from here

Canterbury & South Island:

Public consultation on draft Christchurch surface water strategy: CCC wants feedback on its goals and objectives for surface water (including stormwater) and water quality management in ChCh rivers and tributaries. Until 14 August. See under diary of events: Coming up for CCC information sessions, dates & venues. More info and online submissions here. (Have your say, CCC).

Reasons given for doubts over CPW water plan. Unsustainable. (15 July, The Press/Stuff).

Hybrid rail/bus system for Christchurch? (13 July, Stuff/The Press).

CCC rewards owners of fuel efficient cars. (15 July, CCC).

Christchurch company fined for blue ink discharge. (10 July, ECan).

Metro's orbiter turns 10. (13 July, ECan).
Also:
Metro service review of North East & South West Christhchurch bus routes. Feedback welcome, sought even. (14 July, ECan).

South Island, east & south: fishing quota for flatfish increased. Worth $1.8m. (16 July, Otago Daily Times).

Murchison: Hydro plan 'would be a disaster'. (13 July, Nelson Mail/Stuff).

Otago Uni's new device to track small native birds. (15 July, Otago Daily Times).

Otago: Beaches set for protected status. (15 July, Otago Daily Times).

Central Otago: Endangered skinks get their first safe haven. (15 July, Southland Times/Stuff).

Lake Manapouri: Stowaway threatened island sanctuary. (10 July, DOC).

Hollyford Track: Martins Bay hut restoration culminates five years work. (10 July, DOC).

Invercargill: Local Govt core services: Hands off our knitting. (11 July, Southland Times/Stuff).

Invercargill: Kakapo chicks safely home to Codfish Island/Whenuahou. (10 July, DOC).

North Island & national:

Climate Change Issues Minister Smith gets grilling at climate change meeting. Some laughs too. (13 July, NZ Herald).

Nano particles pose threats, say scientists. Used in more than 800 consumer products. (13 July, Stuff/The Press).

Carbon tax 'better than ETS plan', says right-wing think tank. (16 July, The Press/Stuff).

Taxpayers foot bill for oil, gas search, says Green Party. (16 The Press/Stuff).

Don't waste science cash on GM, Fitzsimons says. (16 July, The Press/Stuff).

Replace Foreshore and Seabed Act with coastal commission. Gary Taylor. (13 Jully, NZ Herald).

Carter tackles food security at exclusive London Club. (13 July, NBR).

Future of conservation estate the subject of a public symposium in Dunedin. (15 July, Otago Daily Times).
Also:
'Conservation economy' important - Minister Groser. (13 July, Otago Daily Times).

Super-city will have no watchdog on environmental issues. Hans van der Wal. (15 July, NZ Herald).

Green MP Kedgley slams folic acid decision in heated TV debate. (12 July, TVNZ).
Also:
Scientists dispute safety claims. (16 July, The Press/Stuff).

Wheels come off national cycleway plans. (12 July, Otago Daily Times).

Teens take Kiwi concerns abroad. Five off to Copenhagen in October. (13 July, NZ Herald).

Penguins perish on Wellington roads. (15 July, DOC).

Strait flush for whale watchers. Forty-six humpback whales and one sperm whale sighted during the four-week Cook Strait whale survey. (13 July, Dominion Post/Stuff).

Fiordland Great Walks: Milford, Routeburn, Kepler : bookings now open for up to two years ahead. (13 July, DOC).

Is your local river polluted?
Russel Norman, Green MP, is collating stories from around the country to get a region by region picture of the state of our fresh waterways.
Is your local river or lake too polluted for swimming in summer? Subject to algal blooms? Are there persistent polluters in your area, such as farm discharges, waste-water treatment plants, meatworks, factories, or others? Help to get our rivers and lakes cleaned up, so children can swim in them again and native fish can return. Send your stories to Caitlin Carew, Out of Parliament campaigner on environmental issues: environment@greens.org.nz.

Enviroschools/Good magazine offer: Good magazine will feature Enviroschools in August issue in its regular 8 page feature Good Cause. And publisher HB Media will donate 20% of all subscriptions sold between August and October to the Enviroschools Foundation. A 12 month subscription (6 copies) is $45 – ie $9 will go to Enviroschools.

Re-linked awards, submissions, consultations etc:

• Save our Enviroschools: Green MP Catherine Delahunty's web page. (1 July, Green Party).
  
  
• School Food petition: MP Sue Kedgley is circulating a petition calling for the reinstatement of nutrition guidelines in schools, which the government repealed earlier this year. With guidelines gone, schools are free to sell as much junk food as they like. Find (& print) a copy of the petition here. To be returned by July 31.
  
