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IS IT OK TO EAT FISH IN NEW ZEALAND?

2/22/2021

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By Waveney Warth
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Ngāti Pāoa recently placed scallops, mussels, crayfish and pāua around Waikehe Island under a two year rāhui. Photo credit: Rachel Mataira / Our Auckland

Long read: 10mins.  "Appraisal of New Zealand fisheries" plus bonus content at end "ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BUYING FISH IN NEW ZEALAND" 
Seafood New Zealand and our Ministry for Primary Industries tell us that we have a sustainable fishery, but many hapu, marine scientists and ANYONE trying to catch fish without commercial  fishing equipment say it’s getting harder and harder to catch and eat fish, crays, and shellfish around the coast of Aotearoa.  Tim and I explore who’s right and how to make sure the fish you eat is not leading to the extinction of Maui’s dolphins (or killing our unique seabirds or trawling through and destroying the seafloor ecosystem) in the Feb 2021 ‘Sustainable Fishing’ episode of How to Save the World podcast, available here: xxxxx  

In researching for the episode I came across a lot of rich information, and had the privilege of interviewing Geoff Keey Forest & Bird’s chief Strategic Fisheries Adviser; Te Atarangi Sayers  representing the hapu led Motiti Rohe Moana Trust; and reform advocate, Barry Torkington, Fishery Policy Advisor for LegaSea (NZ Sport Fishing Council) and former director of the commercial Leigh Fishery. 

The focus of the podcast itself was to, as broadly and succinctly as possible, highlight issues and then to really focus on (as always!) what listeners can do.  Which for this topic is “what can we do best support Aotearoa’s marine environment through to a future where our fish stocks are not in decline; where species never become ‘functionally extinct’; where the ecosystem of the ocean seafloor isn’t legally and routinely destroyed through bottom  trawling and dredging; and where we only ever take and eat what we want - not also accidental dolphins and seabirds and tonnes of other fish we call ‘bycatch’ because we don’t like to eat them”  
 
This blog focuses on the political context: what the status quo is, on what the issues are, who the players are and what legislative changes would be great to see.  I’ve also thrown in the basic take home messages from the podcast so you have it all in one. 

Excuse the bullet points!! We're all busy. Call it an intravenous information injection. 

The Quota Management System (QMS)
  • The incumbent
  • 1986 -  In response to rapidly dwindling fish supplies… world leading legislation ‘QMS’ Quota Management System.
  • Fish stock is managed by area and species. 
  • Govt sets annual TAC (total allowable catch) and TACC (total allowable commercial catch). 
  • TACC quotas are divided up and GIVEN away, in PERPETUITY. These are called ITQs (Individual Transferable Quotas)
  • ITQs are tradable! And so then becomes a valuable commodity. Has led to a feudal type of resource management - ‘Quota Lords’ - who get to sell off their ‘entitlements’. 
  • Most of the quota went to 10 large companies. 
  • They were divided up at the time based on each fisher’s catch history, minus a  percentage (since it was acknowledged that we were overfishing) 
  • According to a global study led by Professor Ray Hilborn from the University of Washington, NZ’s fisheries ranks among the world’s top 5 best managed fisheries. 28 of the world’s largest fishing countries were studied. The results, presented at the SeaWeb Seafood Summit 2016 in Malta, showed that New Zealand came in among the top five countries with a score of 9 out of 10.
  • Soooo sounds ok… 
  • LegaSea contests that QMS resulted in corporate takeover; less tax and less jobs (even though the number of fish caught are the same). 
    • 6000 registered fishing boats in 1986 now 1100. Bigger boats. Less staff. Same amount of fish.
  • Approximately 50 percent of fisheries quota are owned by iwi/Maori. (one example, Iwi now own half of Sea Lords) Barry Torkington  point out that  “QMS has pitched the commercial interests of iwi against the hapu customary rights” Each fish stock has a 100 million shares, iwi have built up a large portfolio of shares that lose value if Total Catches are reduced.  Meanwhile, hapu trying to supply kaimoana for a hui can struggle to cater for the event in customary waters that were not so long ago teeming with life.  


