Welcome

Hi & welcome to the webpage version of ecoNet.

Don't forget: keep sending us info for promoting your environmental events and causes. Also to pass on news of ecoNet Newsletter and our subscription address: eventdiary@environment.org.nz to others you think may find it interesting/useful.

Here's a selection of news and articles and bits and pieces of interest from around and about, and here and there, eg:

from here

Canterbury:

CCC 2008 Annual Report published (November, CCC website).

Council cuts solar water heating consents cost. (6 November, CCC).

Wanted: volunteer to take water samples at South Spit, New Brighton. (5 November, ECan).

Dumping at Opihi River angers ECan. ( 5 November, Stuff/Timaru Herald).

Decision soon: Meridian Energy's north bank tunnel proposal on the Waitaki River. (5 November, Timaru Herald/Stuff).

national:

Ozone hole the size of North America. (5 November, NZ Herald).

Survey: Business rejects sustainability. (4 November, Stuff/The Press).

MAF Biosecurity NZ: targets dirty shipping containers as a major risk.(5 November, Stuff/The Press).

Greenpeace calls for moratorium on conversion of forest to dairy. (28 October, ECO).

Friends of the Earth (NZ) warning on National Party environmental policies. (6 November, ECO).

National parks: need not be Government owned, says Nat MP. (4 November, Otago Daily Times).

Tourism NZ: visitor numbers down. Outlook bleak. (6 November, Stuff/Southland times).

Increasing tension among water users becoming more common. (3 November, Otago Daily Times).

Scavengers fighting over rubbish collections as credit crunch squeezes. (2 November, NZ Herald).

Tauranga: we don't want toxic city, say residents. (5 November, Bay of Plenty Times).

Paua divers take action against black marketeers. (1 November, Wairarapa Times-Age).

New areas for international environmental co-operation. NZ, Singapore, Brunei, Chile. (4 November, MfE).

Enviroschool students to showcase kiwi style sustainability. (3 November,
Enviroschools).

SFF: Sustainable Farming Fund: Information Sessions: Canterbury, Otago, Southland. SFF funds communities to initiate projects that contribute to sustainability of NZ’s land-based industries. (New funding round: 14 November – 5 February).
The sessions are to give an overview of the fund, how to apply & the opportunity to discuss potential applications.  Contact, RSVP and further info: Janine Alfeld 03 943 3802 Janine.alfeld@maf.govt.nz (Project advisor for Cheviot meeting), Nic Newman 03 9431 784  Nic.newman@maf.govt.nz (advisor for Tekapo, Middlemarch, Winton meetings). For times & venues see under diary of events.

Auckland (NZCEL) Conference: Property Rights and Sustainability: 16-18 April 2009: The evolution of property rights to meet ecological challenges.
Judge Christopher Weeramantry (former Vice President, International Court of Justice) will open the conference with a public address; and academics, judges, govt officials, policy analysts, practitioners and commentators will examine the future of property rights in relation to the environment, resource management and sustainable development. 
NZCEL (established 1998): a specialist centre at University of Auckland’s Faculty of Law, works with central and local govt, environmental and industry groups, practitioners and academic institutions as a focal point for research, education and policy development on environmental and resource management law issues, both in NZ and internationally. More info: www.nzcel.auckland.ac.nz. Conference website info & call for papers: www.nzcel-conf.auckland.ac.nz

Re-linked awards, submissions, consultations etc:

• ECan's annual report, 2007 - 2008. (30 October, ECan).
  
  
• The Starter Home Design Competition: for designers, architects and builders to come up with innovative plans for good quality, affordable homes. General entries close Wednesday 19 November; student entries Wednesday 26 November. More: http://www.dbh.govt.nz/designcomp
  
  
• HomeSmart: Free, research-based advice on sustainably renovating your home: warmer, drier, healthier, more affordable to run & kinder on the environment. More info: www.beaconpathway.co.nz
  
  
• LEARNZ: online education upcoming programmes: 1. Kiwi: 4 - 7 November.
  2. Science On Ice: (Antarctica) 10 - 20 November.
  3. Takahe: 18 - 21 Nov. More info: LEARNZ.
  
  
• Support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Background info here. (www.converge.org.nz).
  
  
• Now open: 2009-10 Sustainable Management Fund. (Ministry for the Environment). Till 22 January 2009.
  
  
• Info here for Sir Peter Blake Environmental Leader Award for secondary school students Years 9-10. (Enviroschools).
  

• CAFCA opposes NZ Free Trade Agreement with US, wants your help: The NZ not for sale campaign

& from there

• Financial crisis, energy etc:
  Can Obama halt the Bush administration's final economic heist? Naomi Klein. (6 November, AlterNet).
  
  UK: Eric Hobsbawm: "arguably our greatest living historian" discusses the current economic crisis and the problems with a free market economy. (14 minute interview, ie audio file, 18 October, BBC).
  
  Be careful what you wish for. The price for cheap oil. (30 October, The Guardian.
  
