“Clean, Green” New Zealand?

One of my major interests in coming to New Zealand was to compare environmental policies and attitudes to that of the United States. It would be misleading, given my limited experiences to extrapolate and speak for the sentiments of the New Zealand public. I live in a complex of predominantly international students and it has been difficult to make strong connections outside of this network – most of the ways I’ve found to engage in environmental issues involve attending events which naturally attract those concerned with the environment. There is a strong dichotomy between the way environmental issues are treated at my flat (I’m not sure half of my flatmates understand what recycling is/make no effort to do so – our recycling bin is continually stolen so it’s difficult to blame them) and the opinions of people in my environmental politics class, in the tramping club, and attending environmentally focused lectures and debates. That being said, I feel like three and a half months should be enough time to make some general comments.

In large part, NZ is “clean” and “green” because of its low population density rather than any sort of purposeful planning or good regulatory controls. In fact, based on a study done by the OECD, New Zealand has some of the least “red tape” for businesses to get through of any developed country. The Resource Management Act (RMA) stands as the dominant form of environmental legislation. It dictates the resource consent process and the relationship between district, regional and national government. It advocates “sustainable management” but leaves what this actually means open to interpretation and so far the government hasn’t provided many standards or policy statements to clarify. The act is also very much effects-based; as long as a potential resource user can demonstrate that a proposed project has only minor impacts on the environment or that the effects will be mitigated, the consent will likely be approved. Because of this, the act is poor at dealing with the cumulative resource requests in an area and privileges present users over potential future uses for the resources.

That being said, some positives:
- environmental issues seem to get a more central place in political campaigns.
- more public concern and involvement (this one is the most likely to be affected by being encompassed by a university) Ex. there is little question of whether or not climate change is happening and strong support for the NZ government to step up its pledge to lower emissions. (The only person I have seen to question its existence was a professor attacking the validity and universal application of scientific knowledge and the people around me were getting pretty angry…) There has similarly been strong backlash against the current proposals to open conservation land (national parks and reserves) to mining.
- pay as you go rubbish collection – In Dunedin, the waste disposal services will only collect one type of trash bag approved by the city council. They are very expensive and are meant to be an incentive for people to recycle more (free service) and limit their waste.
- paying for plastic bags – this has been implemented by some stores. New World, the grocery store I frequent, put a policy in place momentarily where customers had to pay 5 cents per bag, but have unfortunately since rescinded it to prevent losing business. :(

Through my environmental politics class and other lectures around campus I have managed to hear 4 of the 9 NZ Green Party MPs. Jeanette Fitzsimmons spoke regarding the Emission Trading Scheme currently being proposed by National (equivalent to Republican party – they are currently in control of parliament) She argued that it would not be effective at reducing overall emissions to meet the Kyoto target and instead detailed the Green Party suggestions for reducing carbon. I also heard Sue Bradford speak about grassroots activism and the role of democratic practices in proper operation of a green party and the two co-leaders, Metiria Turei and Russel Norman, describing the NZ green party’s basic campaign platform and strategies.

This last speech was especially great because one of Norman’s specific interests was in water resource distribution. Someone asked him a question about current proposals to change allocation in the Canterbury region and, though he was clearly trying to keep his comments brief, it wasn’t long before he was filling the board with diagrams. He declared freshwater and water quality to be “New Zealand’s greatest environmental issue.” Not something I would have expected.

Experiencing Kiwis perception of what constitutes a healthy environment and sound policy gives perspective – from tramping club members bemoaning increasingly not being able to drink straight out of streams to outrage at the idea of using aquifer water (unsustainable) it is a very different baseline from which to measure environmental degradation. As another example, landscape has a completely different value here. In Environmental Politics, part of our assessment was based on presentations about recent, local resource conflicts. It turns out there is a surprising amount of antipathy toward proposed wind farms in Otago amongst the student presenters as well as in public response to the proposals. For the last four years I have been surrounded by people who are very optimistic about wind as an alternative energy and have scoffed at those who were opposed to them for aesthetic reasons as being unrealistic about our energy options (NIMBY – not in my backyard). I haven’t changed my stance but certainly putting wind turbines on the top of a ridge in a rural area of Otago means something very different to people than putting them in a field in rural Minnesota.