LegaSea & The Price of Fish
LegaSea NZ is the communications arm of the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council. Find them here:  www.legasea.co.nz.  They are vocal advocates for fishing reform for many reason - not  the least being that the status quo is making it really hard for recreational and small scale commercial fishers (one man bands / one woman choirs) to catch fish like we used to, (Near the shore, e.g. dingy or off the wharf,  and without state of the art fish tracking equipment).  

They made a documentary a couple of years ago called ‘The Price of Fish,’  which I recommend watching.  I reference it in the podcast and also through this blog as PoF. Watch it for free here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIQNDYoymMU.   The documentary was so good it has already led to a bit of a shake up at MPI (Ministry for Primary Industries) with some tangible improvements.  

LegaSea have manifesto for inshore fisheries reform which focuses on getting large scale commercial fisheries out of the inshore zone; ntroduce a minimum unfished biomass of 50%; Ditching the quota  and replacing with time limited licenses.  Find the Manifesto here: https://legasea.co.nz/about-us/what-is-legasea/manifesto/.  And if you’re sold, sigh the Rescue Fish Petition (which is in support of the changes) here:  https://rescuefish.co.nz/ 


Seafood New Zealand 
Seafood New Zealand is the commercial fishing representative body.  Their website is full of interesting facts and they also have very engaging looking factsheets for school kids but…. but I contend that these guys are really just good at the art of presenting information in a way that makes it sound good … here are a few examples.  Seafood New Zealand state that, https://www.seafoodnewzealand.org.nz/industry/key-facts: 
  • 95 percent of New Zealand's commercially landed catch is from sustainable stocks, according to the Ministry for Primary Industries' latest Fish Stock Status report. ‘commercially landed catch’ excludes bycatch. This would be a very different statistic if the ‘accidental’ but consistently landed bycatch was included - which is huge tonnages of fish, marine mammals and seabirds all discarded (dead) at sea;  And according to the Price of Fish documentary: 56% of our fish stock have no assessment; over a third ‘little or no population data  (which since release has actually helped to improve some of these issues although I don’t know by how much) (Price of Fish, 35:30)
  • Approximately 30.5 percent of New Zealand's total marine environment is protected (Not from fishing! But from bottom trawling. The statistic would better read:  “Only 30.5% of New Zealand's seabed is protected against dredging and bottom trawling”, most would agree, even those in the industry, that the areas offered for protection are too difficult to bottom trawl because they are either too deep or too steep/ awkward.) 
  • Approximately 50 percent of fisheries quota are owned by iwi/Maori. V Maori customary catch 1% of total catch. Actually there has been a loss of customary access. 


Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) 
The Ministry for Primary Industries has a conflicted mandate: 
  • Industry promotion / export sales growth
  • Industry management (write the rules) 
To be clear this would be like having Department of Conservation sitting under the umbrella of the the same ministry, so the people that made decisions on whether or not we wanted to clear fell our native forest areas (land equivalent of bottom trawling) are the some people who are tasked with trying to grow export sales of NZ timber.  LegaSea say that MPI is “Captured by the Industry” - but to be fair that’s kind of what they are set up to do. One of the most basic legislative things we need to urgently do is separate out these two functions. 

