Frog week isn’t over yet
Hear Dr Phil Bishop, University of Otago Senior Lecturer in Zoology and frog fanatic. Of the 4 endemic frog species NZ has left, 2 are in dire straits and only hanging on due to our offshore island sanctuaries. They’re my ‘brothers in arms’, so please download our frog poster and stick it up at home, work or school.
New Zealand’s native frogs have several distinctive features: They have no external eardrum; They have round (not slit) eyes; They don’t croak regularly like most frogs; They don’t have a tadpole stage; The embryo develops inside an egg, and then hatches as an almost fully-formed frog; The young of most species are cared for by their parents.
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October 26th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
More NatRad on frogs - wouldn’t happen on commercial radio…
Environment Story - National Frog Week
Today Amelia Nurse visits Auckland Zoo to meet some of these ancient creatures.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/aft/environment_story_-_nation al_frog_week
October 26th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
I have been sniffing around and i have discovered part of the reason for the reduction in the number of frogs>>>>>>>>>>>
The South Island - drum roll please - now has one million people. It’s a nice round figure and puts us in the millionaires’ club as far as islands go.
The increase in the South Island’s population has not been caused on the whole by more births than deaths, but rather immigration from the North Island and overseas. Net migration has seen the population increase by one percent in the past year, lifting the total up to 1,008,400 people. And since 2001, net migration has accounted for two thirds of the growth in the numbers of people living in the south.
A South Island economist has called the one million mark a benchmark and an achievement. Population growth drives economic growth and gives the ability to sustain local companies which don’t need to go elsewhere to prosper.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4251444a6520.html
Isn’t one of the main green issues the fact that economic growth is a crude measure of progress? (And that we haven’t defined progress anyway, or set and defined goals…apart from more economic growth)…..
October 27th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Habitat loss is one issue for wildlife, but the decline in frog numbers might be more pollution-related. From David Attenborough’s excellent State of the Planet, “species living in water are often most strongly affected because water spreads pollution easier than land, and because we often dump our pollution into water.” Amphibians are the canary in the coalmine.
In related news, the world is on the verge of losing 25 primate species.
October 27th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
XYY
Doesn’t include homo erectus by any chance?
October 27th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
What about an “Endangered Species Week” or something like the link below:
http://exitstageright.wordpress.com/2007/10/08/endangered-species-walk run-set-for-saturday-on-katy-trail/
Perhaps the GREENS could organise it annually - school kids would love it - seeding the future.
One week - nah- lets be different - two weeks minimum.
October 27th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
jh Says:
October 26th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
>I have been sniffing around and i have discovered part of the reason for the reduction in the number of frogs>>>>>>>>>>>
>The South Island - drum roll please - now has one million people. It’s a nice round figure and puts us in the millionaires’ club as far as islands go.
I’m sure that has ecological impacts, but not on frogs. No native frogs have lived in the South Island in living memory, and only one of the 4 species has even been found in fossil form there. Native Frog species live in the North Island and on offshore islands.
October 27th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
They have round (not slit) eyes;
Well I’m sure NZ First would be all for protecting them then.
October 28th, 2007 at 2:43 am
I think Herman Daly would know what I’m getting at
“If you’ve eaten poison, you must get rid of the substances that are making you ill. Let us then, apply the stomach pump to the doctrines of economic growth that we have been forced-fed for decades.�
“We cannot have too many people alive simultaneously lest we destroy carrying capacity and thereby reduce the number of lives possible in all subsequent time periods.�
“Environmental degradation is an iatrogenic disease induced by the economic physicians (pro-growth advocates) who attempt to treat the sickness with unlimited wants by prescribing unlimited production. We do not cure a treatment-induced disease by increasing the treatment dosage.�
“Current economic growth has uncoupled itself from the world and has become irrelevant. Worse, it has become a blind guide.�
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Daly
October 28th, 2007 at 7:27 am
Before joining the World Bank, Daly was Alumni Professor of Economics at Louisiana State University. He is a co-founder and associate editor of the journal, Ecological Economics.
He is widely credited with having originated the idea of uneconomic growth, though some credit this to Marilyn Waring who developed it more completely in her study of the UN System of National Accounts.
[from the same link above]
I would have thought this is the main green issue that “greens” agree upon and understand……. the social theories of [_ and _ Et al] are debatable, yet they are to the fore, pushed forward under “social justice”…[like, says who…???] People like Guy Salmon don’t belong in National.. national is old style business as usual, heavily funded (I suspect) by people who want growth, growth, growth (and don’t question the quality…feel the width …)
October 28th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Does anyone watch that Pay off Your Mortgage Program on TV One?
