Another busy month was kicked off with over 200 people attending a public meeting in Whitianga to discuss better marine protection in the coastal waters around the Peninsula. There was a strong groundswell of support for larger areas to be set aside for marine reserves and to ban bottom impact fishing methods such as trawling and dredging. As one of the speakers at the meeting I was able to emphasise the importance of making a submission on the Regional Council’s Regional Coastal Plan.
Read More »Author: TeggTalk
I'm interested in "big-picture" issues, so I try not to sweat the small stuff. I will focus on Thames Coromandel issues, but there will be times when broader topics will get attention.
Holding institutions and office holders to account is important. Sometimes I will express strongly held opinions. I wish this to be a forum for speaking truth to power*, and for a respectful exchange of ideas and opinions. But I am not interested in personal denigration and abuse and I will not tolerate it in comments. If you troll or spam you will be banned.
Denis Tegg
* Speaking truth to power means believing deeply in what you say and fighting every day to have that heard. It may not be popular; it means taking a risk, it means standing for something.
Regional Transport Plan Will Increase Emissions And Is Thus Unlawful
Waikato Regional Council (WRC) has approved a transport plan which assigns just 3% of its 10-year budget to walking and cycling, and only 5% to public transport. This must inevitably increase overall transport emission pollution in the region. In my opinion the law requires the plan to reduce transport emissions to achieve consistency with central government transport policy. If emissions will rise under the plan this makes the plan unlawful and places WRC at significant risk of a successful legal challenge.
Read More »Controlling Pests Protects Biodiversity And The Climate
Recent photos in local media show the benefits of well-managed pest control in our Coromandel native forest. The improvements in forest cover and native bird numbers and biodiversity are obvious. Now, Forest and Bird have highlighted another huge benefit – controlling deer, possums, goats, feral pigs and other invasive mammals could let established native forests recover to the point where they sucked in 15 per cent of New Zealand’s yearly greenhouse gas emissions. That is equivalent to around 60% of New Zealand’s transport climate emission pollution
Read More »Early next year some new EV’s will be as cheap as petrol/diesel equivalents
Some armchair pundits have fully battery electric cars not reaching price parity with their equivalent petrol/diesel (ICE) versions in New Zealand until 2024 or even 2027. But what if I told you that next month for a price around NZ$35,000 you will be able to order for delivery in March/April 2022 a fully spec’d battery electric hatchback which will be as cheap as a high-end new Toyota Corolla. This car will have a real world range of at least 500 km and is capable of 0 – 100 km/hr in around 5 seconds.
Read More »Petrol/Diesel cars consume 300 – 400 times more resources than an electric car
First oil companies tried a misinformation campaign that electric cars were just as polluting as gas-powered vehicles. That myth has been rubbished. Now the oil companies have turned to a new attack, – that mining resources to build EV batteries is just as bad for the environment as burning petrol. But that myth has been thoroughly discredited as well.
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