New Zealand Conservative

Property rights should trump lava flow (a destructive effect of nature), yet a land owner has been fined for improving his property: The "damaged" lava flow (source NZ Herald) Damaging a historic lava flow has cost an Epsom homeowner more than $15,000. He was successfully prosecuted by Auckland Council after removing trees, plants and some of the historic lava flow from his property, which is part of the Almorah lava forest, an area of ecological significance protected under the Auckland District Plan. The forest is on Maungawhau, or Mt Eden, and comprises tracts of native bush. The fine followed a complaint from a member of the public, which prompted enforcement staff from Auckland council's resource consent team to visit the site near Mt Eden. This is just a sign of the growing pantheism of the environmental movement, that holds "Nature" as sacred, and disallows anything that interferes with what "Nature" does. In England, this pant...

Government employees tasked with keeping a temperature controlled environmental chamber for rare snails at an appropriate temperature for their charges gets it wrong and kills them all . Those who would like to hand control of the world's temperature to the UN might like to reconsider their position.

The spells of protection woven by Druid Rod Donald and High Priestess Jeanette Fitzsimmons have crumbled following a year of inadequate sacrifice to Gaea, explained Metiria to a New Zealand public awash in a sea of black crude. "Mother Earth calls for a higher ETS" confirmed the Ginger Druid, Russel Norman. "This is what you get when you don't vote Green". Ironically, the point that the Greens wanted to dramatically expand coastal shipping and expose NZ to further accidents such as this only underscored the Greens effort to appear ecologically business friendly coming up to the election. "Nothing stronger regulations and taxes couldn't prevent" thundered a Green supporter. "And more money spent on the bureaucracy of Maritime affairs", piped in Goff from the sidelines. Local iwi were also apparently helpless to stop thousands of litres bubbling out into the foreshore and seabed. "We are natural guardians and custodians of t...

Maritime New Zealand is considering issuing face masks to people living near beaches affected by oil from crippled cargo ship Rena. NZ Herald: It's even worse than we thought The USS Arizona is a war memorial. It has been leaking oil for darn near seventy years now. Millions of people have visited to pay their respects over the years and not one of them has needed a "face mask". Why can't bunker oil be discussed without being prefixed the adjective "toxic"? And why are officials and Government ministers running around like headless chooks? I assume the adults, in the form of marine salvors, have arrived and hopefully they will be able to get on with it - it's a big job way way above the pay grade of any Kiwi Civil servant or Government Minister.

The New Forests Company is a UK-based sustainable and socially responsible forestry company with established, rapidly growing plantations and the prospect of a diversified product base for local and regional export markets which will deliver both attractive returns to investors and significant social and environmental benefits. The New Forests Company So what does all this blather on the left translate to in the real world with real people in it? Francis Longoli, a small farmer from Kiboga district of central Uganda, is tearful: "I remember my land, three acres of coffee, many trees – mangoes and avocados. I had five acres of bananas, 10 beehives, two beautiful permanent houses. My land gave me everything. People used to call me 'omataka' – someone who owns land. Now that is no more. I am one of the poorest now," he says. Longoli and his family of six lost everything last year when, with three months notice, the Ugandan government evicted him and thousands of ot...

It's not that hard really, somebody needs to explain to the TSA how to go about it .

Do you know how the man on the right was? No? He is not a household name. But according to environmental historian J.R. McNeil he had a greater impact on the environment than any other single organism in world history, he means this in a bad way. The man's name is Thomas Midgley, Jr and he was one of the most celebrated Chemists of the early 20 th century, winning many prizes and awards for his work. It was Thomas Midgley, Jr working for General Motors in 1921 who discovered the addition of Tetra-ethyl lead to petrol prevent engine knocking, a great advance which improved engine performance and wear. American Chemical Society awarded Midgley the 1923 Nichols Medal for this. And of course until comparatively recently lead was added to petrol and most cars required it. Of course this added lead to the environment (bad) and we have moved on from this. In the late 1920s Thomas Midgley, Jr turned his attention to refrigerants. At that time some fairly nasty chemicals such...

Free Blog Poll On Friday 22 nd of April 2011 two major religious holy days coincide. The first being the ancient Christian holy day - Good Friday. The second being the modern (since 1970) celebration of Gaia - Earth Day. We all have to live through this day and choose how we intend to negotiate it. For Christians at least this is a solemn day of worship and reflection. I'm unsure what the appropriate mood, ritual and ceremony for Earth Day is, not having ever had much to do with it. Perhaps readers can enlighten us in the comments. How will it be for you? Choose your best answer from the poll at the left.

Earth hour must be resisted.  It pays homage to the pagan gods of the planet.  It signifies a guilt for our human presence here on this planet.  It calls for cultural suicide. Previous Earth Hour Posts: Not dancing naked under a full moon ~ 2008 Worshipping the Environment ~ 2009 --ZenTiger Neighbourhood Message Insert-- Read about Dirt Day and Save the Planet in one hour and other ideas

Photo of foetus smiling at 17 weeks. October is Pro Life month, so I thought I'd post about some things I'd been thinking about recently; namely, about ecology. Well first, what does ecology mean? According to the dictionary, it is - the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms. OK, so that's when I started thinking about some of these "greenies", or environmentalists. Why would many of them accept abortion? Let's imagine a scenario: What if there was a marshland that someone wanted to clear and build on, but there were some nesting ducks in the way. The ducks flew off with the noise of the approaching bulldozers, leaving their eggs behind, and the developers just wanted to bulldoze right over the nests and crush the eggs because they weren't convenient being where they were. They were in the way. Wouldn't environmentalists be jumping up and down and loudly c...

