Pollution Archive

  • Russel Norman

    Large scale irrigation -> Intensive dairy -> water pollution - by Russel Norman



    Yesterday we heard from David Carter that central govt wants to subsidise large scale irrigation projects in Canterbury and elsewhere.  And Morning Report is running with the story of a mega- irrigation project right across Canterbury, details sketchy but ‘exciting’. The water would be used to spread intensive dairy across huge swathes of Canterbury. The proponents [...] read more
    August 5, 2010 9:20 am - 10 Comments
  • frog

    Under the leather - by frog



    What would you say if I were to tell you that a New Zealand company has been fined every year since 2004 for breaches of air pollution regulations — in China? What if I was to tell you this company, which has strong New Zealand links – including a former Prime Minister on the board [...] read more
    April 2, 2010 3:04 pm - 2 Comments
  • frog

    An update on Russel’s dirty rivers tour - by frog



    Russel is rafting and kayaking down some of our most polluted lowland rivers this summer, as a fun and unusual way to draw attention to the water pollution problems in our own backyard. Click here for detailed reports and photos from each trip. Plus check out media coverage of Russel on the Manawatu, the Hutt, [...] read more
    March 5, 2010 1:45 pm - 14 Comments
  • frog

    Good Farm Stories and the polluted Manawatu - by frog



    As Jeanette previewed yesterday, the Greens’ Good Farm Stories website has been launched today. You can find it here: www.goodfarmstories.org.nz. There’s a wealth of material, so grab a cup of tea and enjoy! read more
    November 26, 2009 12:43 pm - 7 Comments
  • frog

    PM limp on mining’s pollution - by frog



    Russel Norman just threw the Prime Minister some curve-balls in QuestionTime. It turns out that the Government “model modern miners” get fined for pollution regularly! The PM thinks that is proof the “system is working”. Sounds to me like it is proof that mining is not a good idea in our conservation lands, and certainly not “surgical”! read more
    October 13, 2009 3:33 pm - 6 Comments
  • Catherine Delahunty

    Black Drain Revisited - by Catherine Delahunty



    The pulp and paper mills of Kawerau are once again applying for a licence to pollute! After 53 years of maintaining a river in a state of semi blackness and invisible degradation they now want to apply for new consents for thirty five years of business as usual. Business as usual in this community means [...] read more
    April 30, 2009 12:11 pm - 16 Comments
  • Russel Norman

    Hats off to good farming at Landcorp - by Russel Norman



    Here’s some good news on dairy farming and a doff of the cap to the SOE Landcorp and its farm managers. We recently asked Landcorp how it was doing with compliance on effluent consents.  Their General Secretary informs us that they had one infringement notice in 2008 and two in 2007. Landcorp has 37 dairy farms, so its [...] read more
    April 16, 2009 3:06 pm - 5 Comments
  • frog

    Car Free Day – more from China - by frog



    Beijing’s massive traffic restriction programme, launched just before the Olympics is coming to an end: The return to Beijing’s traffic- and smog-heavy status quo will mark the end of what may have been the world’s largest pollution control experiment: a restriction on cars, factories and construction that lasted for two months and resulted in the [...] read more
    September 19, 2008 9:18 am - 10 Comments
  • frog

    Peak oil saves lives? - by frog



    Sadly, as we’ve been discussing in recent weeks, peak oil is threatening people’s lives in the context of international security, war and militarism in the Middle East and other fossil fuel extracting countries.  But it seems here in New Zealand there are less people dying as the cost of burning a limited resource rises: As [...] read more
    September 9, 2008 9:13 am - 5 Comments
  • frog

    Dirty ol’ Arctic - by frog



    According to the American National Science Foundation coal burning, primarily in North America and Europe, has contaminated the Arctic and is potentially affecting human health and ecosystems in and around Earth’s polar regions. Detailed measurements from a Greenland ice core showed pollutants from burning coal–the toxic heavy metals cadmium, thallium and lead–were much higher than [...] read more
    August 21, 2008 11:07 am - 1 Comment
  • frog

    Helpful advice for Chinese farmers - by frog



    An NZPA story that I can’t yet find online has the Minister for Climate Change, David Parker, talking about the benefits that the preferential trade agreement with China might have for climate change: However, Mr Parker said the FTA was a realistic platform for New Zealand to have an influence on China’s pollution. “It is, [...] read more
    April 8, 2008 2:19 pm - 3 Comments
  • frog

    The Mataura drain - by frog



    I saw this letter to the editor in the Southland Times recently and thought it was worth sharing: To save ourselves the worry and effort of cleaning up our Southland rivers, we just need to think about them in a new way. Let’s call them drains, not rivers – the Aparima drain, the Oreti drain, [...] read more
    March 13, 2008 8:22 am - 3 Comments
  • frog

    The Waiongana River - by frog



    As requested here’s a few pictures of the Waiongana River taken on February 23. Several of Taranaki’s beaches had health warnings against swimming recently because of high bacteria content in the rivers flowing out to sea. read more
    March 7, 2008 10:22 pm - No Comments
  • Russel Norman

    It ain’t pretty, it’s shitty! - by Russel Norman



    There are a lot of farmers doing the right thing fencing off streams and planting the margins. But there is still a long way to go. This vid was shot in the northern Wairarapa: read more
    February 29, 2008 2:29 pm - 6 Comments
  • frog

    Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink. - by frog



    Such is the quote from Samuel Coleridge’s famous poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner“. It’s the first thing that came to mind when I read phil u‘s comment this morning about Russel and Trevor Mallard going head to head on Morning Report. Russel did best Trevor in the debate, but in fairness to Trevor [...] read more
    February 27, 2008 11:47 am - No Comments
  • frog

    Replacing Canterbury rivers with cows - by frog



    While the Waipawa River in the Hawke’s Bay quickly disappears because of being over irrigated, it seems Canterbury is exploring ways of irrigating more rivers: Central Plains Water Trust has applied for a number of resource consents relating to the construction and operation of a large scale irrigation scheme. The applicants propose irrigating 60,000 hectares [...] read more
    February 26, 2008 8:59 am - 17 Comments
  • frog

    Giant plastic soup floats out to sea - by frog



    The Independent has an early contender for grossest news of the year when it reports on a “plastic soup” of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean.  Scientists say that it is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States. Mr Moore, a former sailor, came [...] read more
    February 11, 2008 12:02 pm - 19 Comments
  • frog

    Amazon’s Aguinda vs Chevron Oil - by frog



    It seems after over 14 years in and out of US and Ecuadorian courts we are finally nearing the end of one of the most dramatic environmental court cases ever. For the last 14 years 30,000 indigenous people and Amazonian settlers have been trying to take a class action against one of the world’s biggest oil [...] read more
    November 19, 2007 4:52 pm - 1 Comment