Some other issues:

The country champions biodiversity and has some amazingly cool endemic species including the only mountain parrot in the world, a variety of rare penguins and amusingly thick worms. But with 40 million sheep, hillsides covered in gorse, and 60 million possums (aka “little speed bumps”) it is hardly an ecological paradise. (Currently there are some pretty hefty debates regarding how to get rid of the possums. The Department of Conservation (DOC) is engaged in systematic poisoning with a chemical called 1080 but recent evidence has emerged showing that it has negative effects on humans.)

Insulation!!! – buildings in Dunedin and especially in the “student ghetto” are old and poorly designed to deal with cold South Island winters. Most houses are poorly insulated and lack double-paned windows. While winters are not nearly as bad as in MN, so much energy could be saved (and comfort provided) if the heat didn’t immediately go through the wall. They are currently working to address the problem – the government is subsidizing installation of insulation - but it will be probably a decade before all of the people on the waiting list can be processed.

All cars in NZ are imported. When a car enters the country, it will likely remain in use for twenty years. Because of this the market does not work efficiently to encourage fuel economy because, even when the price of petrol rises, it is being consumed by a fleet operating on decades old fuel conditions. Currently NZ does not have fuel economy standards for incoming cars – it needs them.

Puspawarna Gamelan!

Yesterday was the final performance of the community gamelan group I have been playing with for the past semester.


The pelog (7-note scale) instruments of our set in place at the Temple Gallery. About to start rehearsing.

It was a rather eclectic concert. The night was opened by an early music group playing pre-opera music from the 1600s on lute, viol de gamba, regular viol, and flute. This was followed by a soloist on Tibetan flute and then us. We played a few traditional pieces, but the main purpose of the concert was to premiere works written by people in the ensemble. One was written in traditional style by Ali, a fourth year honours student. Another was by a composition lecturer and featured a western structure, progression of changing melodies, and had parts for individual instruments written out.

"Frogs" by the artistic director of the group, Joko Susilo called for a string section (cello, violin, and bass) as well as "special effects" of croaking frogs with wooden percussion instruments and gongs placed on the ground.

The string section setting up.




Good old Saron II. Because Puspawarna Gamelan is a community ensemble with members coming and going depending on the rehearsal I've been shifted around to play several different instruments but this saron is the one I know best and the one I was lucky enough to play at this show.

Playing gamelan has been an amazing musical experience. This semester has made me conscious of how strongly dependent on western structural forms and notation I am when understanding music. Unlike an orchestra for example, where though the instruments are played together, the melody and temporary importance is passed between instruments and sections, in gamelan, it is hard to distinguish any particular instrument from the sound as a whole. Everyone is playing the melody or a variation upon it at all times - there are no diva parts. In addition, much time (and frustration) would be spent trying to figure out how many times Joko expected us to repeat a particular section; it was normal to spend ten minutes trying to get him to explicitly tell us the order so we could write it down and then having him cue something different the very next time we played it. Traditionally though, gamelan isn't supposed to be fixed in writing but rather changes based on the whim of the drummer and what he signals.

Also: Community! I am not sure what exactly it is...something about the instrumentation of the songs themselves, the large number of birthdays falling on rehearsal days (celebrated with food and the obligatory attempt to play "Happy Birthday" on gamelan which doesn't work very well because the scales lack the necessary notes), Joko's insistence on giving rides home after rehearsal, or (most likely) the ridiculous amounts of time and effort spent moving the heavy bronze instruments every time we have a concert...but at the after party it struck me how much the gamelan group felt like whanau (family). Music groups often inspire this sort of bond, I have just never felt it so quickly.

The concert was recorded so hopefully I will be able to acquire a copy and post a song or two here.


Gamelan practice room with just the slendro scale instruments. Ali resting while waiting for the truck to arrive with the instruments we brought to the concert.




"Ayun Ayun" written on a board in the practice room. Notably the form at the bottom(AA-AA-BA) is not what we played at the concert. ^_^

Conservation Weekend!!