LegaSea(& Barry Torkington interview) point out the following: 
  • “Current stock monitoring methods are unreliable, University research on fish numbers rarely included” - nor is the work of the world’s leading scientists on % of biomass (of the whole) that will give maximum fishing yield. (PoF 21:00) 
  • They don’t set the TACC to sustainable levels. e.g. not listening to Marine Scientists, e.g. Nick Shears, on how many crayfish to take out of the Cray 2 Area. 
  • TACC set so high they are often never achieved. (PoF 35:30)
  • Thye cover covered up findings from their own investigators: “Inshore fishing trawlers were dumping ⅓ to ⅔ of catches”  (PoF 27:20; 27:55)  Hardly any prosecutions - never the big companies _ Barry Torkington. 
  • Reports of bycatch doubles in camera trial: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/resources/seabird-bycatch-reports-double-hauraki-camera-trial
Forest & Bird Chief Strategic Fisheries Adviser, Geoff Keey point to small wins and other hopeful things on the horizon. 
  • There is a NZ parliament fisheries working group (that Goeff is part of) who recently helped get the commercial fishing fleet to mandatory GPS on board and electronic log books. This had had immediate positive results.  The group has good reason to hope that the government will introduce mandatory cameras for the inshore fleet with in the next three years.   
  • Until relatively recently the Ministry for Primary Industries also enforced the rules (an additional conflicted mandate)  Now its separate and there HAVE BEEN more investigations and more prosecutions since it was separated out.   
  • There is also the freshly minted new Minister for Oceans and Fisheries – Hon David Parker.  One to watch. 

Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge
I would be remiss not to mention Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge from MBIE (Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment), check their website out here: https://www.sustainableseaschallenge.co.nz/ And their origins with MBIE  here: https://www.mbie.govt.nz/science-and-technology/science-and-innovation/funding-information-and-opportunities/investment-funds/national-science-challenges/the-11-challenges/sustainable-seas/ 
Est 2014  with $70 million in funding over 10 years. 220+ researchers are involved from 36 organisations across Aotearoa.  It is one of 11 Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment-funded Challenges aimed at taking a more strategic approach to science investment.

They are proponents of Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM).  Where its the Eco System that’s managed - not just the fish.  They say: ‘everything is connected; intergenerational; tailored for local values; based on science and mātauranga Māori.  Hooray!  Sound great…but they do come under criticism from experts who feel the forest is lost for trees.  Eco Systems are notoriously complex, it will take years more research to try and untangle how pulling one lever here effects another variable there.  If we genuinely were confused as to why there are less fish in the ocean and less shell fish on our shores then yes! Let’s do nothing while we research… But it really doesn’t seem that is the situation we find ourselves in.    

Other experts worry that they aren’t seeing clarity, so far, in what can and can’t be done. Forest and Bird advocate Geoff Keey is warns that understanding complexity must be balanced by the need for robust laws that can’t be cleverly side stepped. 
 
Their “10 things you should know” report  (https://www.sustainableseaschallenge.co.nz/news-and-events/news/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-ocean-this-summer/) highlights that its all very complex and we need lots of research; and that plastic pollution and sediment and lots and lots of things create problems. Totally agree and good on them for pointing it out,  but  personally it is disappointing, and maybe even alarming?, that the issue aren’t framed around the easy wins:  we KNOW we are taking too much (in terms of OCEAN management best practice)  and we KNOW that common commercial fishing methods result in bycatch of endangered seabirds, marine mammals and destruction of marine habitat through the routine practices of dredging and bottom trawling.  

So my vote would be more for the voice of hapu around the country, Forest and Bird and LegaSea  saying lets not take what is an urgent and essentially basic thing (like 1% of Crayfish left in the Hauraki Gulf) and turn it into something so complicated we can’t work out what to do.  
 
Ministry for the Environment; 
Along similar lines is the MfE Marine Environment 2019 study: https://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/marine/our-marine-environment-2019-summary.  Its a great document, full of sad statistics about the general decline of all things marine, but I didn’t come away with any sense that that we need to urgently change the way we let people fish in Aotearoa’s waters.  

Hapu voices
Motiti Rohe Moana Trust
I spoke with Motiti Rohe Moana Trust representative Te Atarangi Sayers who has been involved for a long time in trying to protect his hapu’s customary fishing grounds and wahi tapu sites, mahi  that continues on from kaumātua right back to the 1950s and earlier.  The hapu are situated in and around Tauranga.  When the Rena (big cargo ship) went to ground in 2011 on a reef that is part of the rohe’s customary fishing grounds the end result was the Motiti Rohe Moana Trust taking the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to court (more than once) and out of that came a series of decisions,  which in a nutshell, sets precidents for Tangata whenua Kaitiaki and other community members and the 'local environmental conditions'  to inform decision making across the legislative landscape.  It effects many things including the application of the Resource Management Act. 
Learn more here: http://www.nzlii.org/cgi-bin/sinodisp/nz/cases/NZEnvC/2018/67.html?query=Mrmt
https://rmla.org.nz/2020/04/21/the-motiti-decision-implications-for-coastal-management/
or this is an older article here: https://rmla.org.nz/2016/12/14/motiti-rohe-moana-trust-v-bay-of-plenty-regional-council-2016-nzenvc-240/ 

