While we may be forgiven in the antipodes for focusing on our latest Budget, the event was noticeable for the lack of engagement with arguably our greatest challenge: oil. Indeed, other than the Greens, our Parliament, local government, media and sadly the public seem blind to the slow train coming.

Our world is ticking towards midnight at the petrol pump, and no-one seems to notice. Aotearoa NZ has the fifth lowest price for petrol in the OECD and seems to have no answers other than to retreat at pace from any environmental policies that might upset truckers, SUV drivers, and boy racers.

 A barrel of oil has now hit US$135. Previous IEA estimates that by 2030 the world could be producing 116B barrels of oil a day have been downgraded to less than 100B. World demand today is 87B barrels a day and climbing. Current output is not meeting even that demand, and Saudi Arabia, when asked by Dubya to raise output said they couldn’t see why they should and wouldn’t be raising it again for a while.

I pick here and now that a really large cut is coming your way very soon. It’s just not going to be the tax one you were after.

So let’s keep our eye on the real issues this year at our election. If we do not balance our transport demands with courage in environmental policy, food and commodity prices will continue to rise exponentially, and we can kiss goodbye to any progress that we have made on poverty. Alternatively, it might be time to build fences with razor wire in anticipation of the day people in our cities and towns can’t afford to buy food.   

Peter Williams on National Radio this morning raised concerns about upholding the rule of law, in particular that the Dominion Post’s actions are contempt of court in light of the fact that the Solicitor General’s decision means most of this evidence is inadmissable. Certainly, we must be concerned about the ramifications of allowing the “public to judge” through the media lens, despite Ron Marks apparent enthusiasm for the idea.

However, here we are, and here is the affadavit. So what does it mean for the self-interested (again according to Ron Mark) critics of the police raids and the attempted use of the Terrorism Suppression Act?

Very few of the criticisms that I have read or have made myself fall over in the light of this affadavit.

At the outset, all have stated that if there are charges to be laid, the Crimes Act and the Firearms Act are sufficient pieces of legislation within which to make a prosecution. This is proving to be the case, as in depositions the court has agreed there are charges to answer. The extension of the powers towards a security state that is being sought today cannot be argued on the basis that there are holes in the law through which evil people are escaping prosecution.

All critics have stated that the raids were heavy-handed. Again this stands, as it is increasingly clear from the evidence today that the police were not searching for mysterious figures hidden in the Urewera, but specific individuals well-known to them, no doubt with home addresses, phone numbers, favourite cafes, and all the rest. So we are left scratching our head as to why a whole town and then unrelated individuals’ houses needed to be held hostage by the police - to ensure nobody tried to escape on horseback into the wild blue yonder, perhaps? I suggest it is still a case of testosterone and budgets gone wild in the total institution that is our nation’s violent arm of the state.

All critics have said that the insinuation that political activism is terrorist activity is mud that’ll stick, and an insidious use of the media, parliament and the police. The grab-bag of activists charged still suggests this, and the affadavit goes no way towards proving some violent revolutionary plot across activist groups. Indeed, even the selective reading we have been allowed through the filter of police and then media analysis suggests there was some unease within those involved and a range of views about aims and strategies. People were clearly speaking out against violence here, not just condoning it.

So were there more than empty words in the Urewera. I’m inclined to believe so. I shook my head this morning when I read the Dominion Post, and thought, in relation to those suspects in the affadavit, “you dumb a__es”.

But this is not to be taken as an argument for greater police powers, more intelligence, broader powers to gather communications. The powers of the police are sufficient, our intelligence agencies are as incompetent and conspiracy driven as always, and we don’t need more impositions on our lives. So perhaps the empty words are those ringing out from Wellington, and continue to require us to challenge and critique.

At a time when the parliament and executive have been so loose with labelling political activism as terrorism, when NZ First has again attempted to get parliament to wipe te Tiriti o Waitangi from the record, and the violent arm of the state has brutalised Ngai Tuhoe (again), Jones’ comments are questions of maturity and insight.

Put simply, she asks if Pakeha are willing to build a relationship with Maori yet. She suggests up until now:

“Pakeha have largely refused a relationship of positive, real, engagement, being busy instead with forms of colonisation, and with “being entertained” by, and “doing good things” for, Maori.”

This question is so pertinent because, frankly, as a descendent of te Pirirakau, Ngati Rangiwewehi and Ngati Hinerangi, I am one of a lot of pissed off tangata whenua. I don’t trust the police, the executive, and most of the parliament. I don’t want a bar of the New Zealand that Pakeha are creating for themselves. And as a result of the last month’s events, I’ve rapidly become more sympathetic to those who may have advocated violent struggle. I’ve even caught myself beginning to think in the excluding language that I used as a 19 year old: “those” Pakeha supported by “their” state with “their” kupapa, pet Maori in parliament.