As per my standard way of blogging this is rather out of date:

I went with eight other Australearn students to Papatowei for a weekend to volunteer at a couple of reserves. We stayed with an adorable older couple who were decades-long caretakers of the Te Rere reserve, a privately managed habitat for yellow-eyed penguins. We destroyed a handful of gorse bushes (a species of extremely prickly plants introduced as a way to fence in sheep but spreading to cover entire hillsides), set traps for stoats, and put out poison for possums. Apparently there are over 60 million possums in NZ and they each eat 1 kg of vegetation per day!! During the afternoon, we got up close and personal with flax – uprooting, splitting and then replanting to provide cover for the penguins. Flax is a huge, tough plant and it took the seven of us half an hour to get one out of the ground. We used a grubber to clear the vegetation around the base of the plant. Then we went around with two spades cutting away at the roots and trying to dig it out of the ground. We put a thick rope around the base and five of us pulled while the others continued trying to cut away at the roots. Eventually we got it out with several people pulling directly on the leaves and Sam tackling it from the side. Once it was sufficiently tipped over, we pulled it apart, being careful that each division contained a substantial amount of root. We then had to cut the leaves short so that the plants wouldn’t blow over in the wind with their seriously diminished extent of roots and replanted them.


Flax plant pulled apart with cut leaves strewn everywhere. Non-uprooted flax top right.


Apparently another accepted method for getting flax out of the group is to put explosives at the base and blow it out of the ground (we were shown a photo of this being done :-) ).

It was nearing dusk when we finished, so we gathered our equipment and went out to a point to watch the penguins coming in.



As we walked out of the reserve, you could hear the penguins rustling around in the bush. Earlier in the day, we came across one by accident which had not gone out to the ocean for the day. It let the entire group slowly pass by it before hiding away. We were so close that you could see its yellow eyes and pink feet! Amazing.

That night we went to the neighbor’s (a 93 yr old woman and her cat) to watch the rugby match between the final Tri-Nations game between the All Blacks and Wallabies. They were playing for 2nd and 3rd so it was vital that we win and not get “the wooden spoon.” It was the first rugby match I have been able to watch all the way through made extra great by having people around with a detailed knowledge of the game who were willing to explain what was happening (fouls etc). All Blacks dominated 33 – 6.

It was a perfectly clear night, so after the game I borrowed a stargazing book and stood in the middle of the street. I’m kind of ashamed to admit how long it took to get my bearings. It’s tricky to find the Southern Cross when it isn’t burned into your consciousness, you don’t know which direction is which, and there are incredible numbers of other stars. Eventually I got the book turned the right way….found the Triangulus Australiana (sp?) and looked at the signs of the zodiac upside down. The Milky Way was crazy bright; even after ruining your night vision with a flashlight, you could see it only a few seconds after turning the light off. You can see galaxies (besides the milky way) in the Southern hemisphere!!!

The next day we did some work on an interactive nature trail in the center of town and wandered around on the beach for a few hours. Best weekend ever.




View out of the window from the place we stayed.

Give Way

I am pretty well accustomed to cars driving on the left now but “give way” symbols (the equivalent of a yield sign but used much more prevalently) never cease to unnerve me. I really think the upside down triangle looks like an arrow pointing in the direction you are supposed to go and, when riding in a car, I am always temporarily alarmed that we are going the wrong way down the street.

Insert catchy title here

I am building up thoughts for a reflection on environmental practice and consciousness in NZ (I’m sure you are all on the edge of your seats ^_^ ) but classes have picked up and I have a fresh slew of essays and presentations to complete. So…it probably won’t get done for a couple of weeks. In preview – climate change is recognized as fact (sooo refreshing!) and there is widespread public reaction to things like opening up national parks to mining. On the other hand, government environmental policy is effects-based, short on pollution standards/policy plans, and largely successful thus far because of the high ratio of resources / people. More later….

Other doings:
1. walked into the hills around Dunedin again on a spectacular day. Though I am starting to get normalized to the tremendous scenery around here, I don’t think I will ever get tired of the view from Flagstaff/Swampy/Cargill!! I was hiking by myself and had some interesting times trying to navigate with a topo map that had a severe lack of road names and trailheads that had a severe lack of signage. I think I may have been on a trail that didn’t officially exist for most of the climb up….. Wandered through Ross Creek Reservoir and Woodlaugh Gardens on the way back.




2. discussion about abortion with my flatmate from the Bible Belt and my flatmate from Denmark. And I am amazed once again at how strongly the communities we live in influence what we take to be common sense!

