s lead.”

Apart from requirements on waste discharges under the Resource Management Act, which are also included in Fonterra’s supply agreements, steps by farmers to improve water quality are voluntary under the Clean Streams Accord.

Kevin Hackwell said measures under the accord encouraging farmers to put culverts or bridges on stock crossings of waterways on their farms could also be included as part of supply contracts.

The Clean Streams Accord between Fonterra, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), the Ministry for the Environment, and Local Government New Zealand was signed in 2003 and sets voluntary targets to encourage dairy farmers to reduce water pollution.

Contact: Kevin Hackwell, Advocacy Manager, 04 801 2215, 021 227 8420

Palm fronds rustled in the breeze sounding like distant applause. Below, a tense village meeting was unfolding. The lapping of waves signified something different ever since the high tide came and stole the houses.

Sera was frustrated by the attitudes of her cousins who came up with all kinds of emotive reasons to stay. Children squealed and played outside the open-walled house where the meeting took place.

Her cousin Tomas retorted “But our life will have no meaning or purpose over there. We were all born right here, got married here, had children and grandchildren right here on the island – as it has been for countless generations. Our ancestors are buried right over there.”

Hmmm, she thought, they just don’t get it. Sera’s appeal to reason was an attempt to convey her concern for their plight. “Life will be better and more secure. There will be more work opportunities, and the government is not going to keep offering to pay for this relocation. This is your chance for a better life.”

“Our life is perfect right here!” he erupted, thumping his fist on the mat. “Even you would always say that you would come straight home if it wasn’t for your government job.”

“I know, I said those things but it’s different now. The sea is going to take this place and there will be nothing here for you.”

“Grandpa has said that he wants to die here and be buried beside Grandma,” offered another voice.

“But Grandma’s grave will be washed away too” Sera whispered, turning her eyes to the ocean.

And on the discussion went, for hour after hour. They broke for lunch and ate together on woven mats outside in the shade of a breadfruit tree. The kids chased each other and threw sticks into the sea as over their heads in the distance one could just make out the silhouette of the neighboring high island on the horizon, beneath the billowing clouds of a tropical sky.

Why couldn’t this be a high island too?, she thought.

The sea is challenging this small community that has lived on this island for numberless generations. Its culture and its self-identity are intangibly but powerfully inseparable from this sandy place, barely a few meters above sea level.

The scientists had come from Australia to explain that the spring tide that took the houses was the start of things to come. The tides are rising because the warmer ocean is expanding, and more ice is melting, and low islands like this will eventually be swallowed up by the god of the sea.

Science came and sat uncomfortably on the mat to explain things, but science can do nothing to help these people. They need to make a decision on how to die as a culture: death by the god of the sea right here, or death by the god of modern life on the mainland of Papua New Guinea.

Science and the arts. Two competing realms. One produces information, the other produces culture and meaning. And behind them lies a changing world – one that is warming and sometimes threatening the survival of communities here and there. During these early stages of global warming small communities like this one will suffer. If left unchecked, climate change will cause much bigger communities to also contemplate an end of their way of life.

Wielding its ”drought sword” the climate has killed civilizations before, and is saber rattling once again. Only this time – so the scientists tell us – some of our own actions are conspiring against us: fossil fuel emissions and deforestation. First small communities in border territories fall, then the breach, advance, and momentum.

Like this small island community, our global society needs to make a decision on how to act in response to this great challenge. What then is the role of science? What is the role of art?

Science produces information about problems and solutions – but science is not designed for implementing the solution. That takes place in a messy, sticky, social, economic, and political realm. Technology builds us tools for clean development – but it is not capable of motivating an ordinary hand to pick up that tool or to change behavior.

Other drivers are needed. Someone needs to help the hand to learn new tricks. Someone needs to communicate the need for new tricks in a way that is compelling. And the message needs to be crafted to warm the left and right ventricles of the political heart. This is clearly a task for those skilled in the arts of education, communication, media, stories, values, of pouring all of this into collaborative actions. And together these actions encompass a creative process of becoming a culture capable of living with this wonderful interconnected world.

We dwell on the historical peak of a culture that has celebrated and rewarded a fetish for domination and control – of people and of nature. But the remedy is not more poison. As Einstein reminds us: we cannot solve a problem from the mindset that created it.

People who are controlled are not motivated. Freedom does this far better. Such freedom includes being entrusted and empowered to mutually choose new rules for our common game, so that we can play together on and on for generation after generation. Because the way we play now determines the opportunities of our own descendents.

It is simple enough. It is simply a bigger form of Self-interest where we take care of our own offspring, their offspring, and on it goes. We take care of them by taking care of what they need for a good life: sufficient water, soil, food, fuel, and shelter. We look after the factory that produces these things and scientists call this factory the “Earth System.”

And the leadership that can deliver such a Herculean result is one that is capable of reconciling the great opposing forces of our time: Left and Right (brain and politics), Science and Art. It is Herculean (impossible) only when viewed from a 20^th century lens. It is the 21^st century.

This article also features as a chapter in a book released this week entitled: Dialogues With Tomorrow. For other Happyzine posts by Sean Weaver, just type: ‘Ekodo’ in the search field at top right of this page to locate his collection of Happyzine articles. ‘Ekodo’ turns environmentalism into a martial art and is the name of a training programme for sharply compassionate environmental practice that Sean leads with his wife Jo. Sean is a forest conservation consultant through his company ‘Carbon Partnership’. He and Jo live in Golden Bay with their two young boys Leo and Ruben.