When I asked Te Atarangi what the best way to ensure the fish on your table was sustainable he didn’t hesitate: The best fish is the one you have the relationship with. The more time you spend the more you understand the lifeforce. He added that the purpose of ‘fishing’ is to share a relationship with the life force for our well being, we need to restore Maturanga values – whakapapa associated with places and space’.

Ngāti Pāoa Rāhui
As a response to the degradation of Tīkapa Moana (Hauraki Gulf), Ngāti Pāoa recently placed scallops, mussels, crayfish and pāua under a rāhui which covers the entirety of Waiheke Island and lasts for (at least) two years.
Read more here: https://ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/articles/news/2021/02/waiheke-local-board-gives-support-for-rahui-to-protect-the-island-s-kaimoana/
and here: Recreational Fishers rally to provide support here: https://legasea.co.nz/2021/01/30/recreational-fishers-rallying-support-for-waiheke-rahui/

Coromandel hapu conglomeration rahui
Recently a conglomeration of hapu put a rahui on collecting scollops on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsular. “They were getting smaller and smaller” says one representative, “The rahui was put in place to prevent the scollops collapsing because the government wasn’t doing anything” .

LegaSea spokesperson, Sam Woolford, adds their support for the rahui:  “Commercial catch limits have remained high while actual harvest declines. This is a failure of the Quota Management System. Mismanagement of scallops has seen the commercial fleet dwindle from a peak of 23 boats, down to four this season… While the Quota Management System is failing Kiwis, it’s motivating to see that the local community rallying together and taking control to ensure their scallop beds are not wiped out like we have already seen in the Marlborough Sounds, Tasman and Golden Bays, and the Kaipara Harbour.” 

In Coromandel, fishery companies are legally allowed to dredge 50-tonnes of scallops yearly. For the 2019-2020 season, however, they only caught 13 tonnes (26%) of their total allowable commercial catch, due to scallop population decline. There have been years of harvests being unconstrained (in that they can’t reach the total catch limit they are allowed to legally take) and dredging (which is dragging a metal cage along the ocean sea floor which destroys the marine floor habitat).  

So far, evidence of this decline is anecdotal, but it points to decimated populations of scallops, crabs, crustaceans, other shellfish and sea life that inhabit the seafloor:: 
  • Experienced divers saying that the once abundant seabeds, which the area is known for, appear barren
  • Scallops used to wash up on the shores, but we haven’t seen that in the last five or six years
  • MPI has not surveyed the scallop beds off the Coromandel since 2012, so we are 9 years out of date - that’s a long time to not act when your local hapu alert you a crisis.  


Forest & Bird:
Ocean landing page: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/oceans.  Forest and BIrd are focused on the by catch issue.  Here’s the campaign:  https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/zero-bycatch 
I asked if they had alternative system “with a name” like we have the ‘Quota Management System’  or proponents of the  ‘Eco Based Management System’ or the ‘Manifesto’ for reform from LegaSea.  Geoff Keey said the that most succinct proposition of the issues and the changes that are needed  is in the briefing for incoming ministers. Which can be found here.  https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/sites/default/files/2021-02/Forest%20%26%20Bird%20Briefing%20to%20the%20Incoming%20Government%202021.pdf


Best Fish Guide
Best Fish Guide is Forest and Birds consumer guide to selecting the least harmful fish. This is an absolute must for anyone trying to navigate this tricky space: , http://bestfishguide.org.nz/ 