  Oil: the dawning of a disturbing new reality. (3 November, Financial Times/ FT.com).
  
  
• UN water advisor: Canadian tar sands looks like Tolkein's Mordor. (4 November, Treehugger).
  
  
• China sets price for co-operation on climate change.(28 October, Reuters).
  
  
• Myanmar's farmers pay for China's oil thirst. (4 November, Asia Times Online).
  


• UK: Royal Society to research potential of geo-engineering to limit global warming. (30 October, The Guardian).
  
  
• Australia: Victoria at risk of being unable to feed itself. (2 November, The Age).
  
  
• UK: Beekeepers protest: in one year deadly parasite has killed 2 billion bees. England could be out of home-produced honey by Christmas. (5 November, Mail Online).
  
  
• US: Relocalising: the transitions of Addison County. (1 November, Vermont Commons).
  
  
• The most radical thing you can do. Staying home as a necessity and a right. (Nov/Dec, Orion Magazine).
  
  
• UK: Londoners urged to grow own food. (4 November, BBC).
  
  
• US: Simpler, greener lifestyle creates wealth, happiness. (30 October, Voice of America).
  
  
• US: Pedal pushers only. Moving house by bike. (2 November, registerguard.com).
  
  
• Sweden: Dragspelhuset: spooky eco accordian house. (31 October, Inhabitat).
  Also: Moveable dwelling: the walking house. (24 October, The Guardian).
  
  
• In testing at Rolls-Royce: jatropha-derived aviation fuel. Air NZ test flight targeted for December. (4 November, Green Car Congress).
  
  
• World's first chlorophyll organic battery runs on any liquid. (31 October, Clean Technica).
  
  
• Africa: Once a delicacy, giant bat returns from the brink. 5 foot wingspan. (31 October, msnbc).
  

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• Heritage Walk: Historic Places Trust - Ashburton Branch.

  Celebrating 150 years of Ashburton settlement.
  When: 2.00 - 5.00 pm Sunday, 9 November.
  Cost: $5/person - tickets from Ashburton Museum. (includes a comprehensive map showing 26 sites).
  More info: 03 308 3167 (Ashburton Museum).
  
  

• Fair: Christchurch Rudolf Steiner School.

  When: 11.00 – 3.00 pm Saturday, 8 November.
  Where: 19 Ombersley Tce, Opawa.
  (To raise funds for school equipment, teacher aides, etc).
  
  

• Talk: Rutherford in the 21st century:

  100 years after his Nobel Prize, what contribution does Rutherford's work make to the 21st century?  Four examples: one in basic science, two in environmental problems, and a guide to a wider outlook.
  2008 RSNZ Distinguished Speaker: Professor C Mary Rutherford Fowler, Earth Sciences Department, Royal Holloway, University London.
  When: 5.30 pm  Monday 10 November.
  Where: Great Hall, Arts Centre, Christchurch.
  Admission free, first come best seated.
  (Royal Society of NZ).
  
  

• Talk: Spiders in popular culture: why do they get such a raw deal?

  Speaker: Dr Simon Pollard, curator of invertebrate zoology, Canterbury Museum.
  When: 6.00 – 7.00 pm Tuesday, 11 November.
  Where: Bird Hall, Canterbury Museum.
  
  

• Talk: Lincoln Efford Memorial Lecture: A Welfare State fit for the 21st century.

  Speaker: Susan St John, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Auckland University; founding member of the Child Poverty Action Group.
  When:  7.30 - 9.00 pm Tuesday, 11 November.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester Street.
  
  

• Talk: The sectarian dispute in Iraq:  Why and how?

  Speaker:  Dr Mohammad al Jabawe.
  When: 1.30 - 2.30 pm Wednesday, 12 November.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  Cost: $4.00
  More info & to register: cwea or 366 0285.
  
  

• Forest and Bird: monthly meeting:  Sea Week past and future.

  Speaker: Tanya Jenkins, environmental educator, committee member Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai Trust.
  When: 7.30 pm Wednesday, 12th November.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  All welcome.
  
  

• Public meeting: environmental & recreational values of the Ashburton/Hakatere River mouth.

  With guest speakers & Environment Canterbury (ECan) as facilitator.
  When: 7.00 – 9.00 pm Thursday, 13 November.
  Where: Hakatere Huts Community Hall, north side of the river mouth.
  Host: Ashburton Hakatere River Mouth Action Committee (AHRMAC)
  All welcome. More info here. (ECan).
  
  

• Talk series: Fair Trade in a free trade world.

  Speakers: Helen Tulett, Geoff White.
  When: 12.30 - 1.30 pm starting Monday, 17 November (a weekly series of 3).
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  Cost: $4.00.
  More info & to register: cwea or 366 0285.
  

• EARTHWISE, Plains FM 96.9

  Each Monday & Wednesday at 10 pm.
  Conservation, environment and peace with justice.
  This week's interview: Melissa Clark-Reynolds: entrepeneur, businesswoman, 
  Al Gore climate change ambassador.
  How can we motivate NZers to take climate issues to heart and be an international  leader on emissions reduction?
  Presenters: Martin and Lois Griffiths.
  