White roofs have worked for thousands of years in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cities. (Photo: www.obviousmag.org in Architecture)

Update from Ian Montanjees

Discount on roof paint by Resene paints to those painting white in response to the White Roofs Project!

Resene is generously continuing its discount on roof paint to people painting white in response to the White Roofs Project, I am happy to say. This is for white and off-white roof paint. Resene’s discount offer also extends to their CoolColour roof paint as a valuable alternative for example in districts where town planning regulations allow only dark colours that blend in with the bush (such as in parts of Waitakere), or in cases where an immediate neighbour’s house is overlooking your roof and an off-white might cause glare to them.

As before, for logistics reasons the discount is supplied through me only, via a discount letter. The requirement is that you give your name and address where it will be used (confidentiality respected) and then discount letter can be taken into any Resene-owned Colour Shop during your project.

Another way that Resene can help the project spread the word is via their Habitat of the Week newsletter and website (www.habitatoftheweek.co.nz), if someone is doing an interior and exterior repaint in Resene (including the roof in white) it could be included as a story.  If this appeals to you then it is an opportunity help spread the idea and could be done a number of times through the year for different houses.  I am told that these projects would need to have good use of colour (Resene of course) in at least some parts of the house (interior would be fine) and then they could also talk about the exterior and the roof in the accompanying article. To look at examples of projects they feature you can visit the website above, or subscribe to Resene’s Habitat of the Week newsletter.

www.whiteroofs.org.nz

Review by Charlotte Squire

Members of Club Happyzine go in the draw to win a copy.

If you’re passionate about organic food and wine, enjoying eco-friendly holidays and maintaining some awareness of the politics of being green here in New Zealand, you’re going to love the new Organic Explorer New Zealand Guide.

Written by Leonie Johnsen and Dr Tony Ward, I’m pleased to have this guide on hand as a very detailed and thorough map of the greener services offered through out our kiwi communities. It certainly makes me want to plan a holiday.  I can just imagine taking great pleasure in using this guide to nut out the greenest, most inspiring eco getaway ever.

The thing I most appreciate about The Organic Explorer New Zealand (3^rd Edition) is massive amount of detail the authors have obviously gone to great lengths to collate.   The sheer volume amount of information about environmentally sustainable products and services is enough to bring any green consumer up to date with living green in Kiwi communities.

Often when I’m on holiday, or planning a holiday, I just turn to google and hope for the best. As a green consumer, this guide can save you hours of time, and will probably point you in the direction of some lovely services that you simple wouldn’t have found online.

So let’s go on holiday!  I’m going to randomly flick through the guide and see where it takes us. Right, we’re heading to the Bay of Plenty.  First we’ll head to State Highway 30, Whakatane, because I intend to pick up some some organic condiments and conserves from the certified organic Exclusively Organic, for my Mother. Later this afternoon we’ll check into the five star luxury boutique hotel Le Manoir and dine very slowly and with great gastric gusto at their organic restaurant. The next day, to burn off all the calories we so gleefully consumed, let’s head to Opotiki where we’ll stop by Motu Trails Cycleway Hire and Shuttle, grab a bike and explore the new Eastern Bay of Plenty cycleway.

As you can see, this is the insider’s guide to sustainable living in New Zealand.  Can you image this level of detail, covering every part of New Zealand?  Yes, that’s what we’re dealing with here.

And that’s just the beginning.  All up, this guide features information on organic food certification symbols, public transport, the Treaty of Waitangi, Maori literature, Maori film making, Maori music and the awesome new Maori network of Maori producers of food and natural products – Aunty’s garden. You can learn about astronomy, Kiwi birds, our water issues, walking and cycling Aotearoa, farmer’s markets, biodynamic wine production, WWOOFing, food and shopping.

To buy a copy, head to Organic Explorer.co.nz

Yes you can win a copy!  All you’ve gotta do is join Club Happyzine before the 14th November. 

In Part 1 of this story (available here) a young woman journeyed on a quest to understand the underlying causes of unsustainable modern culture, and the underlying solution to a sustainable existence on this fabulous planet Earth. After years of reading, reflecting and musing clarity unexpectedly flooded in while she danced at a student party. [From Part 1]: “She immediately launched a desperate search for pen and paper, as if dragged by a wild mare – any paper, envelopes on the cluttered beer-stained kitchen table clumsily bumped by drunken strangers, margins of yesterday’s crumpled newspaper, the cardboard backing of a spent cereal packet, and she began to scribble down notes lest she lose this epiphany in the haze of this Friday night festival of wild abandon.”

Her notes read:

All living systems produce a surplus of energy, and this energy goes into maintaining and growing that system. But growth cannot happen indefinitely because resources for each system are finite. To avoid collapse, a system must channel a portion of its surplus energy away from growth and into “unproductive” forms of ecological expenditure – such as contributions to the environment of the system.

A scientist and I were walking in a tropical rainforest and he saw a palm tree with a huge fruit pod and commented that this was very inefficient because all that energy could otherwise have been spent on growth of the tree. I knew he was wrong and now I know why. He was seeing that palm tree with individualistic modern eyes and could not understand how important it is for that plant to shed this part of its annual production and give it to the rest of the ecosystem. By being “inefficient” the plant has been able to persevere for countless millions of years of evolutionary selection to be growing successfully here right now as an integral part of this ecosystem.

Plants routinely produce far more fruit and seed than they need for reproduction, and this feeds other creatures in the broader system upon which they depend. This unproductive energy could otherwise have been channelled into growth. But if the plant grows too much too soon it must die sooner because its physical structure can only get so big.