There's an ongoing hostage crisis at the headquarters of the Discovery Channel . According to the Washington Post A note posted online July 18 issues a list of demands to the Discovery Channel, saying the station "MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet." It lists 11 demands about airing shows that would promote curbing the plant's population growth, finding solutions for global warming and dismantling "the dangerous US world economy." "All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions," it reads. "In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it." In the Western world the birth rate has suffered a disastrous decline the consequences of which are only just ...

From the brave new world THE EU is studying proposals from Belgian undertakers to dissolve corpses in caustic solutions. The departed could then be flushed into the sewage systems of towns and cities to be recycled at water processing plants. Can you guess what the motivation behind this new body disposal method is? Here's a hint Known as resomation , the process significantly reduces the 260 kilograms of carbon dioxide that the burning of a body spews into the air. Source: Undertakers consider your solution Slightly different issue: Flushing the living down the toilet

Almost as big as the Boobs on Bikes parade, and nearly as much as 1/30th of the number of people that voted against the anti-smacking laws, organisers claim the protest march in Auckland on Saturday was the biggest in history. Some 50,000 people walked down Queen Street to protest against mining in conservation land. If we also include the protesters who tunneled under Queen street in protest, we can probably add another 2,000 people, 61 rabbits, 16 badgers, 34 gophers, 128 moles and 2 groundhogs to that number. Although I think the groundhogs were professional protesters and the moles were traitorous insiders actually working for mining interests.

Passers by saw Christopher Hemsley, an active environmentalist, eating an endangered crayfish in England's lake district. The Authorities were called and he was caught . It was a mistake,he said, he thought he was eating an introduce species of crayfish which competes with the endangered native species. He is £4000 poorer as a result of his mistake. Expensive meal huh.

Had a quick scan of the papers, and it seems to be a fairly quiet day in blog land. Doug McKay has been appointed the new head of the Auckland Super City . "McKay has 20 years experience at senior level – he has headed Lion Nathan, Carter Holt Harvey, Goodman Fielder, Sealord and most recently Independent Liquor." Looks like he has a good business background, and might even be able to get good deals on staff functions, always a bonus. I wish him luck. November 1 is not so far away, and there's a fair amount to get done between now and then. And that's without factoring in the politics. He's got a tough gig. Auckland also caught my eye today for a second reason - some visiting Hornets! Awesome. What's their range - 2000km? The mid air refueling on long trips must be a logistical nightmare. So when Hornets land, a huge support team cannot be too far away. I trust Auckland will practice her hosting skills for our good neighbours, and it's good ...

With the heat having gone out of Global Warming I'm a little surprised the Herald is even running this story . The basic concept is we can artificially "cool" the world off by injecting aerosols into the upper atmosphere. Fortunately the ability to do this in any significant sense remains a pipe dream. Goodness me it was aerosols from human activity that were the supposed culprit in the 1970s "coming ice age scare" bought to us by Stephen H. Schneider in his youth. And if the entire output of atmospheric aerosols from human activities hasn't cooled the planet yet how much effort would have to go into producing enough to be significant now?. Anyway who would you really trust to manipulate the worlds climate in this or any other conceivable manner? Some things are best just left to chance.

After seeing a couple of different video clips on the Sea Shepherd Tri-Cat colliding with the Japanese Whaling ship, it looked to me a case of both parties playing chicken, and the Sea Shepherd losing. The latest video over at MacDoctor (and probably thousands of other sites) puts a much different spin on the accident. Accident it may be, but it looks to me that the Sea Shepherd was more a passive victim than the protagonist, at least in this battle, and the captain of the Whaler has some serious explaining to do. Prior to the collision the Sea Shepherd crew were relaxed and happy, having felt like they had a successful day of playing cat and mouse. Evidently, the Japanese Whaler wasn't quite prepared to call it a day, and came in close for a water gun attack. The Tri-Cat had been powered down and was in no position to move out of the way when a late direction change by the Whaler, either accidentally or purposefully, caused the collision. It may be a case of "those that ...

Our blog byline is " Sine dominico non possumus ". I came across a comment from Adolf at No Minister , made back in 2008 : Is it really true? Does your motto actually mean 'No domination without possums?' He wasn't far wrong. Except for the meaning and all. However, it got me thinking how the possum offensive was going in New Zealand, and if I had ever done any posts about 1080 poison. Seems I haven't except for this gem: Mass Murder in the Killing Fields of Fox Glacier and I came across a story early in 2009 about mice deliberately infected with Bubonic Plague under the careful control and extremely high security of some scientists. Until the mice were lost: Of mice and men No domination without possums? Well, it's a plan I suppose.

But there seems little point

I happened to watch NASA bomb the moon last night through a live feed. Although, with Obama winning the Nobel Peace prize , attacking the moon with rockets is a great way to celebrate I guess. Apparently, NASA are trying to discover water on the moon . Perhaps the thinking is that the moon is totally uninhabitable, has no atmosphere and nothing to breathe it could still be a place to live if it has water. That's presuming that the earth is left totally uninhabitable, having no atmosphere and nothing to breathe, so we'd suddenly find the moon attractive. That might not sound much different, but currently the moon is a tax haven and no councils are charging rates. The views are spectacular too.