  
• RSNZ Manhire prize for creative science writing: The place - past, present or future - of human beings in the universe. Closes 22 September.
  
  
• Quail Island/Otamahua: Closed July 10 - 31, for Mouse eradication. (DOC).
  
  
• Youtube competition: Unleash your inner film director! Part of city libraries' promotion of all types of learning and recreation. (3 July, CCC).
  
  
• Southern Right Whale sightings. DOC wants the public to report sightings as they (whales) make their way south.

• Submissions invited: on draft Kahurangi National Park management proposals. Including, for e.g., proposals to trial mountain bikes on the Heaphy Track. By 1 September.

• Have your say: CCC current consultations. (There are 9 presently, 3 more within the next month).
  

• Call for Heritage Award nominations in Hagley/Ferrymead area. (CCC).
  

• Have your say on the Brooklands Lagoon area parks plans. Consultation closes 31 August.
  

• Nominations open for 2009 Roger Award. CAFCA (Campaign against foreign control of Aotearoa).
  
  
• ECan's Environment Enhancement Fund open: 1 June - 31 August. Anyone can apply for up to $5000 for projects that benefit the health of ecosystems in the region. More info/applications: www.ecan.govt.nz/eef.
  
  
• Sign On: help avoid catastrophic climate change. Sign on here. (www.signon.org.nz). Greenpeace climate change campaign - to
  get NZ to commit to target of 40% GHG reduction by 2020 at UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December.
  

& from there

• Paris: Vision dimming for climate deal. Cathrine Field. (14 July, NZ Herald).
  
  
• US: Five climate change pieces with something new to say (short excerpts). (14 July, WorldChanging).
  
  
• US: Three things the developing world wants from a global climate deal. (14 July, Treehugger).
  
  
• UK: The Manchester Report: Twenty ideas that could save the world. (13 July, The Guardian).
  
  
• UK: Can an artist's wheatfield in Hackney switch the mood on climate change? (12 July, The Guardian).
  
  
• France: France imports UK electricity. Summer heat puts a third of its nuclear power stations out of action. (3 July, Times Online).
  
  
• UK: Emerging markets' demand overtakes the West: Why the oil price will continue to rise. Video, 5 min interview. (8 July, Telegraph.co.uk).
  
  
• China: Car sales continue to climb. Up 48% in the last year. Economy growing at more than 6%. (9 July, BBC).
  
  
• UK: The unemployment time bomb is ticking. (4 July, The Telegraph).
  
  
• UK: The junk food divide: it may have nothing to do with genes and everything to do with what is in shopping baskets. (10 July, The Daily Mail).
  
  
• UK: Demise of Britain's Royal Show after 160 years: The Mr Bigs of farming leave a barren legacy. (12 July, Times Online).
  
  
• US: San Francisco's latest eco-innovation - growing food almost everywhere. (9 July, Mother Jones).
  
  
• UK: Fair trade, organic Palestinian olive oil: the most ethical product ever produced? (11 July, Telegraph.co.uk).
  
  
• US: Meet the Dervaeses of Pasadena, poster family for a new way of living. Their website receives five million hits a month and has fans across the globe, e.g. China, Uzbekistan and Benin. (9 July, Telegraph.co.uk).
  
  
• Australia: Peak oil means peak food as well. Now that energy is declining ...Australia needs a "Manhattan Project" for local, sustainable food production. Michael Llardelli. (13 July, Online Opinion.com).
  
  
• Iraq: The Euphrates River is drying up. Only partly climatic. (13 July, New York Times).
  
  
• Germany: Berlin brothel offering discounts for clients arriving by bike. "It's good for business, it's good for the environment – and it's good for the girls". (14 July, The Guardian).
  
  
• US: After rigorous study world wide, scientists reveal the world's dirtiest coastal eco-system. No, it's not in China. (13 July, Treehugger).
  
  Technology:
  
• Japan: New tyres made of oil from orange peels. (9 July, Earth911.com).
  
  
• US: 10 wind turbines that push the limits of design. (9 July, Popular Mechanics).
  
  
• Germany: Human hybrid speed machine: the e-rocket. Possibly the fastest pedal powered bike on the planet. (3 July, CNN video, 1 min 40).
  
  
• Peru: Fog catchers bring water to parched villages. (9 July, National Geographic).
  
  Natural world:
  
• US: Can ancient fossils predict future climate change? Examining the record from the mid-Pliocene warm period, 3.3 to 3.0 million years ago. (8 July, The Daily Galaxy).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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?