Regenerating ecosystems grow until they reach the physical limits to that growth as they mature. But when they stop growing, surplus energy is still produced and gets channeled into increasing biological diversity and habitat complexity. Old growth forms like tigers arise as emergent features of a system that long ago reached its physical limits.

An economy grows for a period, reinvesting the surplus energy into maintaining and growing the system but eventually must find a way to channel a share of its surplus into non-productive expenditures. Without systematic unproductive investments an economy is destined to collapse from the curse of its own productivity – the natural consequence of outstripping one’s limits to growth. This “accursed share” of surplus production needs to be safely destroyed – and if not it will destroy the society itself, whose relentless production and consumption overshoots the capacity of the physical system that sustains it.

So many pre-modern cultures were and are seen as “inefficient” when viewed through a modern cultural lens that has a deep aversion to “unproductive” behaviour. But these pre-modern cultures were able to endure for far longer in their respective landscapes precisely because they were “inefficient” – they safely destroyed the accursed share by spending it “unproductively” on festivals, funerals, follies, pyramids, arts, symbolic warfare, and ostentatious ritual consumption and Dionysian wild abandon.

In pre-modern cultures gift-exchange was an integral part of this fabric that developed as a way to safely manage surpluses. Portions of the accursed share were and are given away as gifts to friends and enemies in exchange for symbolic power and prestige and to satisfy the gods in an ingenious cultural logic opaque to the mundane modern gaze.

But modern cultural eyes saw unproductive expenditures as a sin. In modern societies even unproductive sexual acts and unproductive sexuality became outlawed as a measure of the cultural prejudice against the joy of joy for its own sake and non-productive sexual expression. Colonial governments destroyed the tribal gift-exchange economy in order to manufacture a colonised brown consciousness capable of being harnessed to the yoke of disenchanted modern economic production for the principle benefit of the metropolitan homeland.

And the cultural roots of growth as the assumed unquestioned principle of economic nature run so deep that a massive global population now blindly marches toward self-annihilation. Driven by an unsustainable system of finance, governments are elected over and over to give unconstrained license to banks to manufacture almost unlimited wealth for themselves. The banks do this by over-leveraging our deposits to create fountains of loans and market them as the false means to have what we cannot afford. All of these loans are subject to interest payments that now require us to grow the whole economy by the interest rate every year to avoid collapsing the financial system – all on a finite planet that is not growing by the interest rate.

The global ecological and financial crisis is merely the global signature of institutionalised greed and ignorance writ large. Selfishness has always been in human societies but modernity made it sovereign. But an unsustainable economy does not even serve self-interest. To compromise one’s prospect of future survival is hardly self-serving. It is simply stupidity. More effectively serving the self comes with dynamic reciprocity delivered through mutual generosity: between individuals, groups, and the broader system itself. Look after the interests of the broader group or system and the law of reciprocity will kick in and look after the self. It is simply ignorance that assumes that the self is better off if it cheats other individuals, the group or the system.

But where can we turn for the source of the wisdom of generosity? A theory? A culture? Yes they can help but there is a deeper wellspring that trumps all theories and is more accessible and more powerful.

The seeds of selfishness lie in language itself because language creates the illusion of the separate self by naming the illusion as “me” and naming the complementary illusion “other”. This is because all language names things that are separate from other things. To understand what we mean by “tree” we need to understand what a “tree” is not – otherwise we say “look at the tree” and the person does not know where to look. When we explore the “tree” we soon discover that it cannot be separated from the non-tree. Without “water”, “sunlight”, “minerals”, “pollinators”, “soil”, “oxygen”, “carbon dioxide” and countless other non-tree elements the “tree” cannot exist. There is no actual boundary between the real tree and its other.

The world is an interconnected whole that cannot be torn apart in the way that language (any language) demands. Many cultures understood this, which is why they have poetic languages, and myths of origin that point to the creation of the world through the separation of opposites. For one example: first a void, then the act of speech separated light from darkness, and so the world (the collection of things we name) is created. These myths of origin tell us far more about language and how meaning comes into being than about anything physical. Mystical and mythical interpretations of such myths recognise this and benefit from it, but literal interpretations miss the point entirely. And scientistic sceptics (like Wagner in Faust) wear their own ignorance on their sleaves when they attack such myths and the traditions and moral compasses that are enriched by them.

The source of our wellspring of wisdom and generosity is our own body and its experience. So rather than search for the solution in this culture or that theory, we can instead repeatedly reawaken to the wisdom of the body and the senses that always dwell beyond the reach of language in the immaculate “silence” of the interconnected world itself – a domain without boundaries at all, and thus free from the ground of the separate self – a domain that cannot be named or known but is ceaselessly experienced and is always ready to hand. We hear that sound freely, and without language there is no “listener” and no “bird” – there is just sound, and the interconnected world experiencing itself right here.

Already bathed in this void the experience of self grows to include “bird”, “wind”, “mountain”, “river”, “that man”, “that woman” – all things that language calls “other” are no longer experienced as other. And from this wellspring we can recognise our modern global folly more easily because we are not so easily blinded by stories and distractions that defy our actual experience of what we call pollution, habitat destruction, conflict, poverty and suffering.

We bear witness to this experience freely and without reservation because we are just being true to our experience, which is our self-nature, our authentic human-nature. And from this we are inspired to do something about the suffering we witness because we identify with those who suffer and sense that they are not “other.” And we are compelled to give to those who suffer because acts of gift-giving are merely a distribution of resources from one part of our self-nature to another, that when exchanged makes our self-nature happier. And the experience of this happiness is a driver of more compassionate action because it escalates the experience of joy (which is just nature telling us that we are getting it right), because to fully live is joyful. And here the greatest good is also the highest happiness in a celebration of existence that is simply loyal to the interconnected world that we are.

