Environment
Getting paid for surplus solar power
The weather’s really crapped out in the past half hour. Wind’s up, rain’s back. We’ll have to console ourselves with the memory of yesterday’s perfect weather.
Birds in the garden
It’s nice going out into the garden in the morning to fetch the paper and hear the tūī going for it in the trees. We have a growing number of them in Pukerua Bay.
Dedicated amateur pest controllers – i.e. residents with rat traps in their gardens – have made the village much safer for the birds. We also have lots of kererū (wood pigeons) that have come over from the wildlife reserve on Kāpiti Island. There are so many, they even have their own ‘Slow down’ road safety signs!
Open letter to the oil industry
Greenpeace has launched an open letter to the oil industry telling them they are not welcome in New Zealand. It’s pretty blunt and leaves them in no doubt that people will not make it easy for them to get what they and the government want.
You are not welcome here.
We pledge to do everything we can to resist the oil and gas industry if the New Zealand government overturns the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration.
You can sign it online here: Open letter to the oil industry
Very sad and disappointing.
Upper Hutt City Council cuts down a stand of beech trees to widen a road into a new housing development.
Beech trees cut down despite efforts of Upper Hutt community