Welcome

Hi & welcome to the webpage version of NZAEE's (Christchurch Branch) ecoNet Newsletter.

Feel free to pass on news of ecoNet Newsletter and our subscription address: eventdiary@environment.org.nz to others you think may find it interesting/useful.
To supplement the diary here's a selection of news and articles and bits and pieces of interest from around and about, and here and there, e.g:

from here

Canterbury & South Island:

Christchurch: free concert next Saturday to celebrate Earth Hour. (19 March, CCC).
Also:
Energy Awareness Week: Free lectures and tours: energy issues in Christchurch and New Zealand. (As part of Christchurch's 2008-2018 Sustainable Energy Strategy). (Energy Awareness Week, CCC).

Banks Peninsula dairy farmer fined for effluent discharge. (17 March, ECan).
also:
Central Canterbury (Corlette Holdings) dairy farm fined. (17 March, ECan).
also:
Fish & Game CEO: Clean Streams Accord an ongoing failure - makes a mockery of the proposition ‘education leads to voluntary change’. (12 March, Fish & Game).

New Canterbury Home Energy Advice Centre opened - free, independent, professional advice to help reduce your energy consumption. (17 March, sustainability.govt.nz).

Enviroschools eco-hut challenge: for school-age students to design and build an ecological habitat on their school grounds that enhances all living things around it. (3 March, Enviroschools.org).

Timaru: MAF picks up invaders at port. More than two thirds of inspections reveal contamination. (16 March).

Timaru: Home Show 20 - 22 March. Stand 33: Timaru's Clean Heat Project.

Nelson: New roads not the answer: MP Kevin Hague. (17 March, Nelson Mail/Stuff).

Otago: Government urged to invest in insulating up to 40,000 Dunedin homes to help stimulate the local economy. (18 March, Otago Daily Times).

Southland: Whitebait wetlands habitat under construction. (18 March, Southland Times/Stuff).

Lake Wanaka: Buff weka released. (17 March, Otago Daily TImes).

North Island & national:

Kiwis solve global warming riddle. (20 March, NZ Herald).

Cleaning up the economy seems to be costing New Zealand its 'clean, green image'. (15 March, TVNZ).

OIA Review aims to encourage foreign investment into NZ - Key. (14 March, NZ Herald).
Also:
Arena: Open doors to foreign investors irreversible under FTA's. (Jane Kelsey, 18 March, Scoop).

Foreign Affairs officials' warning: Crime laws will affect NZ's image. (20 March, NZ Herald).

NZ HIV numbers at record high. (20 March, NZ Herald).

Govt names roads for priority development. (19 March, NZ Herald).
Also:
Expert says Govt less than honest over roading plans - being driven by lobbyists.(19 March, NZ Herald).
Also:
Canterbury hails Govt roading fund pledge. (20 March, Stuff).

Waitakere: NZ's first plastic bag free town? (17 March, Stuff).

Auckland: City Council has paid $41.5 million on leaky building claims and is in process of settling another 148 claims, totalling $225 million. (20 March, NZ Herald).

Auckland: Otara pre-schoolers to lead 'walk for values'. (20 March, NZ Herald).

Northland: Recycling surviving the drop in international commodity prices because of emphasis on "quality collection methods". (17 March, Northern Advocate).

Turangawaewae Marae: window on Maori world - Ans Westra photographic exhibition. (17 March, NZ Herald).

Northland: Poachers had hundreds of undersized paua. (16 March, Northern Advocate).

Northland: Kiteboarders threaten bar-tailed godwit sanctuary. (16 March, NZ Herald).

Auckland: Kakariki return to mainland's Tawharanui Open Sanctuary. (15 March, NZ Herald).

For science students (year 1 - 10) : NZ International Science online project. Ten weeks, 27 April - 3 July. (DOC).

New DOC online booking system for Great Walks, campsites, huts etc. (DOC).

Green Party: The Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill is a major threat to New Zealand's environment and democracy. Russell Norman's RMA amendment submission guide here. Submissions close 3 April. (13 March, Greens.org.nz).

Call for further submissions: on the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. Further submissions close 10 April 2009. (Ministry for the Environment).

Re-linked awards, submissions, consultations etc:

• 2009 Green Ribbon Awards nominations. Know a green champion? Send in your nomination - before 5.00 pm Monday, 23 March. Categories and nomination information here. (Ministry for the Environment).
  
  
• Environment Canterbury’s Living Streams Project: Anyone can apply to become part of the programme. 
  Applications need to be made on the Living Streams application form. (or ask for it from ECan’s Customer Services: 353 9007 or 0800 32 46 36 (0800 EC INFO). Applications close 31 March. More About living streams (ECan).
  