‘Marine Stewardship Council’ blue tick
The MSC is an international certifier of sustainable fisheries. It was Unilever’s idea to help certify their own fish products. They approached the World Wild Life FOundation (WWF) and they have been a partner from the start. Find them here:  https://www.msc.org/

However, big warning sign,  WWF can only advise.  Sometimes they advise against certifying but they do it anyway.  They cay on their website that they do not always stand by the blue tick. - which really makes it meaningless for any consumer trying to navigate: https://www.wwf.org.nz/what_we_do/marine/sustainable_fisheries/marine_stewardship_council/ 



HERE ENDTH THE LESSON! 
So that’s the little run down on what I recently learnt about what turns out to be quite a loaded, contested space, where not all is what it seems.  The information following from this point onward is a cut and paste of what I said in the podcast for those of you who didn’t catch it. 


Global
  • The first thing to point out is the big picture. It is estimated that 87% of our planet's fisheries are overexploited or fully exploited. (https://www.coralcay.org/overfishing) 
  • From a fishing perspective ‘Overexploited’ means that you took more fish than the population could sustain and so now there are less fish 
  • But from an oceans management perspective ‘overexploiting’ means what we are taking is having a negative impact on the ocean. Issues include 
    • Seabird & marine mammals in trouble
    • The ocean environment degraded or completely destroyed. 
      • e.g. the seabed 
      • balance. (kina barrens eating kelp forests) 
  • Modern day fishing fleet technology is cut throat. Going faster, further with ruthless technology that fish can no longer hide from.

New Zealand has four main issues - reflective of global patterns: 
  1. Fish and shellfish stock dropping
    1. What we have left might be as much as half, or as little as a quarter. (Geoff Key Interview). 
    2. Examples Crayfish, but Tarahiki (Geoff Keey interview), Hapuka, Groper (Price of Fish doco)
    3. We don’t have an actual legal minimum baseline. By contrast Australia’s stock are now around 50% and they want it to be up to 60% by 2027. (Barry Torkington interview)
  2. Unintended effects of overfishing one species on the rest of the marine eco-system
    1. Forest & Bird policy advisor, Geoff  Keey, believes that most of the time the ministry gets the TACCs right in terms of the allowing the fish stock to be caught at that volume in perpetuity….BUT that doesn’t answer the question of what doing that means for the marine ecosystem. 
    2. “If there is not enough for recreational fishers to catch now….Maybe that’s true for the seabirds and dolphins too”  
    3. (This is what the Eco Based Management system and the National Science Challenge is all about) 
  3. Unacceptable levels of by catch (threatened sea birds and marine mammals) 
    1. In NZ its illegal to kill protected species, unless you are a commercial fisher (Forest & Bird, https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/zero-bycatch) “its not illegal to by catch accidently”
    2. Maui Dolphins netted: Only 15 breeding females! 
    3. Over 80% of seabirds are endangered. 15,000 seabirds caught annually by fishing methods. Mostly long lines (Kevin Hague, Forest & Bird)
    4. Fishers are legally required to report everything - $100,000 if they don’t. 
      1. However almost impossible to catch. 
      2. Forest & Bird Analysis of MPI records show fishers are up to 9 times as likely to report by catch when there is an observer on board. (Geoff Keey interview).  
 
  1. Irreparable destruction of the seabed ecosystem
    1. From bottom trawling – which is currently legal in both our inshore and off shore fisheries. 

Different sectors have a different take on what the main causes of these problems are:  
  • I’ve already mentioned “Taking too much”  
  • Two other main issues: 
    • Fishing techniques
    • Legislation / Enforcement issues

