Kazel's blog

One of the questions Transition Towns groups ask is “How will our town be affected by climate change?”  Every location has its own unique combination of issues to address, and the weather patterns will vary everywhere.

The Ministry for the Environment website www.mfe.govt.nz has localised predictions of weather changes in each region in NZ.  No surprises there – they predict flooding to be four times more likely and the temperature to rise by 2 degrees.  » Read more

This article is the one hundred and first that I have written for the Opotiki News.  In the past 100 articles I have talked about Climate Change, Peak Oil, fluffy chickens, backyard gardens, sustainability, jam-making, insulating houses, foodmiles, fair-trade, organics, cycling, marketplaces, recycling, the state of our oceans, and so much more. » Read more

On Saturday people came from all over the region, from Gisborne to Whakatane, to gather in Opotiki and discuss the implications of offshore drilling for oil.

Ora Barlow shared her research on the history of Brazilian giant Petrobras, with its horrific track record. Between 1975 – 2001 Petrobras was responsible for 18 major oil and gas spills, 141 deaths and 28 million litres of oil spilled, which lead to BBC in 2000 saying that Petrobras showed “an embarrassing level of incompetence.” » Read more

The timing was ironic – just as the BP Mexico gulf oil spill was breaking news, our government announced it had awarded a contract to explore for oil in a region off our East Coast that stretches from Te Kaha and out beyond the East Cape.

Around the same time, National MP Gerry Brownlee’s plan to allow mining for gold and coal in our precious spaces met with fervent nation-wide protest, which led to the Government backing down and even extending the protected status of more conservation land. 

We can have a similar effect on the planned exploration for oil.  » Read more

Full petition text:
"To Prime Minister John Key and the New Zealand Government: We call on you to permanently STOP ALL plans to open up New Zealand’s coastal waters to dangerous offshore oil drilling and STOP ANY expansion of coal mining in New Zealand. We demand a clean energy future."

http://action.greenpeace.org.nz/no-new-oil-petition

Please sign, tell all your friends and contacts to sign, and if they won't sign, defriend them ;)

Slow cooking has just taken a great leap forward in my house. I’ve been eyeing up the top of my old Kent fireplace as a way to cook. It gets hot enough to cause a serious burn when the fire is going, so I figured it would be warm enough to cook a meal like a slow-cooker. » Read more

Peak Oil is the term that describes when we have consumed half of the world’s available oil.  When oil was first used about a hundred years ago it was easy to find, it seemed in Texas all you needed to do was put a spade in the ground and up came a bubbling crude. » Read more

If fishing companies had to manage their stocks like farmers do then the price of fish would be out of reach for most people.  What this means is that we are subsidising the true cost of fishing and we are going to have to pay for that later with entire species extinctions and the collapse of ecosystems. » Read more

On World Ocean’s Day recently I watched “The End of the Line”, a major feature documentary that describes the devastating impact over fishing has had.  Much of the cinematography is exquisitely filmed, capturing the vast beauty and majesty of the ocean. 

It is difficult to conceive of the seemingly endless bounty of fish that was once contained in the world’s oceans.  Bleakly, I find it much easier to ‘imagine a world without fish’, as the tag-line challenges us to do.  » Read more

The enormity of the Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is barely comprehensible.  On April 20, 2010, an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico caused oil to begin gushing into the sea at phenomenal rates and it is still going strong. » Read more