And with the relentless outpouring of giving and receiving of gifts we restore the balance of nature that is a balance because of the relentless giving and receiving of gifts through all living systems. Here even biological competition can be seen in the broader frame of the vastly bigger force of cooperation – even the cooperation between predator and prey as mutually dependent, ever-changing populations, individuals, and genes.

The opposite of greed is generosity. The opposite of control is freedom. And true freedom is unbounded and delivered through the great gift of giving up control and allowing creativity to unfurl. We can practice the gift of giving up control by giving up the urge to name everything and in so doing allow our unfettered experiences to flourish. Here we relinquish the desire to control our experiences by naming them. Instead we simply experience fully and freely in the ever-present free-fall of boundless existence. At the heart of this performance we are at ease – when we accept free fall as the normal condition of our existence as we meander with the flow of our self-nature.

Perhaps it has merely taken us this long in our evolutionary development to see the full effects of the tool of language used without moderation, and awaken to the realisation that this tool works best when regularly returned to its box. We discover that the rose without any name smells the sweetest of all. And so we have the chance to mature as linguists because after a million years or so, the novelty of language has finally worn off. This allows us to more freely choose a moral path – not because we are driven by fear or guilt but because of the joy it brings when we do it.

On those occasions when we are unencumbered by naming, we need no beginning and no end and instead dwell in the eternal now – eternal not because of duration but a quality of experience that we can gesture towards in the form of poetry and art. And then we can re-awaken to our enchanted and mysterious life, and rest from the urge to explain and instead joyfully perform our life as a compassionate quest, simply because we cannot stem the enthusiasm for caring that overflows in all directions and in no direction at all.

Each epiphany is a peak experience, and we revel in its ecstasy for a while and then find a path down each mountain and walk each piece of new-found wisdom into our daily lives, only to discover that the path down each mountain is just as challenging as the path up. But we are ready for challenges because no journey is a rich adventure without them.

And we are grateful for our errors because they are ceaseless gifts we give and receive as playful opportunities to learn and grow inside. And we learn and grow without relent. And we live our lives as a fabulous enchanted journey scaling peaks and wading rivers and all the while overflowing with gratitude for the privilege and the blessing of being born into every moment as this.

*           *           *

She found herself alone, sitting at the kitchen table, shivering slightly in the night air. The party had long since finished and everyone was either asleep or had gone home. Lights were still on in the living room, hallway, bathroom and the porch outside. She gathered up her collection of papers, put them in her shoulder bag and then walked through the house turning the lights off. The per clunk of the front door as she pulled it closed reminded her of her grandparent’s house, which also had a front door with scalloped glass panes framed with white painted wood. She strode down the path to the gate with a lightness in her step in the still night air. Turning into the street she looked up past the flickering streetlight at the pre-dawn sky and smiled at the morning stars.

For other Happyzine posts by Sean Weaver, just type: ‘Ekodo’ in the search field at top right of this page to locate his collection of Happyzine articles. ‘Ekodo’ turns environmentalism into a martial art and is the name of a training programme for sharply compassionate environmental practice that Sean leads with his wife Jo. Sean is a forest conservation consultant through his company ‘Carbon Partnership’. He and Jo live in Golden Bay with their two young boys.

Giza, Egypt. Sitting on the shiny plastic covered bench seats of a dusty Cairo bus she watched the jumble and chaos of this sprawling city go past amid the endless bleating of car horns like herds of strange sheep. Here a man on a bicycle wobbles along, dodging motorbikes and taxis with a crooked swaying stack of boxes balanced on his head. There, street hawkers negotiate prices with women wrapped in cloth and jewellery.

Then without warning, out of place and expectation, above cluttered flat suburban rooftops bristling with television aerials and clotheslines rose the giant triangular form of the great pyramids of Giza. Not way out in the desert as expected but here among streets and shops and hotels, the archetype of the wonders of the ancient world shattering her romantic vision as the bus screeches to a halt in a car park overlooked by the Sphinx.

Suva, Fiji. They sat on the second story balcony of a concrete house in the palm tree suburbs with mangy dogs scratching at rubbish piles beside the busy road. Her host was the human resources manager in a government department who was big in his local Methodist church, whose choir resounded on the still evening air like a flock of songbirds in unison marking out a territory. “But I don’t have a watch” said the scruffy young man in his northern Viti Levu dialect. “Here” said the civil servant, as he unstrapped the shiny timepiece from his wrist, handing it over. The conversation continued for a while as the sun sank like a stone, until a voice from inside the house gently called “Sa vakarau tu na vaka yakavi”: time for dinner.

Wellington, New Zealand. A footfall squeaked on the polished floor. The sharp smell of ethyl alcohol and clean surfaces in this white laboratory triggered hazy memories of last night’s party. As she held her temples with thumb and middle finger momentarily shading her bloodshot baggy eyes from the bright lights, her lab partner leans over so as not to be heard by the tutor: “Want to know what’s good for a hang-over?” “What?” she whispers. “Drink a whole lot of alcohol the night before.” “Shhhhhhh’… but she could not hold back the giggles.

