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:

Council adopts mid-Heathcote River development plan. (9 April, CCC).

Pumping tests to be required with groundwater consent applications. "If Canterbury people are to have healthy streams and rivers, the level of groundwater abstraction must be based on resource availability." (15 April, ECan).

Banks Peninsula community intiated possum control programme. (16 April, ECan).

Nelson: Plan for 200km Tasman cycleway to get an airing. (15 April, Nelson Mail/Stuff).

Nelson: Saving the planet. Transition Towns (opinion piece). (14 April, Nelson Mail/Stuff).

Otago: Air NZ flight cuts. Dunedin will have no international flights for several months. (16 April, Otago Daily times).

Southland: Firm may fast-track wind farm. (11 April, Otago Daily Times).

Southland: Dairy boom puts environment at risk. From 50,000 to nearly 500,000 cows in 20 years. (11 April, Southland times/Stuff).

Stewart Island: Wind a winner in renewable energy trial. (13 April, Southland Times/Stuff).

North Island & national:

Mokihinui hydro hearing: DOC and Green Party lodge formal complaint - "the filing of 450 pages of further evidence by Meridian, has seriously undermined the integrity of the hearings process." (15 April, Infonews).

Govt cool on Kyoto surplus. Still facing big challenges on climate change. (16 April, NZ Herald).

Landowners with the right to take more (public) water than they need are selling their surplus and pocketing the cash. "Should they be able to sell something they don't own? They only have the right to use it." (16 April, Dominion Post/Stuff).

Downturn taking toll on tourism companies. (14 April, NZ Herald).
Also: Tourism industry braced for big chill. (16 April, NZ Herald).

Farming leads in rising RMA prosecutions. (13 April, Dominion Post/Stuff).

Councils around the country challenge govt on big roading projects. (13 April, NZ Herald).

Contact Energy CEO: ETS will raise power prices. (13 April, NZ Herald).

Rising power demand puts pressure on wind turbine objections. (13 April, NZ Herald).

The Warehouse to start selling online electricity this week - believed to be a world first. (13 April, NZ Herald).

KiwiRail scores deal for logs. 2000 fewer truck trips to Wellington port.
Also:
KiwiRail wants to boost marginal Napier to Gisborne branch line. (13 April, Dominion Post/Stuff).

Delay on new air standards in the wind. (11 April, Dominion Post/Stuff).

Eight NZ conservation projects named among the best in Australasia. (15 April, NZ Herald).

Auckland/Coromandel: Ministry gives provisional approval for shellfish farms after 13 year battle. (15 April, NZ Herald).

Porirua harbour: Being used as a rubbish tip - "a sea of unsightly trash, including hundreds of tyres, shopping trolleys, road cones and rusted oil drums." (16 April, Dominion Post/Stuff).

Taranaki report: Water, waste & biodiversity loss - the region's three major environmental challenges. (15 April, Taranaki Daily News/Stuff).

Breakthrough on contraceptive pill for possums may cut 1080 use. (13 April, Dominion Post/Stuff).

Palmerston North: City Council is taking out the trash. Aiming at 75% by 2015. (15 April, Manawatu Standard/Stuff).

Dannevirke: Contact Energy wind farm fight heading for environment court showdown. (15 April, Dominion Post/Stuff).

Natural world:
Three new birds join growing endangered list. (16 April, NZ Herald).

Rimutakas brown kiwi release. Wellington region's first free ranging population in more than a century. (14 April, Wairarapa Times-Age).

Living taonga arrive in Nelson. (9 April, Nelson evening Mail/Stuff).

Invercargill: Kakapo chicks needed a helping hand. Insufficient food on Codfish Island. (11 April, Otago Daily Times).

Southland: Keeping Kakapo alive. (11 April, Southland Times/Stuff).

Wanaka's Te Kakano restoration nursery thrives. (11 April, Otago Daily Times).

MacKenzie Basin: DOC catching more predators. (11 April, Otago Daily Times).

