Announce protest actions, general chit chat or give your opinion on issues we haven’t covered for the day.
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This is a thinkpiece setting out problems ahead for the Nelson Council but would apply to most.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300707436/new-council-needs-public-support-to-take-risks-be-ambitious-and-take-city-forward
… The next term will be set against the backdrop of the most significant local government reform in a generation including three waters, resource management, and indeed a review of the system of local government itself. These changes cannot be understated and will add considerable complexity to an already challenging environment.
Despite the challenges, local government has a critical role to play in navigating the big issues for the region. Our productivity is the second lowest in the country, a major contributor to our low wage economy. By 2040, a third of the city’s population will be over 65. That is an extraordinarily important statistic for us to contend with. Meanwhile, we have some of the highest rates in the country of young people not engaged in employment, education or training.
Here is a new green industry – the drinks industry and others, extracting carbon dioxide from the mixed gases around us. Carbon dioxide must be in big supply and is good for many things. Let’s be the first in the world.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/476271/carbon-dioxide-shortage-could-shut-down-drinks-bottling-plant
Note that they used to get it from Marsden Point Refinery. Closed down with the agreement of Labour by the smart pointyheads and practical wise men with female fellow travellers (who like being up with the boys and their good pay).
A major drinks bottler says it is on the verge of running out of carbon dioxide which would shut down production.
The drinks and food industry has been scrambling for weeks to find enough of the crucial gas used in chilling and as fizz.
The bottler, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it looked like they would run out on Sunday and their 24-hour plant would cease production until they got some more.
“Today’s been the worst day in our history,” they said.
They had been eating away at their stockpile of the gas since the Marsden Point Oil Refinery, the main manufacturer, shut down in April.
Tired of cranking up the gummint and only getting sputters? Chitty chitty bang bang!
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2210/S00032/planting-forests-that-are-good-for-nature-climate-and-the-economy.htm
Well gummint says it is interested in consultation on forestry so take that up as a side issue to your main concerns – for a little light relief. A change is as good as a rest sort of thing.
Find out more about the consultation and have your say at https://www.mpi.govt.nz/consultations/national-direction-for-plantation-and-exotic-carbon-afforestation
Find out more about the next steps for the NZ ETS permanent forest category at https://www.mpi.govt.nz/consultations/managing-exotic-afforestation-incentives
Some issues that come to my mind.
Pine trees which we have specialised in growing because they thicken up fast and well here have some downsides.
They are flammable.
The dropped needles don’t facilitate as much undergrowth (I think).
They are too good at sucking up water. (I don’t know how much more than other trees.)
It’s a monoculture and so vulnerable to insects that like it wr fungi that could spread throughout.
The pollen is heavy all at once and I think its bad for asthma etc affected.
The timber is attractive to beetles or rot when in place and has had to be treated with something deadly, or to be heat-treated or compressed or something to give satisfactory service.
And it is being a go-to for foreign companies to buy food producing farmland to grow trees so they can sell offsetting greenhouse certificates to other companies that are high emitters.
This use of the land kills off farming communities that used to cluster in their farming towns and actually form the basis of fire fighting units and there were jobs for the youngsters in the farming towns and a life.
It could be that other varieties should be grown as well and the pine numbers slashed. We have a gold rush mentality. We could be setting up lots, fitting in with Tasmania, to grow special trees to keep species going; hardwoods, fire resistant, furniture species, rimu etc. and of course our kauri. Can’t we work out something? There are some fine minds om this blog getting frustrated with everyday politics, and trees could do with some friends. I think they are going to be our friends and the basis of our civilisation again as I feel they must have been down the aeons.
Who does this continuance of our wicked and expensive criminal law against cannabis serve?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/476343/nz-s-approach-to-cannabis-convictions-fit-for-purpose-justice-minister
I liked this quote – by a footballer I think.
A friend at school was always being laughed at because his father emptied dustbins for a living. But those who laughed worshipped famous footballers. This is an example of our topsy-turvy view of ‘success.’ Who would we miss most if they did not work for a month, the footballer or the garbage collector?
David Icke
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/david_icke_543064?src=t_collector
After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent.
The simple act of being able to control one’s person.
Nelson Mandela
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/nelson_mandela_710932?src=t_small_things
Is that what freedom actually is – at the end of the day?
This could be a good move if industry is right, and why shouldn’t they be as that is what our government structure is set up to defer to?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/476250/glass-industry-group-proposes-different-recycling-scheme-to-govt-plan