3. avoided the Undie 500 insanity as much as possible. Students from Christchurch pubcrawl to Dunedin in cars costing $500 or less, usually decorated in some fashion. This typically leads to drunken mayhem and, a few years ago, caused a “riot.” (students debate how bad it was) Last year they tried to cancel the event but people came anyway, repeating past behaviors. This year there were calls to have organized activities to control the crowd but the district council instead just put liquor bans on North Dunedin and declared a “no diversion” policy on anyone arrested for disorderly behaviour. And things got out of hand again…as expected. Here's a video. My flat is two streets away, so I got to smell burning sofas and listen to people making a ruckus. I wish the streets between me and uni weren’t littered with glass shards….

4. spent heaps of time contemplating representations of the South Pacific, kaitiakitanga (stewardship), NGOs and international policy making agency

Moon, magnetics, and mayhem

In addition to different constellations being visible in the Southern Hemisphere (the Southern Cross instead of the Big Dipper), the moon looks different from my new position on the sphere that is our planet. Instead of a “man on the moon,” the pattern appears “upside down” and is understood to be in the shape of a rabbit. Also, the phases of the moon move in the opposite direction – the sunlit portion goes from left to right so that the crescent points to the left when waning and to the right when waxing. Craziness!!

Also crazy for anyone who is a fan of maps, orienteering, or the earth’s magnetic field, magnetic declination here is around 21 degrees!!! (so if you calculate it in the wrong direction, you could potentially be turned 42 degrees from the point you are intending to go!!)


Interesting happenings of the past few weeks:

1) worked with eight other people to plant kanuka on the Otago Peninsula. I went with the understanding that we were attempting to bolster dwindling populations of bees but it turned out that was a cover for the real project, providing habitat for a species that is being poached. I got to meet Lala, one of the founding members of STOP (Save the Otago Peninsula) who is involved in tons of conservation groups in Otago. While staking down weed mats, I saw a skink and one of the coolest stick bugs I’ve ever seen.

2) went to a water conservation order hearing for the Nevis river area. It turned out it was the second round of hearings by a special tribunal, such that the read submissions were really nitpicky responses to arguments I hadn’t heard and pretty much everyone there besides me were presenting evidence. I had a cool conversation with the guy next to me (from Otago Fish and Wildlife??) about how the process worked and the hydroelectric plans being considered by the power company.

3) finally went to the archives! (it only took me two months to find it...) Very, very cool place. I looked at a crazy missionary’s autobiography (and an even crazier children's book about the deeds of that missionary), a tourist travel account for the Pacific Islands from the 1900s, an illegible microfilm journal which was supposed to be about recruiting workers from the New Hebrides, and huge stacks of photographs. In addition to material useful for my essay, I found some 100 year old pictures a volcano. :-)

4) played “extreme” croquet. (at night with headlamps and with the weather threatening to turn wet).

(my game face)


5) attended the Dunedin Folk Club. The evening featured a wide variety of styles - starting with wooden flute and bagpipe and ended with a piece for tubular bells, banjo, and sawed cymbals (cymbals played with a bow). For the first half hour I was probably the only person there under forty… it made me miss having instruments to play on. So I went to an informal open mic session in the hopes of temporarily borrowing a guitar. Despite how it was publicized, it turned out being just the regulars of the club sitting around at a table in a café demonstrating their formidable fingerpicking skills. I didn’t know any of their songs but playing ‘Angel Band’ caused some rather impressive harmonies. I miss singing with you, Stephanie and Ruth!!

Learn to speak Kiwi (part 2)

turns of phrase:
“have a go” or “its your go” = it’s your turn

take the piss = to be given a hard time for something

full on - dense, challenging, difficult...as in “that reading was full on”

Are you winning? (asked if someone walks up when you are studying ) = are things going well?, are you getting a lot done?

Crack up = that’s funny
Good on ya! = congratulations (can be used sarcastically as well)
heaps = lots....as in "there were heaps of sheep in the road"

terms:
torch = flashlight
lolly = candy
rubber = eraser
boot = trunk of a vehicle

take-away = takeout; also a type of fast food restaurant which only serves takeout (they have no tables to sit at.) Typical options are hamburgers, fish and chips, and chinese (often all at the same place).