Re-linked awards, submissions, consultations etc:

• Last days! Education vacancy: Enviroschools Canterbury want a facilitator for their programme in Christchurch City & Kaikoura districts. The position is part-time, fixed-term (12 months), 0.8 FTE. For more information contact Enviroschools Canterbury Regional Coordinator: andrea.creighton@ecan.govt.nz Applications to: Regional Coordinator, Enviroschools Canterbury, PO Box 345 Christchurch. Further information at www.enviroschools.org.nz. Applications close Sunday, 19 April.
  
  
• Support the Get Real campaign against free and profligate plastic bags usage in NZ. (1 billion bags a year). "We also looking for many volunteers to help on the Action towards Foodstuffs on 20 April in Christchurch". (see under diary of events: coming up). Contact: Angus@wanakawastebusters.co.nz.
  
  
• Riccarton area Transition Initiative: Mik Dale, postgraduate student at the University of Canterbury (studying Energy Supply Systems), also has a keen interest in sustainability and Transition issues. Mik wants to meet like-minded people to help set up a Transition Initiative in the Riccarton area. Contact for Mik is mikdale@gmail.com.
  (What's Transition about? See here: www.transitiontowns.org.nz and/or: www.transitiontowns.org.nz/christchurch).
  
  
• BOC Where There's Water community environmental grants scheme aims to help communities understand, maintain, protect and improve their water environment. Grants are open to all non-profit community groups and schools. The fund is administerd by Water New Zealand. Next round of applications due by Friday, 15 May. More information and project examples at: www.waternz.org.nz
  
  
• Heat pump water heaters: New funding pilot programme for efficient water heating - same grant as for solar. (EECA).
  
  
• For science students (year 1 - 10) : NZ International Science online project. Ten weeks, 27 April - 3 July. (DOC).
  
  
• New Canterbury Home Energy Advice Centre open - 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. March 2009 - March 2010. (Enviroschools.org).
  
  
• ECan's long term plan open for submissions until 28 April. (1 April, ECan).
  
  
• 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).

& from there

• UK: Socialism has failed. Now Capitalism is bankrupt. So what comes next? Eric Hobsbawm, 10 April, The Guardian).
  
  
• UK: Consumption dwarfs population as main environmental threat. A small portion of the world's people use up most of the earth's resources and produce most of its greenhouse gas emissions. (Fred Pearce, 15 April, The Guardian).
  
  
• South Africa: Climate change may halve Southern Africa cereal crop. (16 April, PlanetArk.org).
  
  
• Colombia: Indians plead for water preservation - the country's water supply is being threatened by an expanding unregulated agricultural sector. (14 April, Reuters).
  
  
• UK: Health risks of shipping pollution have been underestimated. 15 of the biggest ships can equate to the pollution of all the world's 760m cars. (9 April, The Guardian).
  
  
• US: Emerging threats: Signs of another food crisis in the making this year, spurred in part by the ongoing credit crunch. (6 April, Martin Walker, UPI.com).
  
  
• Germany: Joins ban on cultivation & sale of Monsanto GMO maize despite EU's declaration of safety. (14 April, Reuters).
  
  
• US: Manure more precious than gold. Last year the prices of some farm fertilizers shot up to over a thousand dollars a ton...Getting enough manure and other organic wastes to make up for a shortage of commercial fertilizer would be an enormous challenge. (9 April, Energy Bulletin).
  
  
• Canada: Sustainability a growing movement at colleges, universities - and each year they're churning out reams of green graduates schooled in the ways of environmental building. (10 April, The Canadian Press/Google).
  
  
• EU: Greener fuels will add to cost of motoring, oil companies say. (16 April, Times Online).
  
  
• US: The great biodiesel shutdown. The sufferings of the American biodiesel industry. (3 April, greeninc/New York Times).
  
  
• US: Water worries cloud future for US bio-fuel. (14 April, Reuters).
  