  
• CCC: Strengthening communities fund: Information sessions to explain the fund and the application process, dates and venues here.
  Applications close 31 March.
  
  
• Nominations called for Community Service Awards. By Thursday, 9 April. (5 March, CCC).
  
  
• CCC's draft Long Term Council Community Plan available for comment (till April 16). The plan, background info and public meeting times see here. (CCC).
  
  
• School teachers: LEARNZ trips for the first term 2009. (LEARNZ Virtual field trips are FREE for all NZ registered teachers and their classes).
  The Main Divide: Take your class to climb the Franz Josef Glacier and learn about the temperate rainforest on the West Coast. (25 - 27 March).
  Wind Farming: Take your class to a wind farm. Climb up a turbine and learn about using wind for electricity generation. (1 - 3 April).
  (More: at the LEARNZ site).
  

• Comment wanted: Estuary shoreline walkway proposal. Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai Trust. Comments by 31 March, 2009.
  Contact: www.estuary.org.nz or info@estuary.org.nz or c/- Mt Pleasant Community Centre, 3 McCormacks Bay Road, Mt Pleasant, Christchurch 8081.
  
  
• Free, research-based advice on sustainably renovating your home. HomeSmart delivers warmer, healthier homes that are more affordable to run and kinder to the environment. Further details: www.beaconpathway.co.nz. (Homesmart Renovations).
  
  
• Calling activist artists: Social justice art auction and exhibition, 15 October, 2009. To voice dissent, and to raise funds for those on charges from the so-called 'terror raids' in 2007. If you are interested in contributing a work drawing from any of: the October 15th raids, commentary on the 'war on terrorism,' surveillance/police/prisons, colonisation, kaupapa Maori, resistance, then contact: Rachel info@october15thsolidarity.info or October15th Solidarity, P O Box 9263, Te Aro, Wellington.
  

& from there

• Plan B: Scientists get radical in bid to halt global warming 'catastrophe'. (15 March, Times Online).
  
  
• UK: Leading climate scientist: "democratic process isn't working" - corporate lobbying has undermined democratic attempts to curb carbon pollution. (18 March, The Guardian).
  
  
• George Monbiot: However unlikely success might be, we can't afford to abandon efforts to cut emissions - we just don't have any better option. (17 March, The Guardian).
  
  
• James Lovelock: Europe's carbon trading scheme a scam. (10 March, The Guardian).
  Also:
  UK: Carbon trading is wrong, says Lord Browne, former CEO of BP. (8 March, The Guardian).
  
  
• Kofi Annan: A message from Africa (facing more than 50 million people added to those living on less that $2 a day) - "there is astonishment here at the colossal sums found by industrialised countries to mitigate the impact of the (financial) crisis... the trillions of dollars used dwarf the $100bn a year assigned by OECD nations for development assistance". (16 March, The Guardian).
  
  
• The heat's on Bill Gates: now working to solve humanity's greatest problems - yet has no program to curb global warming. That does not compute. (19 March, Salon).
  
  
• Istanbul: The fifth World Water Forum: Preparing for water quarrels if not wars. (15 March, IPS).
  
  
• Chile: Town withers in Free Market for water. Some economists hailed Chile’s water rights trading system ... as a model of free-market efficiency that allocates water to its highest economic use. (14 March, New York Times).
  
  
• Brazil: The city that ended hunger. "To search for solutions to hunger means to act on the principle that the status of a citizen surpasses that of mere consumer". (Spring, Yes! Magazine).
  
  
• Brazil: Biggest soybean state loses taste for GMO seed. (13 March, Reuters).
  
  
• Sarajevo: Peace summit highlights education as pivotal. (12 March, Scoop.co.nz).
  
  
• Wall St: Set for another big dive - into rising seas. (16 March, Sydney Morning Herald).
  
  
• US: Outside buyers drawn to Detroit's foreclosed homes - homes for under $10,000 that once were worth at least 10 times more. (9 March, Yahoo news).
  
  
• US, San Francisco: Slow movement picks up speed in the Bay Area. The central idea is to get away from advertising hype and the assembly line, to move toward a more thoughtful and ethical consumerism... (15 March, SF Gate/ San Francisco Chronicle).
  Also from San Francisco: (for light-ish relief):
  In times of brutal slump, where do you turn for something a little less bleak? Do not go shopping. Do not, in particular, visit any of those massive, gleaming 10-acre megastores...( 11 March, Mark Morford, SF Gate).
  
  
• US: Recession spurs millions of new gardeners. (15 March, Newsleader.com).
  