Fishing techniques
  • Most of the fish listed red and orange in Forest and Bird’s ‘Best Fish Guide’ are actually because of the fishing techniques used. 
  • Most fishing methods have negative environmental impacts. 
  • Bottom trawling & dredging
    •  Bottom trawling “large weighted nets dragged across ocean floor” 
    • Dredging “solid cage dragged across ocean floor” for crabs – bottom dwellers
    • By catch and destruction…. 
    • Clear-cutting a swath of habitat in their wake, destroying corals and sponges – absolutely everything – and scooping up fish, animals, marine mammals, plants, and turtles 
    • In recent coldwater coral studies, a review of damaged areas seven years later revealed no new growth.
    • In fact leads to a desert of silt which is resuspended every time
    • In 2016 British retailers refused to stock NZ Hoki because of the bottom-trawling method used to catch the species 
  • Mid trawling and purse seining or Danish seining 
    • Weighted nets + buoys 
    • Same by catch issues
 
  • LegaSea Manifesto: “A century of ever-expanding use of heavy, bottom contact mobile gear has transformed the sea floor from a thriving benthic community of organisms to a desert of fine silt. This silt is re-suspended and distributed further each time mobile, industrial fishing gear is towed across the sea floor. Benthic (seabed) diversity and abundance need restoring, and the priority needs to be to remove all industrial methods” https://legasea.co.nz/about-us/what-is-legasea/manifesto/
  • LegaSea advocates:  Remove industrial fishing methods such as trawling, Danish seining and dredging from the inshore zone. (Prior to industrial fishing the inshore zone was highly productive, providing nursery functions for dozens of species) 

 Amend the Fisheries Act:
  • Our Fisheries Act – isn’t the Oceans Act. Its only about the long term sustainability of the act of fishing.  
  • Focus on inshore fisheries. Should be ‘static and small’ 
    • Ban netting in Maui dolphin territory
    • Ban dredging and bottom trawling
    • Modify surface longline rules to reduce seabird bycatch
  • Mandatory cameras – so we can actually enforce
  • Introduce a minimum unfished biomass of 50%
  • Ditch the quota – which is given away for free in perpetuity! 
  • Replace with time limited licenses. 

Let’s do what we can that we know will make an enormous, immediate difference

CONSUMER SOLUTIONS 
What’s the best way to get a sustainably caught fish on the table? 
  • CATCH IT 
 
  • If you aren’t fishing? …. Nobody I spoke to could crack this.  When the fisheries system is this broken, we actually usually can’t 

The best I can do is this suggestion from Barry Torkington, Fishery Policy Advisor: 
  • Go to your nearest port. 
  • There is a provision in the Act for wharf sales – can be up to 10% of catch
  • (however there is no incentive for fishers to usually do so – a lot of paper work) 
  • Find the fishers and ask if they will sell direct. 

Next best - is my "Ultimate guide to buying fish" - which is a pretty comprehensive guide to avoid putting unsustainably caught fish on the table…
  • At the fish and chip shop: 
    • Avoid unlabelled ‘fish’
    • usually Elephant Fish, blue warehou, red cod, or shark species (Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/6370/fish-and-chips)
    • ALL coded the worst on the guide ‘do not eat’ 
    • Usually caught through ‘set netting, (Geoff Keey interview) 
    • If its cheap, its likely to have been caught using the easiest quickest methods (which cause the issues)
    • Geat Stuff article: https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/115115301/which-fish-should-we-avoid-at-the-fish-and-chip-shop
 
 
  • At the fish counter / fish monger
    • Ditch popular terakihi, groper and snapper in favour of something different like kahawai. trevally, warehou, rig, lemonfish and sea perch.  
      • Tarahiki (critcially low– boycott);
      • Step out of those classic few and try new things: Reduces the pressure on any one species 
      • Smaller fishers may opt to dump bycatch over the side of the boat, due to low return and high quote costs, but more people consuming less-known species would change that. So it encourages better practises and helps support these local small scale guys who need it," Barclay said (https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/115115301/which-fish-should-we-avoid-at-the-fish-and-chip-shop)   
 