Use the links below to:

• forward ecoNet address to others you think may like to receive it - it's free
  
• become a subscriber
  
• send us information for the weekly diary.
• contact us

• Invitation: Join Sustainable Otautahi Christchurch (SOC) for a mid-winter shared meal and Matariki celebration.

  Also featuring artist, gnomologist and smile missionary, Henry Sunderland, from CPIT's school of Art & Design. 
  When: 7.00 pm Friday, 17 July.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  Bring: Food to share.
  
  

• Souped up cycles: Free bicycle maintenance & soup for lunch.

  Get help to keep your bike on the road.
  Learn to fix punctures, adjust brakes, oil & grease, straighten wheels, etc.
  When: 11.00 - 3.00 pm Saturday, 18 July.
  Where: Linwood Community Art Centre, corner Stanmore Rd & Worcester St.
  Bring: Old bikes and parts to donate; also
  expertise - if you have skills, come and help.
  Contact/info: Jenny, Te Whare Roimata, 3795 134.
  
  

• Free composting course:

  When: 10.00 - 11.30 am Saturday, 18 July. Where: Strickland St Community Garden, 188 Strickland St.
  Info/contact: www.sscommunitygarden.net.nz.
  
  

• Planting day: Port Robinson Reserve, North Canterbury. (Near Gore Bay).

  To establish 1700 native plants.
  When: 10.00 - 12.00 pm Sunday, 19 July.
  Where: Go to Domett; turn R onto Hurunui Mouth Rd; then 1st L (Cathedral Rd), then 1st R (Manuka Bay Rd). Park nr track to Manuka Bay. Look for signs.
  Bring: family, friends & a spade.
  More info/contact: Steve 982 1028 or 027 297 3829.
  Trees supplied by Trees for Canterbury.
  
  

• Event: Film: 'The Living Land'.

  Community gardens and organic living, followed by discussion, led by Matt Morris.
  When: 2.30 - 4.00 pm Sunday, 19 July.
  Where: St Mary's Catholic Church lounge, Lonsdale Street, New Brighton
  Cost: koha/gold coin.
  Host: Christchurch East Greens.
  
  
  

• Govt's public consultation: NZ's 2020 emissions target.

  Webcast from the Beehive Theatrette with live consultation.
  When: 7.30 pm Monday, 20 July.
  More info: here. (www.r2.co.nz/20090720/).
  Send questions for the panel to 2020target@mfe.govt.nz.
  Organised by Ministry for the Environment.
  
  
  

• Meeting: for global day of action on climate change, October 24.

  Concerned about climate change? Want to join in? Ideas, volunteers, donations needed.
  When: 5.30 - 7.00 pm Thursday, 23 July.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  Info/contact: Torfrida 382-0580 or 021-107-3937, or torfrida@snap.net.nz or Ric
  ricbrown@gmail.com;
  See also: www.350.org.nz.
  
  

• Film and exhibition: Taking a break from Capitalism.

  Film-maker: Paul Maunder .
  When: 2.30 pm Sunday, 26 July.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  
  

• Meeting: Save Our Water campaign.

  An update on regional council work.
  When: 8.00 pm Sunday, 26 July.
  Where: Sanddance Cafe, 3 Carnaby Mall, New Brighton'. (mall beside Paper Plus, off Seaview Road)
  All welcome, bring questions & requests.
  
  

• EARTHWISE, Plains FM 96.9

  Each Monday & Wednesday at 9.00 pm.
  Conservation, environment and peace with justice.
  This week: Julie webb, for Wellington's Latin America Solidarity, speaking about the coup in Honduras; and indigenous people of Peru in their struggle to combat transnational resource extraction.
  Presenters: Martin and Lois Griffiths.
  NB: Listen again to Earthwise programmes on archive.
  
  

• Collectors wanted: Amnesty International annual street appeal.

  When: 6,7,8, August.
  More info/contact: Sara, National Freedom Week co-ordinator:
  freedomweek@amnesty.org.nz
  or 0800 AMNESTY (266 378) xtn 208.
  

Coming up:

• CCC Information sessions: Draft Christchurch surface water strategy.

  When: 12.00, 1.00, & 5.30 pm Monday, 27 July.
  Where: Our City/Otautahi, crnr of Worcester Blvd and Oxford Tce.
  Also:
  6.00 pm Wednesday, 29 July at Little River Community Centre.
  More info/online submission forms: www.ccc.govt.nz/HaveYourSay. 
  
  

• Public meeting: Funding cuts to Adult and Community Education.