  

Coming up:

• Work day: Travis Wetland Trust.

  When: 9.00 am Saturday, 15 November.
  Where: meet at Beach Rd Education Centre.
  Bring: gumboots, water, warm clothes.
  Contact: Joe Greenaway 383 2073.
  All welcome.
  
  

• Tramp: Guided tour of Happy Valley:

  (to help save Happy Valley from Solid Energy's proposed coal mine). 
  When: Friday 14 - Sunday 16 November.
  Contact: frances.mountier@gmail.com
  
  

• Lecture: Greenspeak - Constructing the sustainable corporation through rhetoric.

  The triple bottom line - necessary but not likely sufficent for a sustainable business - & more.
  Speaker: Accounting Professor Markus Milne, University of Canterbury.
  When: 6:00 - 7.00 pm Tuesday, 18 November.
  Where: Christchurch Art Gallery auditorium.
  More information: here. (UC in the city series of public talks).
  
  

• Lecture: Heaton Rhodes of Otahuna.

  Speaker: Professor Geoffrey Rice.
  When: 7.00 pm Tuesday, 18 November.
  Where: venue on enrolment.
  (Part of a University of Canterbury community education programme).
  More info: here.
  
  

• Lecture: Finding our own voice: NZ English in the making.

  Speaker: Professor Elizabeth Gordon.
  When: 7.00 pm Tuesday, 18 November.
  Where: venue on enrolment.
  Part of a University of Canterbury community education programme.
  more info here.
  
  

• SFF: Sustainable Farming Funds: information sessions:

  Cheviot: 10.00 - 11.30 am Tues, 18 Nov.
  Where: Cheviot Area School hall.
  Tekapo: 10.00 - 11.30 am Tues, 25 Nov.
  Where: Tekapo community hall.
  Middlemarch: 1.00 pm Wed, 26 Nov.
  Where: M&WNZ Central Otago monitor farm field day.
  Winton: 10 - 11.30 am Thurs, 27 Nov.
  Where: ANZAC lounge, RSA hall.
  For more see under: News and Links.
  Also www.maf.govt.nz/sff/.
  
  

• Talk:  Current Affairs: International Human Rights.

  Speaker: Dr Scott Walker.
  When: 1.30 - 2.30 pm Wednesday, 19 November.
  Where: WEA, 59 Gloucester St.
  More info & to register: cwea or 366 0285.
  
  

• Public meeting: find out about the O Tu Wharekai project in the Ashburton Lakes.

  When: 5.00 - 10.00 pm Tuesday, 25 November.
  Where: Mt Somers Community Hall (in the domain opposite the hotel).
  RSVP: necessary for catering (finger food provided).
  Contact/more info: Janet Welsh 03 693 1010 or jwelsh@doc.govt.nz
  
  

• White Ribbon Day: International day for elimination of violence against women.

  When: Tuesday 25 November.
  Information here: komihana a whanau (families commission).
  
  

• New Zealand Tourism & Hospitality Research Conference 2008: Re-creating tourism.

  The challenges & opportunities given climate change, environmental and ecosystem degradation, ‘peak oil’; rapid economic transformation...etc, etc.
  When: 3 – 5 December.
  Where: Hanmer Springs, Canterbury.
  More info here. (Lincoln University).
  
  

• Palmerston North conference: Soils2008 -the living skin of Planet Earth.

  Devoted to all aspects of soil science, relationships with other disciplines and practical applications. Includes Field Trips.
  When: 1 December 2008 - 5 December. Registration: till 14 November.
  Where: Massey University, Palmerston North.
  (Joint conference of Australian and NZ Societies of Soil Science).
  Registration & more info: www.soilsconference.co.nz
  
  

• Wellington conference: Renewables in the built environment

  When: 11 - 12 December.
  Where: Te Papa
  Info here: SEANZ08. (Sustainable Electricity Association NZ).
  
  

• 2009 Auckland conference: Property Rights and Sustainability.

  When: 16-18 April 2009.
  NZ Centre for Environmental Law (NZCEL).
  More info: see under News and Links.
  

Reminders:

• Free Home Composting Workshops:

  (Bokashi, Hot Compost, and Worm Farms).
  Where: 1: Opawa Community Gardens, 176 Opawa Rd (at Aynsley Terrace).
  When: 1.00 pm 15, 18 November. (1st & 3rd Saturday each month & 1st & 3rd Tuesday).
  2. Okeover Community Gardens, University of Canterbury.
  When: 12.00 - 1:30 pm 12, 15 November. (2nd & 4th Saturday each month, 2nd & 4th Wednesday).
  How: Just turn up.
  More info: Annmarie Banchy 021 190 4559, or 942 7190 (evening), abanchy@paradise.net.nz.
  Sponsored by CCC.
  
  

• Nelson District: create your own eden.

  times & venues for upcoming free composting workshops & other waste recycling info.
  Sponsored by Nelson City Council.