The lab experiment involved round flat glass dishes each with a different bacterial colony growing on a clear firm jelly. Each day she measured the diameter of the colonies until eventually the whole dish was covered, and thereafter the colony died having outstripped its available resources and suffered a population crash, only to create a new habitat for other types of bacteria that liked to live off dead ones. Then other bacteria established, and in time the dish supported a mosaic of microbial communities.

She could not help but think of the fate of that first colony that crashed, and pictured a glass dish called ‘Earth’ and a bacterial colony called ‘us’. She started reading about limits to growth in biological systems and beat a well-worn path to the library. Some of the literature ventured across disciplines into the humanities and economics. A vast realm began to open up where scholars and practitioners from different disciplines and at different times had put thought to this question of living systems and their patterns of growth and decay. But her curiosity was still not satisfied and she read on, and the days became weeks, and the weeks became months, because by now the faint coherence of a larger story was taking shape in the darker recesses of her mind.

Her private obsession followed her everywhere. This time it was a Friday night in a grungy student flat. Like countless other student parties, with music thumping, alcohol flowing, and conversations rising to a roar. As the music changed, on came the first few panging notes of Galileo by the Indigo Girls. She looked around to catch the eye of her soul sister who was also an Indigo fan. They were taken over by a bonding rhythm held so deep that all they could do was dance. As she swayed to the music with the dusty odour of cigarette smoke wafting in from outside in the summer night, her thoughts returned to her inner quest.

Biology, anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, philosophy, linguistics – they each contained part of this great puzzle, and deep down she knew that this puzzle had a common thread that was not only about human survival, but also of the order of things in the natural world. Suddenly she was roused from her muse. Without warning, Matt ripped off his favourite jean jacket, threw it on the floor and started jumping on it with flaying fists and elbows. Deep in a night blurred by alcohol, the combination of aromas, rhythmic music and the surging crowd lent the scene the form of a solemn rite of passage from an indigenous culture in its heart of darkness. “Matt! What are you doing?!!” she shouted incredulously above the noise. “The candle set it on fire!” he shouted and laughed and coughed, and coughed and laughed.

Without warning, just at that moment, something in her mind cracked and light flooded in. Exactly then the many seeds of a greater understanding began their rapid and uncontrollable crystallization that pulled together the different parts of the puzzle into a dazzling, yet inarticulate picture. She tingled all over. Right now, fully contained in the chaos of this revelry, and a ritual dance of a favourite jacket on fire. Spellbound her eyes glazed over. She no longer heard the thump of the music as the threads all came together like recombining chromosomes in the making of a new being – tigers, pyramids, palaces and stone armies, bacterial colonies, forest regeneration, dance, agricultural surpluses, artwork, romance, celebrations, the economy, and the exchange of gifts.

She immediately launched a desperate search for pen and paper, as if dragged by a wild mare – any paper, envelopes on the cluttered beer-stained kitchen table clumsily bumped by drunken strangers, margins of yesterday’s crumpled newspaper, the cardboard backing of a spent cereal packet, and she began to scribble down notes lest she lose this epiphany in the haze of this Friday night festival of wild abandon.

Go to Part 2 here.

For other Happyzine posts by Sean Weaver, just type: ‘Ekodo’ in the search field at top right of this page to locate his collection of Happyzine articles. ‘Ekodo’ turns environmentalism into a martial art and is the name of a training programme for sharply compassionate environmental practice that Sean leads with his wife Jo. Sean is a forest conservation consultant through his company ‘Carbon Partnership’. He and Jo live in Golden Bay with their two young boys.

Q & A with Niki Harré, Deputy Head of the Department of Psychology, University of Auckland and Author of the new book Psychology for a Better World

1.  What personally inspired you to write Psychology for a Better World?

I consider myself a sustainability advocate and I am a psychology lecturer. This book brings together those two perspectives. I wanted to share fascinating research on how people, think, feel and behave with those who have the same values as me. I felt that these insights could help people with a vision for positive social change be more effective in their endeavours. I love reading books that give me a new way of looking at the world and inspire me to action, I hoped my book would do this for others.

I am employed by the University of Auckland and wrote this book as part of my job. I have no need or desire to earn money for it, all I want is for it to be as accessible as possible. You can’t get more accessible than free!

To me the key is to think about who you are, where you are positioned in society, and what opportunities that opens up for you. If you are a mother, perhaps you can put your children’s sandwiches straight in their lunchbox instead of using plastic wrap, if you work for an organisation, perhaps you can investigate Fair Trade tea and coffee for the lunchroom. As citizens, all of us can make submissions when our local councils call for them. Ideally, find something you love doing that also makes the world a better place. Gardening, playing the guitar, organizing a flash mob are some examples. Forget about the naysayers who tell you your actions are pointless. Do what you believe is right.

The natural world is a treasure that feeds a rich society. Have the courage to stand for flourishing ecosystems and human wellbeing instead of “the economy”. The economy is a human creation that we can, and should, re-create in another form. The injustices of the current system are currently exposed for all to see. Do you want to stand with those who are attempting to create a fairer world that is better for us all, or to stand with those desperate to prop up a way of life that has long passed its use by date?

I am an associate professor in psychology – so I lecture and supervise students and do research. I have a fabulous bunch of graduate students who I am working with on projects such as creating a sustainable school and evaluating the youth “Making a Difference” programme. I bring sustainability into my lectures whenever I can. A few of us are currently setting up an eco-group to try and bring about change within our department.