  
• UK: Bee hygiene: if researchers are to be believed, the future of the world's food supplies may depend on it. (16 March, Canberra Times).
  
  
• Germany & UK: Paying citizens to get rid of old cars. (16 March, ecoGeek).
  
  
  New technology:
  
• US: Racing to get electric motorbikes to market. (17 March, LA Times).
  
  
• The water cone: a simple, effective solar still. UNICEF estimates 5000 children die daily from drinking unsafe water. (13 March, blue living ideas).
  
  
• Bio-char: There's a flurry of worldwide interest in the technology, but is the hype justified? (16 March, BBC).
  
  
• Soil lamps. (16 March, ecoGeek).
  
  
  Miscellany:
  
• Should Canberra's excess kangaroos be culled? (19 March, NZ Herald).
  
  
• A lost generation. Making hope possible. (video clip, 1min 44). (5 March, Dark Optimism).
  
  
• UK: 13 unsolved scientific puzzles. eg most of the universe is missing, evolution's problem with self-destruction, & are you more than just a bag of chemicals? (27 February, Times Online).
  
  
• Fossil sea monster's bite makes T-Rex look feeble. (16 March, Reuters).
  
  
• Rare reptile hatchling found in NZ. (19 March, The Independent).
  

 

 

 

 

 

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ecoNet is put out (Fridays) by Christchurch Branch of NZAEE (NZ Association for Environmental Education), a non-profit, national organisation of people working to promote and support environmental education, lifelong learning and sustainable behaviour throughout New Zealand/Aotearoa.

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• Seminar: Better living for a better planet.

  Choices: A new way of engaging households and communities in sustainable living.
  When: 9.00 - 4.30 pm Friday, 20 & Saturday, 21 March. (i.e. two seminars).
  Where: Board Room, Christchurch South Library, Colombo St.
  Free.
  Info/contact: rebeka.whale@gmail.com
  Suported by the Ministry for the Environment &
  the Hikurangi Foundation.
  
  

• Event: RSPCA Fundraiser: Concert and lunch.

  Roger Buckton and Jonathon Le Coq perform a variety of music using early and modern instruments.
  When: 11.30 am Saturday, 21 March.
  Where: Nut Point gallery, Langdales Rd,
  (off Old West Coast Rd), West Melton.
  Tickets: $25.00 includes vegetarian lunch.
  More info & bookings: www.nutpointgallery.com or ph 342 1033.
  
  

• Talk: Money & community resilience.

  An exploration of money, alternatives to the current financial monoculture, & the design of complementary currencies to build community resilience in the face of global financial disorder
  Speaker: Christoph Hensch.
  When: 9.30 - 4.00 pm Saturday, 21 March.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  Cost: Gold coin.
  More info. WEA 366 0285. or cwea
  
  

• Workday:  Travis Wetland

  When: 9.00 -12.00 pm Saturday, 21 March.
  Where: Meet at Travis Wetland 9 am; no exit end of Beach Rd.
  Bring: Gumboots & work clothes helpful, tools   provided and variety of tasks available.
  Contact: Dave Evans 366 0628.
  Also:
  

  Travis Wetland Trust: planting and weeding.

  When: 9.00 – 12.00 pm Saturday, 21 March.
  Where: Meet at Beach Rd Education Centre.
  Bring: Gumboots, water, warm clothes.
  Contact: Joe Greenaway 383 2073.
  
  

• Workday: Dry Bush revegetation release.

  When: 1.00 - 3.00 pm Saturday, 21 March.
  Where: Meet Huntsbury Track/ Summit Rd. (Turn left at Sign of the Kiwi and drive eastwards for 3.6 kms to the layby near the cattlestop at the top of Huntsbury Track on Summit Rd).
  Bring: Gloves.
  Contact/more info: Di 941 7572, or 027 201 5653.
  
  

• Free home composting workshops:

  hot composting of kitchen scraps & garden waste, Bokashi and worm farms. All methods demonstrated.
  When: 1.00 - 2.30 pm each Saturday, starting 21 March.
  Where: Opawa Community Gardens, 176 Opawa Rd (at Aynsley Tce).
  
  

• Multi-media event: The Armed Man.

  Hopes for peace and the terrible consequences of war. Excerpts from Hindu texts, the Koran, & poems of Tennyson and Kipling set with the Christian Mass. Massed secondary school choirs accompanied by Christchurch Symphony Orchestra .
  Conductor: Brian Law.
  When: 7.30 pm Saturday, 21 March.
  Where: Christchurch Town Hall.
  More info here.
  Video here. (Youtube).
  