I’d rather have some faith restored that we are building a social contract that seeks a just relationship based in te Tiriti and honours our collective role in building Aotearoa. So the question remains to one and all: are you ready yet?

Books, DVDs, websites

Same file as .doc and .pdf

Word File           PDF

http://www.carbonzero.co.nz/calculators/calculators_school.asp - the carbon calculator - try the school option.  HT Cathedral Parnell have started using this. Enter ‘HT Cathedral Parnell’ into the name field if you want to see a comparison.  We used twice the number of families on the parish roled to estimate our number of ’students’.  We have only been counting clergy and staff mileage, so far.

Environmental sites from other churches - much insightful comment in all these sites:

http://casi.org.nz/issues/environment/index.htm 

www.cofe.anglican.org

www.catholicearthcareoz.net/

www.ecocongregation.org.uk/

and many other resources on this Wiki under ‘Climate Change’

Sommerville argues for a reconciliation of science, faith and morality as recognised forms of imagination, that is, as movements generated out of our intellectual and spiritual capacity to create and think. She argues for reconciling them today as contributors to our ethical imagination.

This was like streaming light into my Sunday. I am going out to find the book. At least take the time to listen to the lecture. The rest of the series continues next Sunday 2 September. Not to be missed.

I find the waiting the hardest. Soil’s turned (three times no less), but it’s still cold and miserable, and I wonder how long July and August are going to last. Next thing, I’m into this flurry of activity.

Yesterday I planted 80 potato plants, which should be enough for about 100 meals for a family of 4. I also put in a few dozen garlic plants and shallots. The only reason I am able to plant on such a scale in an urban setting is that our neighbour has agreed to us gardening their property. It’s really worth asking if there is a fallow piece of land nearby - people wax lyrically about the garden that used to be there, but can’t or won’t do it themselves.

Potatoes are in three varieties - early, mid- or second early, and mainstay (I’ve seen a few different classifications, but this gives you the idea). I tend to go for uncommon varieties, out of interest really. Also, I’m quite committed to sustaining our riwai Maori.

I’m much inclined to trenching at this early stage, as it means there is plenty of soil to mound with as time goes on. And a good layer of wood ash on top of the soil now means more potatoes later!

My leeks, red onions and swedes are all nearing harvest size, indeed, we have eaten a few of our leeks already. The swedes might be a bit of a disappointment given the lack of cold here, but we’ll see, we’ll see. Cabbages and broccoli, spinach and silverbeet are, as always, faithful crops that we eat a lot of.

The strawberries are starting to come away again. I find these the hardest to get from the plant to the bench - if I haven’t eaten them, my daughter has!

Also, I’ve finally removed the cloches from the pepper and chilli plants. The chillis fruited right through winter. I half seriously wonder if that is a blessing, or a disturbing sign of global warming. Actually, I saw a pohutukawa in blossom two weeks ago. Everyone else commented how beautiful it was - I’m troubled by it, to be honest.

About the only thing I don’t like about spring is crab grass - if you have any organic ways of getting rid of the stuff (other than pulling it out bit by bit), I’d love to know.

Till next time, happy gardening!

The advice we have received suggests it will take 3 heat pumps at a cost of $4100 each to efficiently  heat the space. These heat pumps have an equivalent heat output of 11kw max each (9kw is average).  This is an increase in heating of 15.5 kw with the added bonus that they blow the heat around. To achieve this output they have a max input of 2.6kw each giving a total of 7.8kw. It was estimated that it would take about an hour at full output to warm the room up – at which point the units could go to a quieter mode drawing less power. 7.8kw for approx 2 hours at 12.287 cents/kwh equals $1.9. Running at about half power for a further 2 hours is approx another $1.

Per hour use:

Current heating $2.15. Heat pumps (at max usage) 95cents.

It would take about 9100 hours (or 1820 morning services, or about 35) to recap the cost.  Economics isn’t the sole consideration, but there is another disadvantage with heat pumps – expectation as to an acceptable level of warmth changes. The ability to crank the thermostat means we can all come to church in winter in singles and sandals. After all, the primary goal is to be warmer than we currently are… no wait… is it?

Installing ceiling fans to keep the heat down would increase the efficiency of whatever heating we have, this is a likely first step.

Could use some help here. Has anyone tried or can you think of any other way to heat an old wooden Anglican Church? I am looking at pellet burners, they seem to be able to put out about 10kw equivalent so we would need at least 2, has anyone tried these?