More about Psychology for a Better World from Niki Harré:

Psychology for a Better World is for those who believe it is worth trying to make a world in which both our species and the ecosystems we depend on can flourish. The book is based on the latest research in psychology and is jam packed with action strategies. It offers new ways to think about how people interact in social settings, why we are tempted to stick with what we know, and how the same characteristics that currently keep us hooked into unsustainable practices can be used to move us forward. The final chapter is a guide to help you analyse what you are doing to contribute towards a better world, and how you can be more effective while simultaneously increasing your personal wellbeing.

You can get a pdf of the book for free, or order a hard copy for $15 from this website:

www.psych.auckland.ac.nz/psychologyforabetterworld

You can listen to my interview with Kim Hill on Radio NZ by going to:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/search/results?mode=results&q=niki+harre

I am very happy to do local or virtual talks or workshops, and would be delighted to get feedback on the book. I’d also love to get reviews.

Q & A by Charlotte Squire

Thursday, October 20, 2011 – Wellington

Forest & Bird media release for immediate use
Bird of the Year – polls open today

Singer Hollie Smith, actress Lisa Chappell and former All Black and seabird advocate Anton Oliver are throwing their celebrity weight behind some of our native birds in Forest & Bird’s annual avian popularity contest, which opens today.

Forest & Bird’s seventh Bird of the Year poll will kick off at the Songbirds concert this evening at The Cloud on Auckland’s Queen Wharf.

The concert features several other New Zealand songbirds including Kirsten Morrell (NZ robin), Maisey Rika (ruru), Seth Haapu (kakariki) and Steve Abel (wandering albatross).

These celebrities and others, such as musician Riki Gooch and TV3’s Rachel Smalley, will be posting blogs and videos on Forest & Bird’s website urging people to vote for their favourite bird.

Forest & Bird staff are promoting some of the birds worst affected by the Tauranga oil spill such as the dotterel and common diving petrel,

“Our seabirds and shorebirds are taking a battering at the moment with this oil spill, so Forest & Bird will be going into bat for these little strugglers,” says Forest & Bird Seabird Advocate and diving petrel campaign manager Karen Baird.

Karen last week worked on identifying dead birds at the oiled wildlife response centre in Tauranga.

“Our incredible diving petrel has been one of the biggest casualties in the Rena disaster. It seamlessly moves through air and water. I’ve seen these birds fly through a wave and just burst out the other side. It’s been terrible to see so many diving petrels killed by oil.”

Conservationist, campaigner and musician, Steve Abel, will also be campaigning for another bird affected by the spill – the wandering albatross.

Some Bird of the Year campaign managers and their chosen birds:

Actress Lisa Chappell – NZ robin
Musician Riki Gooch – takahe
Ex-All Black and seabird advocate Anton Oliver – yellow-eyed penguin
TV3 presenter Rachel Smalley – kea
Musician Seth Haapu – kakariki
Singer-songwriter Hollie Smith – kokako
Singer-songwriter Steve Abel – wandering albatross
Broadcaster Graeme Hill – grey warbler
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman – tui
Musician Hinewehi Mohi – kereru
Singer-songwriter Maisey Rika and Labour Party leader Phil Goff – ruru/morepork
Maori Party co-leader Dr Pita Sharples – karearea/NZ falcon
Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson – fantail

Fast facts:

 The poll opens on October 20 and will close at 9am on November 25.
 This year, Forest & Bird has launched a micro-site which allows the avian contenders to treat voters to a sample of their birdsong (www.birdoftheyear.org.nz

 Bird of the Year has been running since 2005 as a way to raise awareness of our native birds and the threats they face.
 Past winners are 2005 tui, 2006 fantail, 2007 grey warbler, 2008 kakapo, 2009 kiwi, 2010 kakariki.
 Endangered birds, garden birds, and birds with a sweet song and a flamboyant dress-sense typically poll well.
 Our national bird – the kiwi – has fared very poorly in most polls. It very rarely reaches the top ten. It was described by one campaigner as a ‘flightless national bore’ in one vitriolic blog. However, it was crowned Bird of the Year in 2009 – after some serious campaigning by BNZ Save the Kiwi.
 Last year the poll got a record amount of votes – 21,000 . The kakariki won by 1,500 votes, however, it is suspected that there was some fowl – sorry foul – play going on. Security has been ramped up this year to prevent cyber-bots skewing the votes.
 Last year, our newest native bird – the barn owl – polled 6th.
 The pukeko almost won last year’s race (it scored 5228 votes) and has a devoted following, so we are expecting it will streak ahead in this year’s poll. Our feathered bogan – the kea – is also tipped to win.
 Those birds that are bad tempered, hold multiple citizenships and are dull or drab fare poorly. Underbirds include the skua and the spur-winged plover. They’re typically placed in the bottom ten.

Thursday, 20 October 2011, 10:35 am

Tuatara Naming Rights Up For Grabs

Rotorua, 20 October 2011- Rainbow Springs’ ten baby tuatara siblings are now on display to the public and to celebrate, the team has created a series of quirky Trademe listings where people can bid for the right to name them.

Promoted as the ‘next best thing to having your own pet dinosaur’, the winners of the three listings each get to name two of the baby tuatara and will also receive a family pass to Rainbow Springs and have a photo opportunity with their named tuatara.

The tuatara is one of the oldest animals on the planet, and the closest living relative to the dinosaur. Native to New Zealand, they are extremely rare and hard to breed.

“Obviously we can’t give them to you to take home but you can be assured that your own little ‘dinosaurs’ will be well looked after at Rainbow Springs” reads the auction.

The funds raised from the winning bids will go to further the conservation, education and captive breeding programme for tuatara at Rainbow Springs. All three of the auctions are already sitting at over $200.