  
• US: Glamour dims as hecklers hit the auto show. (13 April, New York Times).
  
  
• China: Outlines plans for making eclectric cars. (10 April, New York Times).
  
  
• US: Is America's love affair with the 'exburbs' over? Some planners say the hard times are spurring a long-term shift away from the car-centric sprawl that has defined increasing swaths of the landscape since World War II. (10 April, Reuters).
  
  Financial scene:
  
• Finite resources: one possible explanation for the financial crisis. (slideshow). (Gail Tverberg, March,The Oil Drum).
  
  
• Global downturn in graphics. (19 March, BBC).
  
  
• US: Mr Soddy's ecological economy. A little-regarded British (Nobel winning) chemist-turned-economist who wrote before and during the Great Depression. He was roundly dismissed as a crank. (11 April, New York Times).
  
  
• US: Seattle start up company hopes to cash in on bartering. (8 April, Seattlepi.com).
  
  
New technology:

• US: Ancient diatoms lead to new technology for solar energy. (8 april, Eurekalert).
  
  
• Singapore: Scientists say they can turn CO2 into biofuel. (16 April, Reuters).
  
  
• China: Cheap and efficient white light LEDs with new design - can produce twice as much light as a normal LED - including the white light desired for home and office lighting. (9 April, Science Daily).
  
  
  
  
• Indian Study: Does modern life cause allergies? An allergy epidemic is sweeping parts of the world. (16 April, BBC).
  
  
• UK: Britain in 2009: annual Social Trends study. E.g., a little over half are worried about climate change. (16 April, The Independent).
  
  
• UK: The secret life of the 'guerilla gardener'. Can be as genteel as planting cowslips on a neglected verge – which may be why it is being taken up by people who have never broken the law before. (15 April, The Independent).
  
  
• UK: Woman cooks her garden snails to beat credit crunch. (14 April, The Daily Mail).
  
  
From the natural world:
• Oslo: Birds face longer migrations due to climate change.(14 April, Reuters).
  
  
• WWF: Overfishing will wipe out Atlantic blue-fin tuna in 3 years. (14 April, Reuters).
  
  
• UK: Common soil bacteria can have antidepressant effects - promote serotonin production. (12 April, Eco Child's Play).
  
  
• US: Snow rollers: extremely rare because of the unique combination of snow, wind, temperature and moisture needed to create them. (photos). (16 April, Digg).
  
  

Using ecoNet

Is easy. Just send in to the editor information about an event, activity or submission you want to share and it will go in ecoNet....as long as it's appropriate of course.

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.

How do I contribute?

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• WEA Open day.

  Free food, Trade Aid tea & coffee, music, & free presentation on climate change/sustainability.
  When: 10.00 - 1.00 pm Saturday, 18 April.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  More: 366 0285 or at cwea.
  
  

• Work day: Travis Wetland Trust: planting and weeding.

  When: 9.00 – 12.00 pm Saturday, 18 April.
  Where: Meet at Beach Rd Education Centre.
  Bring: Gumboots, water, warm clothes.
  Contact: Joe Greenaway 383 2073.
  
  

• Event: Korean Society :

  AGM along with cultural performances, family games, food stalls, free oriental style health consulting, chance to meet Korean community.
  When: 10.00 – 3.00 pm Saturday, 18 April.
  Where: Fendalton Service Centre, 170 Clyde Rd.
  Free.
  Contact: ph 348 2766.
  
  

• Event: Asian Cultural Fiesta:

  Acts from China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Asian food for sale.
  When: Saturday, 18 April. (Doors open 5.00 pm for 6.30 pm start).
  Where: Repertory Theatre, 146 Kilmore St.   Cost: $18 adults; school children $5; under 10s free.
  Contact/bookings: Taz 0272 738 815 or (a.h.) 03 960 2477; Msg 03 379 4222.
  Sponsored by the Chinese Poll Tax Fund.
  