  

• World Water Day 2009: Sharing water, sharing opportunities.

  When: Sunday, 22 March.
  Info: worldwaterday.org
  
  

• Garden tour: How to maximise home food production with minimum effort.

  ‘Multi-purpose’ garden design ensures year-round productivity. Different fruit and nut trees and large vegetable gardens supply the kitchen with seasonal produce; & eggs and honey also often on the menu.
  When: 2.00 pm Sunday, 22 March
  Where: 5 Ombersley Tce, Opawa
  Cost: $2.00
  More info: organicschch@gmail.com
  
  

• Free bike checks, service and maintenance:

  When: 4.00 -6.00 pm each Monday.
  Where: Latimer Square.
  
  

• Talk: Allan Wilson Centre 2009 Lecture:

  Great Moments in Human History - the Settlement of the Pacific.
  Speaker: Lisa Matisoo-Smith, Assoc. Professor (anthropology), Auckland University (more here).
  When: 5.30 pm Tuesday, 24 March.
  Where: Carter Auditorium, Christchurch Art Gallery.
  More info: Alan Wilson Centre for molecular ecology & evolution.
  
  

• Education and Change lecture series:

  What is action research and how is it useful in our work?
  Speaker: Prof Bridget Somekh, Manchester Metropolitan University.
  When: 7.30 pm Tuesday, 24 March.
  Where: Lecture Theatre 1, Otakaro Building, Dovedale Entrance, College of Education.
  Hosted by University of Canterbury.
  All welcome. More info: here.
  
  

• Talk: WEA's Issues of the Day series:

  The Gaza Crisis in Perspective.
  Speaker: Dr Ron Mcintyre.
  When: 1.30 - 2.30 pm Wednesday, 25 March
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  Cost: $4
  More info: WEA 366 0285.
  Website: cwea.org.nz
  
  

• Talk: How different does sustainable business have to be for business to be sustainable?

  Speaker: Prof Markus Milne, Dept of Accountancy & Information Systems, University of Canterbury.
  When: 7.30 pm Wednesday, 25 March.
  Where: Knox Church, Bealey Ave.
  Contact: John 384 1281, or njpeet@gmail.com
  More info: sustainablechristchurch.org. (SOC).
  
  

• Talk: Health Lecture Series 2009: The snake in the grass. Our unseen genetic risk of heart disease.

  Speaker: Assoc. Professor Vicky Cameron, Christchurch Cardio-endocrine Research Group. When: 7.30 pm Wednesday, 25 March.
  Where: Rolleston Lecture Theatre, Christchurch Hospital.
  Contact/more info: 364 1199.
  Free.
  Sponsor: University of Otago, Christchurch.
  
  

• One day workshop: Enviro-Mark.

  "A must for any new Enviro-Mark member and highly recommended for all existing members".
  When: 8.45 - 5.00 pm Wednesday, 25 March.
  Where: Landcare Research, Waikirikiri Seminar Room, Gerald Street, Lincoln.
  About Enviro-Mark.
  
  

• Enviro–Mark Drop In Session

  When: 2.30 – 5.30 pm Thursday, 26 March.
  Where: Landcare Research, Waikirikiri Seminar Room, Gerald Street, Lincoln.
  
  

• Green Drinks:

  An informal get together for everyone of an environmental hue.
  When: 5.30 pm Thursday, 26 March.
  Where: Downstairs, at the big bay window in the Brew Bar, Dux de Lux, Arts Centre.
  Background info here. (www.greendrinks.org).
  
  

• Talk: The Mystique of India: Hinduism

  When: 6.30 pm Thursday, 26 March.
  Where: Refugee and Migrant Centre, corner of Peterbough & Madras (entrance from the car park on Peterbough St).
  More info: Dianne 348-9579, or  Bertha 355-0959.
  Sponsored by Christchurch Interfaith Council.
  
  

• Talk: All about the (declining) NZ sea lion – among world’s rarest.

  Speaker: Dr Louise Chilvers, marine mammal scientist, Wellington (via Auckland Islands).
  When: 7.30 pm Thursday, 26 March.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  Organised by: Forest & Bird.
  
  

• DOCNZ 2009 Documentary film festival.

  When: Christchurch schedule: March 26 - April 5.
  Selected environmental documentaries here.
  More info and full programme here: www.docnz.org.nz.
  
