Water water everywhere... and submission[s]
Lots and lots of rain in the past week flooded Lake Wanaka, and was quite a worry for a day or two as anxious locals wondered if we'd have a repeat of the event several years ago that flooded many shops. However at the critical time it eased off, and now we've all been enjoying the autumn colours again.
For myself I'm in awe of nature, and while I loved it's display of disdain for the mundane affairs of us mortals, I am glad no one suffered too much.
From a photographer's perspective it's pretty nice to see water right in the trees and scrubs. Mostly this time of year it's all rocks and gravel around the lake edge...
We'll all be supplementing this winter's firewood supply with driftwood...
Fisherman don't have to walk to... let alone stand by the water at present...
After such extreme weather it's amazing how tranquil it is now...
In recent blogs I've commented on the silly attempts our current New Zealand National Government is making to open up National Parks and Conservation areas to mining. Then this morning on the National Radio I was listening to an interview with the United Nation's High Commissioner Richard Toll [spelling?].
He articulated many good things about New Zealand and Australia's contributions to the well being of this planet and apart from noting the unexpectedly high [for me] amounts of money given to the various causes, I had time to ponder that we do indeed lead by example in so many fields.
So why does our current Govt. insist on compromising our lands locked up in perpetuity? What sort of an example is this to set to a world that struggles in so many areas to rise above insane behaviour - not only wars, but ruining the very air and water we need to survive!
It can only be that big egos are involved. Pity really... we need good ideas, but also the maturity to give realistic values to them.
Our local paper the Otago Daily Times published an interesting report recently on the International Union of Conservation for Nature (IUCN), criticism of our Government, and this union is the world's oldest and largest environmental network.
Then came this interesting photo embedded in an article on mining in Central Otago. A photo that for me makes me think of just what a mess mining makes of our precious landscapes.
We are after all mostly talking about holes in the ground here! Some of the biggest earners are full of water and we know some of them as the Southern Lakes. It's hard to fathom how a few jobs in that other hole, the one already having money poured into it, can bring more earnings than tourists coming especially to see the natural holes, the rivers that fill them, and the mountains and glaciers that give birth to these life sustaining rivers.
Submissions close Tuesday 4th May at 5pm.
Jerry Brownlee needs to get this message! Please do your bit:
www.2precious2mine.org.nz
You can do an on-line submission from a choice of three different templates, or refer to submission guides for your own submission. The more personalised the better.
Thanks for the heads up Bruce
For myself I'm in awe of nature, and while I loved it's display of disdain for the mundane affairs of us mortals, I am glad no one suffered too much.
From a photographer's perspective it's pretty nice to see water right in the trees and scrubs. Mostly this time of year it's all rocks and gravel around the lake edge...
We'll all be supplementing this winter's firewood supply with driftwood...
Fisherman don't have to walk to... let alone stand by the water at present...
After such extreme weather it's amazing how tranquil it is now...
In recent blogs I've commented on the silly attempts our current New Zealand National Government is making to open up National Parks and Conservation areas to mining. Then this morning on the National Radio I was listening to an interview with the United Nation's High Commissioner Richard Toll [spelling?].
He articulated many good things about New Zealand and Australia's contributions to the well being of this planet and apart from noting the unexpectedly high [for me] amounts of money given to the various causes, I had time to ponder that we do indeed lead by example in so many fields.
So why does our current Govt. insist on compromising our lands locked up in perpetuity? What sort of an example is this to set to a world that struggles in so many areas to rise above insane behaviour - not only wars, but ruining the very air and water we need to survive!
It can only be that big egos are involved. Pity really... we need good ideas, but also the maturity to give realistic values to them.
Our local paper the Otago Daily Times published an interesting report recently on the International Union of Conservation for Nature (IUCN), criticism of our Government, and this union is the world's oldest and largest environmental network.
Then came this interesting photo embedded in an article on mining in Central Otago. A photo that for me makes me think of just what a mess mining makes of our precious landscapes.
We are after all mostly talking about holes in the ground here! Some of the biggest earners are full of water and we know some of them as the Southern Lakes. It's hard to fathom how a few jobs in that other hole, the one already having money poured into it, can bring more earnings than tourists coming especially to see the natural holes, the rivers that fill them, and the mountains and glaciers that give birth to these life sustaining rivers.
Submissions close Tuesday 4th May at 5pm.
Jerry Brownlee needs to get this message! Please do your bit:
www.2precious2mine.org.nz
You can do an on-line submission from a choice of three different templates, or refer to submission guides for your own submission. The more personalised the better.
Thanks for the heads up Bruce
Labels: Central Otago, Conservation Estate, Jerry Brownlee, Lake Wanaka, New Zealand Landscape Photography, New Zealand National Parks, the International Union of Conservation for Nature
posted by Donald at
7:58 PM
2 Comments:
Kia ora Donald,
We have a very short sighted government in power, and their focus is simply to get re-elected by increasing any economic numbers they can, and wilderness areas be damned. 50,000 or so people express their displeasure in Auckland alone, and in the media, right wing blogs, ect., the only reaction I see is to marginalize those numbers by questioning the actual number of people. As if 45,000 people or even 25,000 people can be completely discounted as opposed to 50,000. Then of course our jowly minister of conversation is trotted out on a friendly morning breakfast show to hand fed patsy questions, and tell the nation that those whom are against mining "do not really understand the issue". This is what we are up against. National is bent on destroying the wild as they see it being for the greater good. The system has made our universities so expensive that the students cannot and will not pursue means of social protest, though it is their future, and their childrens future interactions with the wild at stake. I wish I was younger, I would be tempted to become an Edward Abbey monkey wrencher, and I foresee that happening.
In any case, staying within the system, we have done our submissions and I am putting the word out to family and friends. We have to have our say. It is like voting, if you don't vote, don't complain. Glad you made it through the recent wet patch reasonably dry. All that driftwood will be a nice boon to the wood larder. Have a great day.
Cheers,
Robb
thanks again for keeping important issues alive. So easy to be distant from events that don't directly impact on a daily basis on the minutae of our lives. Because eventually those things do have an impact and we can't ever say we didn't know or didn't have an opportunity to take a stand.Just trying to remember but the person who said it momentarily escapes me but the saying was something like good people do harm by doing nothing.
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