  • Use the best fish guide . App available for iPhone and Android, or download the PDF .  https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/best-fish-guide. Here’s the PDF: (https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/sites/default/files/2018-05/Best%20Fish%20Guide%20-%20Pocket%20Guide.pdf).   Good choices: 
    • Salmon (farmed, freshwater Canterbury (marine Canterbury still OK, not as good) 
    • Paua (farmed) (whole to save plastic) 
    • Green-lipped mussel (farmed) 
    • “OK choices”:   Kahawai;  Skipjack tuna;  
  • Buy a whole fish!
    • The Whole Fish Cookbook: New ways to cook, eat and think,  2019, Josh Niland 
    • Kai Ika: Over 84 tonnes discarded fish parts transformed into delicious meals
    • AND TAKE YOUR OWN CONTAINER (New World) 
    • good NZ Herald article: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/eatwell/food-news/sustainable-seafood-in-new-zealand/DTRDKDWUQQVCD37KXYHP6OIF4A/
 
  • At the frozen section 
    • (usually packaged and processed) 
    • This is where you might find the blue tick and lots of hoki products - which WWF don’t endorse the blue tick for.
      • WWF has significant concerns about this certification,( https://www.wwf.org.nz/media_centre/?14441/WWF-disappointed-about-certification-of-NZ-orange-roughy-fishery_ )  due to the use of bottom trawls in this fishery which is causing serious and irreversible harm to sensitive habitats and to ecosystem functions
 
  • In the isles with the cans
    • Tuna: Pole and Line is GREAT. Its had to find though.  Pams used to do it. I haven’t seen it for ages.  If you can find it good for you
      • Check that the can ingredients say say what type of  tuna it is. Greenpeace Tuna expert Karli Thomas explains: “Any product should give the species of tuna it is made of, even if that could be a mix of two.... like skipjack and yellowfin. It might be that nobody even knows or it can’t be guaranteed or that it varies seasonally.  In 2011 we (Greenpeace) pinged them in genetic testing for having longtail tuna in a can they claimed was yellowfin” This is the show stopper - with out this info we consumers can’t possibly know if its an endangered fish.
      • ‘caught without the use of fish aggregating devices’ is good.  That was the objective of the Greenpeace campaign in 2011.  
    • Tins of Salmon:  Very difficult to track. We have good fresh options so easier to avoid cans
    • ​​Sardines.  I didn’t get a good chance to look into this, but on first impression is does bode well.  
 
  • At a restaurant
    • Three questions to ask (can also do at the supermarket counter / fish monger) – from LegaSea: 
      • Where was the fish caught? 
      • When was the fish caught?
      • How was the fish caught?
Josh Barclay policy advisor at LegaSea  points out: "All three of those are selling points for fish. If it was caught recently, locally, and in a good way, the person behind the counter will know that. If they don't know that, it's probably not a great sign."
“in a good way would be not with nets, or trawling” e.g. longline or pots. 

What else can you do?
  • Green swap / crop swap. Grow a lot of one thing well for swapping.
  • Integrate 
    • Sediment reduction - spawning habitats.  Fencing and planting.  
    • Te Atarangi Sayers: Not just numbers dropping. Fish are full of micro-plastics. Bio accumulating.  Address our waste. Change our relationship with what we consume. Pollution pumped in from the industry. 

And don’t forget to help out by signing these two petitions: 
  • Rescue Fish petition: https://rescuefish.co.nz/ (from LegaSea)
  • Zero By Catch – sign the pledge
    • Campaign: https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/zero-bycatch 
    • Pledge: page not working..
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RAGLAN: New Zealand's most eco-friendly town?

1/19/2021

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By Waveney Warth
Picture
Raglan has plenty to boast about. Photo credit: Raglan Shuttle
LISTEN TO:  RAGLAN EPISODE 1
LISTEN TO:  RAGLAN EPISODE 2 
My mates in Raglan (Whaingaroa) are totally convinced I should move there. It's the best place in Aotearoa they say, world class surf,  stunning scenery... very drinkable coffee, and a ready-made connected community of  people who care - although its worth noting that when the surf's up those same locals have quite the feisty side.  Last year Rick Thorpe, one of my Raglan zero-waste-community-enterprise brothers, decided that Tim and I needed to do a road trip to visit the town an tell its remarkable sustainability story, 'there's an insane amount going on here, it's mean.'  A road trip?? Aren't we just two happy little audiophiles in our Auckland studio? Then another friend who has a mint permaculture farm just out of Whaingaroa invited us to stay and that was that.  I imagined we'd cruise down, do two or three interviews and then kick back and enjoy some combo involving local organic food, beer, surf and panoramic views. I don't know if he planned it, but after we were hooked in, Rick emailed me every few days with more projects and more people that we absolutely had to include - 'These guys are world leaders' 'These guys were doing it before it even had a name' 'These guys have mobilised half the town'.  Before I knew it we had nine interviewees.  Which quickly became two episodes and three days / two nights away.  
 