The auctions close at about 6.30pm on Friday 21st October so there is still time for people to make a bid and secure the rights to name a pair of creatures who, with a lifespan of over 100 years, will most likely outlive them.

The ten baby tuatara were born in April this year after a 184 day incubation period. They were then cared for in a nursery before going on display to the public in a larger enclosure this month.

Rainbow Springs General Manager Michelle Caldwell says “With school holidays on, and our baby tuatara on display, it’s a great time to bring the kids along to Rainbow Springs. The tuatara are camouflaged and there are so many of them so it’s a fun game trying to spot them all.”

The tuatara is an ancient reptile which roamed the earth at the same time as the dinosaurs more than 225 million years ago. Because the tuatara outlasted its relatives which died out some 60 million years ago they are sometimes called a ‘living fossil’.

Tuatara Facts:

Tuatara have the potential to live up to 300 years in the right conditions. The average life span is 80 – 100 years. The oldest in captivity is Henry who is 120 – 130 years old in the Tuatarium at Invercargill.

Tuatara take 35 years to grow to their full size of 600mm (24 inches or 2ft).  They also have the longest incubation period of any reptile with eggs taking up to 15 months to hatch.

In cooler temperatures during winter their metabolism slows down to 10 heart beats per min and 1 breath per hour. During this time, because their metabolism has slowed they don’t require food.

They can survive without eating for a year.

Tuatara are ‘stand-and wait’ carnivores that snatch almost any small animal straying within reach, including weta, spiders, skinks, geckos, and even birds and their eggs or chicks.

Juvenile tuatara are often diurnal (active during the daytime) to avoid being prey for larger (largely nocturnal) tuatara.

In Māori tuatara means ‘spiny back’ and refers to the row of spines down its back.

Rainbow Springs Kiwi Wildlife Park is an icon of New Zealand tourism and has been open since 1932.  Spread over 22 acres of Rotorua parkland, Rainbow Springs is a conservation and breeding haven for endangered New Zealand species such as Kiwi and tuatara. The park offers a unique wildlife experience for visitors, who can see animals in their natural environment, both during the day and night.  Features of the award winning tourist attraction include New Zealand’s first ‘open to view’ Kiwi hatchery, and a range of wildlife including trout, tuatara and native birds.

Rainbow Springs, Fairy Springs Road, Rotorua.

350 Aotearoa spokesperson Aaron Packard explained the message behind the space rocket launch – “While the notion behind the global Moving Planet event is to get people moving on bikes and on foot in the call to leaders to start moving beyond fossil fuels, here in Wellington we took the theme a bit literally. We used the rocket launch to highlight in a fun way that actually moving planet is an absurd notion and most of us are here to stay on planet Earth. That means we must deal with the causes of climate change, so following the failed launch of the rocket, we swiftly implemented plan B for folks staying on Earth – the ‘Renewable Race”.

As part of the Renewable Race people cycled and walked around a series of checkpoints in the city centre offering activities including test-riding an electric bicycle or car, free bike fix-ups, and tasting sustainable wines at Logan Brown restaurant.

“We not only called on local leaders to take action, but joined hundreds of thousands around the world in demanding that leaders move the planet beyond its addiction to fossil fuels. That’s not easy, but it has never been more urgent as climate change is literally knocking on our door. Thankfully the world is already blessed with many renewable energy solutions – some of which we showcased today in the renewable race.

We’ll be taking this petition and momentum into campaigning for greater action from political parties as the upcoming election approaches” said Packard.

Moving Planet events and rallies were held in over 35 locations across every region of New Zealand. Photographs from around the world will be shown outside the UN in New York. The petition can be viewed and signed by visiting www.350.org.nz.

Moving Planet was organised around New Zealand by 350 Aotearoa in collaboration with a host of other organisations including Generation Zero, Unicef, The Coal Action Network, Cycle Advocacy Network, WWF New Zealand and more. 350 represents 350ppm (parts per million), the maximum safe concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. We’re at 392ppm and rising, which is why 350 Aotearoa works with communities, government and businesses to inspire solutions to bring us back to the safe zone.

Grad Dip students at Queenstown's biodiesel facility med

New education in the emerging area of Sustainable Practice is to be offered to people living in the Waikato and Auckland regions as a result of a partnership between the education focused Solscape Eco retreat in Raglan and the Otago Polytechnic’s Centre for Sustainable Practice.

People keen to learn about sustainable practice and the opportunities and qualifications available are encouraged to attend a launch event at Solscape on September 23 from 5-7pm.

The Centre for Sustainable Practice is a fast growing business unit of Otago Polytechnic which already has a presence in the Waikato and Auckland regions where it facilitates sustainable business programmes in partnership with local government.

The success of these programmes, and increasing demand for the newly launched (2011) Graduate Diploma in Sustainable Practice, has encouraged the Centre to offer short courses and full time programmes based at Solscape for 2012.

Centre Manager Steve Henry says the full time courses offered through Solscape will be the Level 7 Graduate Diploma in Sustainable Practice and the certificate in Level 5 Certificate in Sustainable Practice, depending on demand for them.

“These are practical, project based courses that focus on implementation of sustainable practice for communities and business. There are huge resources contained within the Centre.  It has become a collaborative hub for enabling and implementing sustainable practice in New Zealand such as biodiesel into the Queenstown community.  Our courses are project based and add real value to communities by bringing skills and expertise to local projects,” said Mr Henry.

Also on offer are valuable short courses in areas such as Social Media, Implementing Sustainable Practice, Sustainable Community Development, and Introduction to Permaculture design along with a range of courses that further community and business skill bases.