  

• Event: Field trip to Mt Cass.

  Limestone landscape, panoramic views, mature forest remnants, home to rare native plants & animals. (5km east of Waipara).
  When: Sunday, 19 April.
  Where: Meet at 10.00 am outside Amberley public toilets.
  Contact: Lesley 379 0316.
  Organised by Forest & Bird.
  
  

• Supporters wanted: to help delivery to Foodstuff of banner with anti-supermarket plastic bags signatures.

  When: 10.45 - c12.30 pm Monday, 20 April.
  Where: Foodstuff Head Office, 167 Main North Rd.
  Meet: Carpark, Redwood Park, 341 Main North Road.
  Sign the petition here: Get Real.
  Contact: Angus Ho: Angus@wanakawastebusters.co.nz.
  
  

• Event: Cafe Conversations: Environment in Crisis.

  Speakers: Cr Chrissie Williams on Thinking globally, acting locally - how to make a difference at a local level; & Rev Mark Gibson on Greening of the church - from "man's dominion" to "sustainable ecology".
  Chaired by Mary McCammon.
  When: meal (from $12) at 6.00 pm; speakers & discussion at 7.00 pm Tuesday, 21 April.
  Where: Ocean's Cafe, New Brighton Mall.
  All welcome - koha appreciated.
  Enquiries: Don or Olive 3886882.
  Sponsored by a group of New Brighton churches.
  
  

• Public Meeting: Help save Christchurch's heritage buildings, parks and places.

  When: 7.30 pm, Tuesday 21 April.
  Venue: Sydenham Heritage Church, cnr Colombo and Brougham Streets - parking off Stanley St. (behind church).
  Koha to cover expenses.
  Arranged by a group considering setting up an organisation called Heritage Action Aotearoa.
  
  

• Night classes: Vegetarian cooking.

  (breadmaking, dairy free cheese, economical protein dishes, healthful desserts, sugar free biscuits & cakes, dairy free butters, ...more).
  When: 7.30 pm Tuesdays, starting 21 April. (6 weekly sessions).
  Where: SDA Community Hall, 24 Ilam Rd.
  Cost: $5.00 a night.
  Contact/more info: Korina or Angela 313 7701, or click here. (health.autumnleaves.co.nz).
  
  

• Public Lecture: New directions with old friends: The US - NZ relationship.

  Speaker:  Dr David J. Keegan, Chargé d’Affaires, U.S. Embassy.
  When: 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, 22 April.
  Where: Our City O-Tautahi, corner Worcester Boulevard & Oxford Terrace.
  
  

• Talk: The Mystique of India: Buddhism

  Speaker:  Almeric Cheng,  President, International Buddhist Association of NZ (ChCh branch). (Followed by question & answer session, tea and coffee).
  When: 7.00 pm Thursday, 23 April. 
  Where: Refugee and Migrant Centre, corner Peterbough and Madras (entrance from the car park on Peterbough St.)
  More information: Dianne 348-9579, or  Bertha 355-0959.
  Sponsored by Christchurch Interfaith Council.
  
  

• ANZAC Day celebration: Our peacemakers – past & present.

  Format: 5 minute presentations - various speakers, also songs, poems, more.
  When: 5.00 – 6.00 pm Saturday, 25 April.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St. (opposite the Art Gallery).
  Free Entry. A koha for expenses appreciated. Children welcome.
  Enquiries: Deborah Williams ph 359 3478 or: dmw14@ext.canterbury.ac.nz.
  
  

• Event: St Albans Harvest Celebration.

  Celebrate the abundance of our backyards and meet other local gardeners.
  When: 2.00 - 4.00 pm Sunday, 26 April.
  Where: Packe Street Community Garden.
  Bring something from your garden to swap (flowers, herbs, veggies, fruit, cuttings, preserves...), and food & drink to share.
  (A part of Transition Initiative St Albans).
  