These Poms go to some idylic place (like Cyprus) where property is cheap, do up or build a new house and try to sell it for a fantastic profit. When sucessful they have a great rush of self esteem and want to do it again… (the “Propi-tay” people… coming to a nieghbourhood near you)…
I find it obscene, sort of treats the locals as though they were just a bunch of seagulls on a rock….
Of course they use goods and services and provide employment (not that all the locals might need it). Word gets around and more of them do it. Then they bring in more employees, and the whole place grows. They take an interest in local politics funding the group with a slogan such as “Positively Forward”. The whole place gets over cooked and they have to have a PR wing to obsufucate the fact that the place is overcooked and nobody knows what the point of it is anymore… That’s when someone comes up with the idea of a crane for peolple to bungy from.
… Having said that some people may take a run down building or old industrial area and make it vibrant.
October 28th, 2007 at 9:12 am
is there a democracy/free-speech species of frog..?
and if so..
why is the green party trying so hard to aid their wholesale extinction..?
phil(whoar.co.nz)
October 28th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Duncan Bayne said: They have round (not slit) eyes; Well I’m sure NZ First would be all for protecting them then.
Or as former Detective Senior Sergeant Neil Grimstone might have said, “Never trust a frog who can be blindfolded with a shoelace”.
Another example of enlightened Police culture! Well, at least he retired soon after… watch this space to see if he re-emerges as a NZ First candidate.
October 28th, 2007 at 11:47 am
What do you mean “might have said”?
Green party: Police code of behaviour
#21 Police will give notice of any intended actions buy phoning first, and/or filling in a Notice of intended raid form (22-3)
#23 Having raided police will leave flowers to the value of $30 and mow the lawn.
#24 Police will notify TVNZ and Marie Dyberg and the Race Relations Concilliator before any raid, and offer to bring them along, (tea and coffee provided..to the value of $40/ person)
#94 Councilling to be provided to those involved in the raid and friends and relatives…
Etc, etc
October 28th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
you can learn more about our native frogs here on this wee video on the DOC website…
http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/page.aspx?id=44953
October 29th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Forg, there are telling comments on this interview re the power of lobbiests in parliament. It is relevant to the EFB and the way vested interests push agendas to line their own pockets.
Dr Viola Palmer, Damien O’Connor, Rebecca Williams discussing the ready mixed alcoholic drinks. (duration: 30′14″)
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/ntn/the_dangers_ofalcopops
October 29th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Liquor lobby’s Parliamentary privilege revoked
“I remember, with some anger I must admit, the huge effort put into lobbying Members of Parliament before the 1999 law change which radically liberalized alcohol retailing and cut the alcohol purchasing age to the social detriment of young New Zealanders.
“That’s why when I saw this person from the Beer, Wine & Spirits Council wandering around Parliament with an official parliamentary pass around her neck earlier this year, as if she were some kind of official staff member, I asked my staff to make enquiries.
“The way I saw it was that if the Chief Executive of the Hospice Association, or the Chief Executive of Save The Children Fund, who often appropriately come to Parliament to lobby MPs to outline their concerns, aspirations and hopes, aren’t entitled to an official photo ID allowing them to walk around Parliamentary offices any time of the day or night as they like, then why on Earth should a Liquor Industry official?
http://www.progressive.org.nz/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2 095
No wonder some parties (except for a few) are never short of cash……
October 29th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Lots on frogs here too:
http://www.nzfrogs.org/
October 30th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Frog killer fungus ‘breakthrough’
BBC News Monday, 29 October 2007
New Zealand scientists have found what appears to be a cure for the disease that is responsible for wiping out many of the world’s frog populations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7067613.stm
October 31st, 2007 at 12:13 pm
More on the fungus…
Sick Frog Cure
Dunedin-based scientists say a ‘dumb’ experiment has led to a cure for a frog killer fungus.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/national/ckpt/sick_frog_cure
October 31st, 2007 at 12:27 pm
jh asked What do you mean “might have said�?
What Grimstone actually said is reported here. It refered to Asians, not to frogs. And was rightly condemned by National Party MP Pansy Wong.
October 31st, 2007 at 8:11 pm
as the article says he made it to a conference on Asian crime, so looks like like a bad joke. and as for
“Another example of enlightened Police culture! Well, at least he retired soon after… watch this space to see if he re-emerges as a NZ First candidate.”
your own cohorts who are constantly swinging on the arm of the police don’t inspire confidence in law enforcement.. Or to put5 it another way he is (or was) a hell of a lot more useful than our out of sync civil libertarians.
