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November 6th, 2009

Mokihinui River by Craig Potton

Photo: Mohikinui River, by Craig Potton

Apparently we live in a nation of number eight wire type people, where innovative ideas are steaming away in the privacy of countless minds, and any thing’s possible. Now’s the time to prove it.  Now’s the time to become world-leaders in sustainability – by simply using our strengths.  I think it’s a great opportunity. And the issue I have in mind is the West Coast’s Mokihinui River.  Rivers, as some wise characters have been known to say, are the life blood of our lands.  Indeed they carry the most valuable resource/treasure/substance known to humans – precious water.  I’d say the most practical way forward, that is if we want our children to be able to swim in rivers as we did, and if we want to drink tap water, and if we want to continue attracting many thousands of off-shore visitors to observe and enjoy our amazing natural landscape, is to place the quality of our water at the top of our national priorities. 

I’ve just read an article on Scoop about Peter Dunne’s (of the United Future party) reaction to Gerry Brownlee’s so called announcement that the Mokihinui River would remain intact, in its original form.  He thinks we should leave the river it as it is.  He says:

“New Zealand’s wilderness and the public’s access to it is what makes this country a great place to live, it is therefore important that recreational values are included with economic, environmental and conservation considerations in all future planning and development.”

“The shelving of the Mokihinui proposal is a pointer to the future of energy production in New Zealand,” said Mr Dunne, “it is obvious we need to think outside the square and invest heavily in generation methods that allow us to produce electricity closer to where it is consumed.”

“I would like to see much more focus given to the development of affordable small-scale solar and wind generators as well as a continuation of investment into energy efficiency solutions.”

“New Zealand’s population is growing steadily and will continue to grow, we must find a way of supporting our energy needs without damming every last river,” said Mr Dunne.

I’ve got to say I agree with Peter’s thoughts here.  In fact I’ve been mulling over the idea of running a design/concept competition on Happyzine that basically invites people to submit ideas around the issue of how we can move forward positively and sustainably as a nation of power consumers,  whilst impacting only very lightly on the environment. 

This competition, I propose, would invite the designers, the architects, the inventors, and generally the innovative, creative thinkers of us to submit ideas that illustrate ways, grounded within a New Zealand context, showing how we can meet our energy demands, whilst benefiting the environment and our people.  Small scale does seem to be the way forward.  We’d need high caliber judges and prizes.  We’d need a guarantee from those people who are responsible for deciding how we implement our future energy generation methods that they would seriously consider the winning ideas.

I’m interested to know your thoughts.

Tags: Environment, rivers, Sustainability