Phil McCabe of Solscape says he’s delighted to welcome the Centre and looks forward to facilitating learning in the area of sustainable practice.

“By partnering with Otago Poly’s Centre for Sustainable Practice we can offer recognised, tertiary qualifications in the field of sustainable practice right here in Raglan.

“Raglan is already well known as an environmentally aware and active community, and Solscape has been communicating sustainability messages and operating with sustainable practices for a number of years, so working with the Centre to offer these mainstream qualifications is a natural partnership for us,” said Mr McCabe.

On September 23^rd people will be introduced to the Centre for Sustainable Practice and encouraged to consider how they can identify practical projects and actions that could improve sustainable practice in their community which can become a focus for the courses based in Raglan.

Some very inspiring news gets lost in archives – we’re resurrecting some Hopebuilding stories for Happyzine readers.

Africa’s greatest resources may no longer be diamonds and gold, but instead, its big sun-drenched skies. In coming years, the continent, known for the innovation and determination of its people, could provide enough solar energy to light up some of the world’s biggest cities.

A group of students from a girls’ college in Mauritius is showing the way. The pupils have recently developed a way of producing 14KW of clean electricity daily, and their project is touted to be the model which other nations in Africa could adopt.

The use of solar power reportedly doubled in 2010, and is expected to grow in 2011 by at least 25%. However, the developing world has been slower off the mark than Western countries to use this technology, although it would derive the most advantage from solar energy – remote regions especially.

Following the Mauritian government’s December 2010 call for the population to find alternative means of producing electricity, the students from the Hindu Girls’ College in Curepipe, Southern Mauritius, set up a three-kilowatt solar power system on the institute’s roof. This simple system provides the campus with at least 20% of the power it needs.  Read more on Hopebuilding.

HRH The Prince of Wales tries out an electric assisted bicycle Photo © George Bodner

By Matt Mellon, Positive News.org.uk

HRH The Prince of Wales is a man on a mission. Having personally founded 18 charities, he presides over the largest multi-cause charitable group in the UK, which raises over £100m annually and includes The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, The Prince’s Countryside Fund and The Prince’s Trust, which has just announced £2.5m of investment in the places hardest hit by the riots across English cities in August 2011.

Prince Charles’ new focus for positive change is you.  Start is his new initiative designed to help all of us begin to take simple steps for sustainable living, and to show what a more energy efficient, cleaner and healthier future could look like.

The concept has been developed and is now lead by Joey Tabone, a stalwart of the Prince’s Charities team. “Start is fun, enjoyable and a little quirky,” he says. “We want to involve the public in positive activities which make a difference while conveying an easy sustainable-living message.”

“Let’s inspire people with positive messages about what they can start doing, not what they have to stop doing.” HRH The Prince of Wales.  Read more on Positive News.org.uk

Thanks to the  following environmentally responsible businesses for supporting Happyzine:

ECOtanka

• Eco-friendly –  Reusable for years upon years
• Safe & non-leaching – BPA free (bisphenol-A)
• Solid food-grade stainless steel – Super hygienic & clean

www.ecotanka.com

White roofs have worked for thousands of years in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cities. (Photo: www.obviousmag.org in Architecture)

Progress report from ian Montangees – Founder of the NZ White Roofs Project

I am preparing to begin Stage 2 of the project to start towards the end of September, which will get much more serious, directly approaching and giving presentations to businesses, councils, and other organisations, not just homeowners, about playing a role in this global warming solution.

I intend to start slowly so as to not overload my time, and build up from there with a two-pronged approach. Firstly, of building credibility step by step by having groups and businesses endorse the idea, starting with the easier ones and working off their endorsement to the bigger ones until there are mainstream businesses endorsing it and also some city councils.

I’ll go to the media once some momentum has been built up. At the same time, out of the many contacts that will be made my wish is that there will be funding developed to allow me more time to work on this project, so that I can spend more time on this project instead of needing to earn money doing other things, as I wish this to be my primary focus over the next year or two, as long as it takes to reach stage 3 where the idea becomes integrated into local and national administrations who then propagate it.

So far I have funded this project through my own funds (except for two donations that were much appreciated) and my time, a service as my way of making a contribution to the betterment of the greater good while also it being personally satisfying for me to do. It’s a matter of going forward with a good plan and seeing what happens.

We welcome collaboration and opportunities to spread the word, and welcome initiatives that lead to donations or funding towards the sustainability of implementing stage 2. If you have suggestions on groups or businesses (perhaps your own) that can play a role by endorsing the project or the white roofs idea, this would be very useful especially in these early stages. I am happy to come and give presentations either one-to-one or to large audiences, to help spread this idea.

If you wish to communicate the white roofs idea to people, it helps them “get it” if you mention three things in your opening statement, otherwise there is often an initial silence while people are thinking the idea sounds “crazy”. If they hear these three points they usually realise it’s a seriously good idea and like it.

(1) White roofs is a fast and low-cost way of helping reduce global warming

(2) It works by mimicking the way the polar icecaps cool the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space

(3) It’s being taken seriously and implemented by the Obama Administration

Sign to the White Roofs newsletter.

Contact: Ian.Montanjees@whiteroofs.org.nz

Thanks to the  following environmentally responsible businesses for supporting Happyzine:

ECOtanka

• Eco-friendly –  Reusable for years upon years
• Safe & non-leaching – BPA free (bisphenol-A)
• Solid food-grade stainless steel – Super hygienic & clean

www.ecotanka.com