Being a populist isn’t necessarily a bad thing all the time… Winny would have been more use in the Green party than some people. He would have picked up on popular green (lifestyle) issues (Values) rather than trying to bring the populace around to an unpopular leftist agenda.
October 31st, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Green Police priorities
““I think it’s really great that the school had the courage to report the woman and that it sounds from what little we know that the processes are being followed exactly as police and CYF told us they would be when we put this through Parliament,â€?”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4254395a11.html
“MP Keith Locke says the police need to back off.�
Locke spoke saying New Zealand was looking hard for a way to join the war on terror.
“They were happy when [Algerian refugee] Ahmed Zaoui came along, we had our very own terrorist. When that fell through they went after activists.�
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1410413
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2007/10/green_police_priorities.html
Tch! tch! tch! tch! tch!!!!
October 31st, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Scott has a good stab at understanding the motivations of the nether greens>>>
Scott Says:
October 31st, 2007 at 9:10 am
Excellent post DPF — well spotted. As others have mentioned the Greens, while having a praiseworthy concern for the environment, are basically socialists of the extreme left. So they are suspicious of authority — particularly the police — because socialism is about power. And socialists don’t like any power except their own — hence they normally are very suspicious of the police — who represent power not directly under their control.
They can however be expected to have a soft spot for Maori radicals — overthrowing the existing order is part of the DNA of the socialist movement.
But why should they support the police against parents who smack their children? Unhappily the socialists are always suspicious of the family — because the family and especially parents are not directly under the control of the state. Hence they represent a threat, in the socialists eyes anyway, because they have power not directly controlled by the state…”
do you concur Dr Spok??
November 1st, 2007 at 9:45 am
jh said: your own cohorts who are constantly swinging on the arm of the police don’t inspire confidence in law enforcement
On the contrary, jh, it is law enforcement personnel who get involved in corruption (most recently John Dewar) predatory sexual behaviour (Shipton, Schollum, Rickards and a number of others as set out in Dame Margaret Bazley’s report) and racist actions or comments (and Grimstone’s comments, joke or not, are clearly racist) who undermine confidence in law enforcement.
I agree entirely with Pansy Wong here, and she is probably as far from a socialist as you can get. There is no “socialist plot” against the Police - just a desire by those who value democracy, freedom and human rights to ensure the Police are accountable to society for their actions.
Society needs to be ever vigilant against corruption and abuse of power by those who have power. The more power they have (and the Police are among the institutions of society that have the most), the more vigilant we need to be.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:15 am
What degree of racist are we talking about here Toad? I would have thought for instance that we should be wary of people from societies with different values and life experiences such as mainland China where life is grim and people sell baby food with zero nutrition…. The last thing we need is naive mamby pamby policemen.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:28 am
Toad
Your comments about Neil Grimstone concern me greatly, it seems that you are more interested in our police being PC and culturally sensitive than you are about their ability to catch crims.
Grimstone is a huge loss to the NZ Police and a huge loss to our law abiding community, we need more Police like Grimstone.
You claim that there is no socialist plot against the police is laughable, I cannot remember the last time that the Greens did anything but attack the Police.
November 1st, 2007 at 11:02 am
Ha! That’s madness Big Bro. You people are more redneck than I first thought. Grimstone made a horrendously racist comment - and you’re defending him?
As for socialist plot against the police - you’re now slipping into paranoid insanity. Better stop blogging Big Bro because the socialists are watching … all the time.
Harden up.
November 1st, 2007 at 11:13 am
jh, what Grimstone implied was “Don’t trust Asians”, whom he stereotyped as people who could be “blindfolded with a shoelace”.
When a senior detective in the Police says something like this, it is only a very small step to the Asian community being unfairly targeted as fraudsters and gangsters by the Police, and to legitimate criminal complaints made to the Police by Asians being improperly being dismissed or ignored on the basis that the complainant cannot be trusted.
BB said: I cannot remember the last time that the Greens did anything but attack the Police.
Try three days ago, BB. Sue Bradford, praising the Police for the way they exercised their dicretion in following up a complaint alleging assault by a parent on a child:
“I think it’s really great that the school had the courage to report the woman and that it sounds from what little we know that the processes are being followed exactly as police and CYF told us
they would be when we put this through Parliament,” she said.
“That is that they don’t get really heavy at first — if it is something mild they are not going to prosecute, but if it happens again they look behind the scenes to see what is really happening with that family.
November 1st, 2007 at 11:17 am
“Grimstone made a horrendously racist comment -”
“It was a throwaway line, totally intended to be a joke. I shouldn’t have said it in that forum,”……..
Ever tried to tell jokes (entertain) in public?… perhaps not his forte.