  Format: short addresses with time for comments and questions from the floor.
  Speakers (to date): Denis Pyatt, Principal, Papanui High School; Maryke Fordyce, President of CLASS (Community Learning Association Through Schools), current director of Risingholme Community Centre; Hon Maryan Street, Labour Party spokesperson, Tertiary Education; MP to be decided.
  When: 7.00 pm Monday, 27 July.
  Where:  Papanui High School Hall, 30 Langdons Road, Christchurch.
  
  

• Workers Rights Campaign planning meeting.

  When: 7.30 pm Monday, 27 July.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  Contact: Byron byroncclark@gmail.com
  
  

• Practical Organic Home Gardening.

  Tutor: Lily White, manager of Opawa Community Garden & 'Kids Edible Gardening' programme.
  When: Starts 29 July. 6 Wednesdays, 6.00 - 7.30 pm.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  Cost: $32.
  More info: CWEA programme. (#14).
  Enrol/contact: CWEA.
  
  

• Te Wiki o to reo Maori/Maori language week (27 July - 2 August).

  
  

• Talk series: Save the world.

  Three evening lectures.
  Speakers: 1 Geoff White, general manager for Trade Aid, on The birth of the stakeholder economy.
  2. Pauline McKay, 9 years with WHO, now director for CWS, on World health issues.
  3. Prof Ian Spelllerberg, Lincoln University, on Is the focus on climate change warranted?
  When: 7.30 pm Thursday, 30 July, 6 Aug & 13 August.
  Where: University of Canterbury.
  Cost: $10. Enrolments close Thurs, 30 July.
  Contact/enrol: 3642 470.
  Organised by: UN Association of NZ, Canterbury Branch.
  
  

• Movie: Salt of the Earth. US, 1954.

  Feature film based on labour rights, feminism, community. Initially blacklisted in US as un-American.
  When: 6.30 pm Thursday, 30 July.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  Cost: koha/gold coin.
  Background info: here. (wikipedia).
  More info/contact: otautahianarchists@gmail.com.
  
  

• Wellington: Two day Education for Sustainability workshop: WWF's Re-thinking Resources.

  Review of current practices in response to the new curriculum. Collaborate on and help devise a set of principles to apply to the development and production of Education for Sustainability resources in schools.
  When: 8.30 - 4.00 pm, Monday & Tuesday 27, 28 July. (Registrations close 14 July).
  Where: WWF-NZ Head Office, The Treehouse, Wellington Botanic Garden, Kelburn.
  Cost: $50.00 + GST.
  Contact &/or for registration form: Wendy Barry 04 499 2930 or wbarry@wwf.org.nz.
  
  

• National one day workshop, Auckland:

  Incentives for historic heritage: Strategies that protect and reward.
  When: 9.00 - 4.45 pm monday, 10 August.
  Where: Jubilee Building, 545 Parnell Rd, Parnell, Auckland.
  More info/contact/registration: here. And more here.
  Organised by Auckland Regional Council and NZ Historic Places Trust.
  
  

• 2009 International film festival.

  Christchurch showings: 30 July - 16 August.
  Programme: see here.
  
  

• October Conference, Northland: National Marine and Freshwater Wananga.

  For all those involved or interested in freshwater & marine conservation, education and community engagement.
  Theme: Mountains to Sea - Engaging communities in marine and freshwater
  conservation.
  When: Wednesday 7th - Friday 9th October, 2009.
  Where: Whakapaumahara Marae, Whananaki, Northland.
  More info: www.emr.org.nz
  

Reminders:

• Short courses and public lectures: July - September.

  University of Canterbury's learning for life programme: courses on social issues, adult education, environment, community development, anthropology, cultural studies, climate change, etc.
  For info/to contact/& registration, see here: www.cbe.canterbury.ac.nz/community-education/courses.
  
  

• Free home composting workshops:

  Hot composting of kitchen scraps & garden waste, Bokashi and worm farms. All methods demonstrated.
  At several sites:
  1. Seven Oaks Education Centre, 35 Hassals Lane. 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.
  3. Lyttelton Community Garden, 54A Oxford Street, 10.30 – 12.00 pm each Saturday.
  More info/contact: Annmarie 021 190 4559 or 942 7190 (evenings).
  Supported by CCC.
  
  

• Gardening courses: starting a garden, seed saving, composting, pickling & preserving, etc.

  Where: Strickland Street Community Garden, 188 Strickland Street, Spreydon. 
  When: for times & dates see their website www.sscommunitygarden.net.nz.
  Further info/contact: 942 6630.
  Supported by CCC.