• EARTHWISE, Plains FM 96.9

  Each Monday & Wednesday at 9.00 pm.
  Conservation, environment and peace with justice.
  This week: Rev Don Borrie, one of the editors of Pyongyang report, News and views on DPRK (North Korea), and a founder of NZ-DPRK Society: The situation in North Korea today.
  Presenters: Martin and Lois Griffiths.
  NB: Listen again to Earthwise programmes on archive.
  
  

Coming up:

• Talk: History of Canterbury Museum.

  Speaker: Sally Burrage, emeritus curator of Canterbury Museum history.
  When: 6.00 - 7.00 pm Tuesday,
  28 April.
  Where: Documentary Research Centre, Canterbury Museum.
  
  

• Seminar: the Environmental Valuation Reference Inventory (EVRI) database:

  Improving policy analysis and decision making
  in the 21st century - understanding environmental, health & conservation impacts is critical to supporting policy analysis.
  Presenter: Yves Bourassa, Policy Manager, Environment Canada.
  When: 12.45 – 1.45 pm Wednesday, 29 April.
  Where: Hilgendorf 1 (H1) lecture theatre, Lincoln University.
  RSVP by 20 April to Mark Jones: mjones@linz.govt.nz; or ph (04) 460 0186
  
  

• Wellington event: Power Up: a climate change action hui.

  Where: Crossways Community Centre, Wellington Central.
  When: Thurs, April 30 - Saturday, May 2.
  More info/contact: caroline@sustaintrust.org.nz, ph 04 389 3400 ext 705.
  Supported by Hikurangi Foundation.
  
  

• Nelson event: Small scale biogas and anaerobic digestion plants for house and farm.

  for those interested in constructing and operating a 'backyard' biogas plant.
  When: 7.00 pm Thursday, 30 April.
  Where: Maharishi Vedic Academy, 295 Wainui Rd, Silverdale.
  More info here. (www.transitiontowns.org.nz).
  
  

• Talk: What it means to genuinely deal with climate change.

  Speaker: Bill McKibben, US, environmentalist & climate change campaigner (see here), founder of www.350.org.
  When: 9.00 am (public address) &/or 10.00 am (NGO morning tea), Friday, 1 May.
  Where: Conference Room 1, Christchurch Community House.
  see also: www.350.org.nz.
  
  

• Meeting: To consider re-establishing a Christchurch Environment Centre.

  When: 7.00 pm Friday, 1 May.
  Where: Camellia Room, CCC, Tuam St.
  Organised by Organic Garden City Trust.
  
  

• Presentations by secondary school students:

  (after their week long education camp exploring waste): Tiromoana: There's no such place as away!
  When: 10.30 - 12.00 pm Friday, 8 May.
  Where: Our City - Otautahi, corner Worcester Boulevard & 0xford Tce.
  Background info here.
  
  

• NZ Climate Change Centre Conference 2009.

  Climate change adaptation - managing the unavoidable.
  When: 20 - 21 May.
  Where: Te Papa, Wellington.
  More info here. (www.sustainablecities.org.nz)
  Organised by NZ Climate Change Centre.
  

Reminders:

• Free home composting workshops:

  Hot composting of kitchen scraps & garden waste, Bokashi and worm farms. All methods demonstrated.
  At two sites:
  1. Opawa Community Gardens, 176 Opawa Rd (at Aynsley Tce). 1.00 - 2.30 pm each Saturday.
  2. Okeover Community Garden - University of Canterbury, Engineering Road. (Map here). 12.00 - 1.30 pm each Wednesday.
  More info/contact: Annmarie 021 190 4559 or 942 7190 (evenings).
  Supported by CCC.
  
  

• Free bike checks, service and maintenance:

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

• NZ Oxfam's biggest coffee break 2009.

  Help struggling coffee growers out of poverty by organising a Coffee Break for your friends or workmates during Fairtrade Fortnight (May 2-17).
  Registration/more info: oxfam.org.nz/fair-trade.
  
  

• 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.