  

• Kaikoura event: Kaikoura's biodiversity bonanza:

  to advertise/foster awareness of available information and services promoting biodiversity - on both private and public land.
  When: 9.00 - 4.00 pm Friday, 27 March.
  Where: in & around Kaikoura's Memorial Hall.
  info here. (www.canterburybiodiversity.org.nz).
  All welcome.
  Contact/info/those wishing to display: Jodie 03 319 5026 or jodie.denton@kaikoura.govt.nz.
  (Hosted by Kaikoura District Council, ECan & other supporters of the Canterbury Biodiversity Strategy).
  
  

• National Peace Workshops 2009

  Workshops and discussion on peace issues
  27 - 29 March, at Quaker Settlement, Whanganui
  info: www.converge.org.nz
  or: pma@xtra.co.nz
  Registration by Wednesday, 18 March.
  
  

• Event: Earth hour (8.30 - 9.30 pm) & launch of Energy Awareness Week.

  Switch off & see the city in a whole new light.
  When: 6.00 - 10.00 pm Saturday, 28 March.
  Where: Cathedral Square.
  More info: www.earthhour.org.nz.
  
  

• Walk for the Planet.

  (Started Feb 24 in Invercargill). Due in Christchurch Saturday 28 March, to coincide with Earth Hour.)
  More info and for walkers, runners and
  cyclists wanting to register online:
  www.walk4theplanet.org.nz.
  
  

• EARTHWISE, Plains FM 96.9

  Each Monday & Wednesday at 9.00 pm.
  Conservation, environment and peace with justice.
  This week's interview: Dr John Peet, chemical engineer & scientist, talks about the Earth Charter, how and why  it was created,
  and  the challenges it  confronts us with for a better world.
  Presenters: Martin and Lois Griffiths.
  NB: Listen again to Earthwise programmes on archive.
  

Coming up:

• Lecture: How we learned what the stars are made of.

  Speakers: Florian Maisonneuve and Graham Townsend.
  When: 7.00 pm Wednesday, 1 April - enrolments close 25 March.
  Cost: $15.
  More info: here.
  
  

• Event: Public Meeting on changes to the RMA.

  Several speakers including Greens Co-Leader Russel Norman.
  When: 7.30 pm Monday, 30 March.
  Where: Our City- Otautahi, cnr Oxford Tce & Worcester Boulevard.
  More info: Grace, 365 5693.
  
  

• Talk: Health Lecture Series 2009:How & where will you go for health care in 2020?

  Speaker: Professor Les Toop, Dept of Public Health and General Practice.
  When: 7.30 pm Wednesday, 1 April.
  Where: Rolleston Lecture Theatre, Christchurch Hospital.
  Sponsor: University of Otago.
  
  

• Heritage event, Oamaru: Harvest Home.

  To celebrate storing the season's last sheaf of wheat.
  When: Saturday, 5 April.
  Where: Totara Estate.
  More info: here.
  Organised by NZ Historic Places Trust.
  
  

• Bio-blitz 2009.

  When: 3.15pm Friday 3rd — 3.15pm Saturday 4th April.
  Where: Liffey Domain, Lincoln.
  More info: BioBlitz (LandcareResearch/Manaaki Whenua).
  
  

• Talk: Einstein's Universe.

  Speaker: Brian Foster (European Director of the International Linear Collider) and Jack Liebeck (musician).
  When: 7.30 - 9.00 pm Tuesday, 7 April.
  Where: Great Hall, Arts Centre.
  Host: University of Canterbury.
  More info: here.
  
  

• Weekend workshop: The Power of We:

  Harnessing community power to shape the future and create collective change.
  With: Margaret Jefferies & Anneleise Hall.
  When: April 11 and 12.
  Where: The Old Vicarage, Governors Bay.
  Cost: $220 (Accommodation, materials and most meals included)
  More info/registration: Anneleise  (03) 328 9317  or email ah@potentiate.co.nz.
  
  

Reminders:

• Exhibition: Banks' Florilegium:

  Plants collected by Banks on Cook's 1769 - 71 voyage.
  (A selection of engravings after Sydney Parkinson's watercolours).
  When: 10.00 - 4.00 pm daily till 22 March.
  Where: Robert McDougall Gallery, Botanic Gardens.
  Cost: $10.
  Info: ph. 365 5403 or festivalofflowers.co.nz
  
  

• Science Alive! - Botanica

  A botanical exhibition including interactive learning about pollination and seed dispersal, its importance and its vulnerability.
  When: Until Sunday, 10 May.
  Where: Science Alive! 329 Moorhouse Ave, Christchurch.
  For ages 3 to 103.
  More info, costs etc: Science Alive!
  Contact: 365 5199.
  
  

• Oxfam Trailwalker 2009: Lake Taupo, 4 & 5 April.

  A team challenge - walk 100kms in under 36 hours to help overcome poverty and injustice. More info here.