The political compass puts the Greens in an outlier libertarian/ left
)
Ie the public disagree… we the people support the police…we want law and order, but we wont be trampled on either.
(or could be Kieth Locke and Sue Bradford are mainstream and I’m on an outlier??…..
November 1st, 2007 at 11:33 am
JH - I accept Grimstone made a mistake and has acknowledged it. However, the original reference to his joke was a comment on police culture, which few “objectors” on this post have even dealt with.
The Greens have rallied against macho police culture, and sought to establish an independent complaints authority. We’re keen to establish systems which ensure our Police protect the public interest.
I’ve known too many police officers and been exposed to too many inadequate investigations to allow the police the free reign which many people clamor for.
November 1st, 2007 at 11:33 am
When a senior detective in the Police says something like this, it is only a very small step to the Asian community being unfairly targeted as fraudsters and gangsters by the Police, and to legitimate criminal complaints made to the Police by Asians being improperly being dismissed or ignored on the basis that the complainant cannot be trusted.
Then again who can predict how people will react. I take it you don’t think highly of the average police recruits IQ or social intelligence … Makes me think of the smacking thing (same assessment… people can’t be trusted so we must ban it)
November 1st, 2007 at 11:58 am
The Greens have gone way over the mark. We (as a society) need balance. Why are the Greens in the libertarian outlier sector? Have the public got it wrong (perception) and the civil libertarians (and bleeding hearts) got it right??.. I’m thinking of the wisdom of crowds here
November 1st, 2007 at 1:04 pm
jh asked: Why are the Greens in the libertarian outlier sector?
Because they are not the Labour Party or the National party, JH.
And because it is true to the Green appropriate decision-making charter principle, jh - “For the implementation of ecological wisdom and social responsibility, decisions will be made directly at the appropriate level by those affected.”
That means the State intervenes only when it is necessary to protect and nurture the environment and those who are vulnerable within society because of imbalances of power and/or wealth - not to advance the interests of those who are already powerful. It also means that local decisions should be made locally, rather than imposed by the State, and that all decision-making should allow for input from those affected, or potentially affected, by the decision.
“Libertarian outlier” you may call it, but a good number of New Zealanders support that view, and the Green Party represents them. Strangely, I’ve seen others on this blog complain that the Greens are too authoritarian for supporting the State being involved in protecting the vulnerable (employees, children etc) by imposing rules on how they can be treated.
November 1st, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Well said Toad.
November 1st, 2007 at 5:27 pm
jh said: We (as a society) need balance.
And if some on this blog are challenging the Green for being too authoritarian, and others challenging them for being too authoritarian, maybe the Greens do have the balance you talk about.
Sure, ban advertising targeted at kids, prohibit parents from hitting kids, and have an industrial relations framework that requires employers to bargain in good faith.
But let’s not give State agencies like the Police, SIS, GCSB, Fisheries, Customs etc the power to intrude into every aspect of peoples’ lives because they might more easily catch one or two or twenty people breaking the law.
The intrusion on the privacy of the innocent majority outweighs making the guilty (and thankfully, in this country small) minority accountable for their actions.
Intrusive State power breeds disrespect for the State, and therefore breeds an increasing number of “criminals” who will be prepared to give the big finger to all legislative provisions, whether they are justified or not.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:42 pm
Stu
What would you have our police do then?, of course they need a macho culture, they deal with the scum of the earth on a daily basis, i would rather have Grimstone catching these scum bags than playing silly PC games.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Toad
Bradford was not praising the police she was scoring cheap political points, the child in question was not “assaulted” at all.
But seeing as you raised the issue, can we expect to hear an apology from Bradford in the near future?, despite the lies and half truth she told about the smacking bill the deaths just keep on coming.
(Will this post make it past the censor)
November 1st, 2007 at 7:58 pm
“That means the State intervenes only when it is necessary to protect and nurture the environment and those who are vulnerable within society because of imbalances of power and/or wealth - not to advance the interests of those who are already powerful. It also means that local decisions should be made locally, rather than imposed by the State, and that all decision-making should allow for input from those affected, or potentially affected, by the decision.”
Bit of an esoteric argument Toad. In all honesty I find it a bit of waffle…
Aren’t young thugs powerful?
If decisions were made locally law breakers would be in the stocks.
November 1st, 2007 at 9:09 pm
BB -
I’m arguing for an independent police complaints authority. How is that at all related to PC?
Everything you disagree with is labeled PC. Heard of the word vocabulary? I’d imagine not because it has more than three syllables. Vocabulary does have the acronym “VC” which I though you might like, as it rhymes nicely with PC.