Tuesday, November 17, 2009

The context of events in life

Whilst Oct. was quite benign, with just lower temps. than normal and a bit more cloud, right now Nov. is still misbehaving: there has been a wall of grey/white obscuring the mts. for a few days now, and recently a wind that never relents as it tore off little branches and leaves off the trees here. But at least the sun has been shining!

A rare calm period, during these late spring windy days on Lake Wanaka...
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Last week I posted about the successes of the campaign to stop Meridian Energy [Project Hayes] building a wind farm on the Lammermoor Range in Central Otago, and as mentioned to Marg. who comments here, I find it wrong that we actually have to fight inappropriate ideas forced on us. As if reading my mind I then noted the Otago Daily Times had just published such an article called "Campaign took its toll on project opponents"

The basic problem with Meridian Energy's Project Hayes [and Contact Energy in the case of proposed dams on the Clutha River] is that their mandates [self imposed or otherwise?] are not aligned to support the full gamut of human needs. If they were these sort of institutions could benefit all aspects of our lives. At the moment they do not!

This all seems to come about by the limited capacity of either the individuals concerned flavouring the ethos of the organisation, or the organisation being of such a mind-set, that it/they only attract an energy [no pun intended] which is limited by the context of the inherited levels of awareness of the observers. Motives determine the goals and therefore the end result has little in it to benefit an energy situation that needs a solution. Or you could say the situation is poorly understood - the acquisition and need of energy by human beings goes way beyond electricity!

Therefore a low energy struggle ensues. Rather than "lifting the game" the institutions pull down the big picture ideals of people who could contribute so much, but become engaged in a drain of energy and resources such as reported in the above mentioned Otago Daily Times article.

The ODT also recently published the remarks of an elected counsellor who was criticising the positive and far-seeing results of the Environment Court. What was interesting to me were these two comments left by readers, who have presumably do have a "lifted game":



Submitted by RedTussock on Fri, 13/11/2009 - 7:49am.
Gerry whilst I enjoy your advocacy for common sense can I ask that you endeavour to do some research on what is happening elsewhere in the world. In the US a 345MW Concentrating Solar Power project cost $US200 million to build. It takes up no more land than a large vineyard, costs less, and does not blot the skyline with wind towers. CSP stations produce power during non sun light hours. The technology for new, cheaper, and better alternatives has advanced in the last few years to the point where the expense of wind power both monetary and geographically is hard to justify. The new alternatives are better.

Submitted by Ian Smith on Fri, 13/11/2009 - 11:41am.
Does anyone seriously consider that at the end of the economic life of these towers, (and it will come), the perpetrators will be summoned on-site to spend many millions of dollars restoring the landscape to its former pristine state? Of course not, it will become a graveyard of rusting hulks and a further monument, (as if one were needed), to mankind's greed and stupidity.


I therefore wonder at what seems to be a very limited view of the goals and solutions proposed by Meridian Energy, Contact Energy and the current New Zealand Govt!

The Blue Lakes of St. Bathans. A legacy left behind by the resource gathering of earlier generations. In this case a pretty and interesting slice of history, or should I say "sluice"...
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Sunday, October 18, 2009

Bits and pieces: Clutha River, crosses, Cardrona, and the horror of removing your own leg to live

I've blogged a few times on the recent revival of plans to dam the Clutha River, and it's nice to see I'm not alone:

The new Clutha River Forum, sent a press release to the media on Friday 16th October. They have considered Contact Energy’s four dam options, and unanimously support "Option five – no more dams" ...more>>


My son and friends like to do what kids like to do, and have done for generations: float down the Clutha...
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On my last post on the Clutha a couple of weeks ago I posted photos of an unusual cliff Dougal and I came across. According to my good friend Ian who used to work as a scientist on the mountain building processes in New Zealand, this is layer after layer of glacial silt, much of it deposited by wind, then modified by the ebb and flow of the glacier's terminal and lateral moraines, and weathering, but as it's densely packed it's resisted this quite well - the scolloped areas indicating less dense packing...
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During the week I had cause to make some photos of a local Wanaka church to illustrate the invitations to a friend's wedding next year. Although they cannot all be seen here I was intrigued by the number of crosses [4 at least] adorning the structure's roof and how light and shadow add some more...
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This weekend has not been blest with good weather, but sniffing a clearance at noon today Dougal and I headed to the top of the Crown Range road to go exploring to the east.

Dougal looks down the Cardrona Valley...
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A substantial ancient landslip [dead center of photo]...
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With amazing speed a snow storm came in...
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...and then it cleared again for the rest of our descent down an easy road...
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And lastly dear readers if you're feeling hard done-by with life and maybe things like the recent increases to our NZ ACC fees, or whatever, we can get some perspective [thanks to Bob McKerrow's blog] on life by reading how Ramlan had to saw his own leg off ...more>>


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