So Tim and I hit the road and met lots of apparently ordinary people doing some 'hang on what now?!' incredible things. At How to Save the World we only want to share pathways to sustainability that you can achieve. Usually that means focusing on lifestyle choice, buying  power
and citizen advocacy.  What's happening in Whaingaroa is something else entirely, but just as achievable. Its little groups of people moulding their local environment - away from the standard ensemble of energy and food shipped in; waste shipped out; waterways degrading and native species struggling  (i.e. your tangible local example of our global climate-changing-extinction-causing tricky situation). The projects we investigated, some twenty years old, others brand new, are actually heaving the town’s entire infrastructure and physical environment toward a regenerative thriving circular economy.  What we found out is best listened to straight from the people's mouths who are involved but a couple of themes are worth noting here.
  • Action emerged when people stopped thinking that the council or government should be the ones to fix everything.
  • Not much happens without a mandate from the community members - no show ponies here - lots of kōrero. 
  • Mana whenua have been waiting for us all to catch on and have centuries of observations and knowledge ...something to keep in mind when deciding to 'start' something.
On that note, we would like to mihi to the many whānau, hapū and iwi of Whaingaroa. Ko Karioi te maunga, ko Whaingaroa te moana, ko Tainui te waka. The hapū of Whaingaroa have a long history of advocacy, transformation and enabling, notably whaea Eva Rickard, tēnā koutou.  In our interview with Rick he shares a quote from the whaea that over twenty years on still rings true, “Don’t wait for permission to do something about it.”  
​
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Eva Rickard, change maker, "Don't wait for permission to do something about it."
​Photo credit: NZ History
We share stories from:
​

Raglan Naturally, www.raglannaturally.co.nz. 
Episode 1

The community led town plan that was 20 years in the making and recently adopted by the Waikato District Council as the town’s official long term plan.
The plan galvanises efforts to redesign everything from waste water treatment (must be processed through a living wetland); rubbish (must be eliminated or minimised and used to create a circular economy) and even energy (currently exploring local generation opportunities).
All of which are firsts (or first equals in timing or scale) in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Interview with Gabrielle Parson, Raglan Naturally coordinator and Raglan Community Board member.
Xtreme Zero Waste, www.xtremezerowaste.org.nz
Episode 1
​The community owned resource recovery centre that prevents 75-80% of Raglan’s “rubbish” (read “resources”) from going to landfill.  Only one in seven members of the public come here to drop off waste; everyone else comes here (instead of the warehouse, or Mitre 10) to shop.  The centre is the second largest employer in the area, injecting 1.6 million in wages into this small local economy of 5000 people.

Interview with Rick Thorpe Xtreme cofounder and Innovations Manager. To get ideas and support for your town check out Aotearoa’s Zero Waste Network, www.zerowaste.co.nz,
 
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Waveney at Xtreme Zero Waste, Raglan's resource recovery centre. Photo credit: Tim Batt. 
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Raglan Community Energy
Episode 1
A community enterprise that has Whaingaroa on its way to be Aotearoa’s first energy independent town. The partnership with WEL energy,
 www.wel.co.nz/sustainability/community-initiatives, plans to generate 4-5 Megawatts of solar energy from a community owned 5 hectare solar farm. The profits from the sale of power will go fund community projects with a social or environmental benefit and enable free or discounted power to those who need it. This is in addition to Raglan Local Energy, www.raglanlocalenergy.co.nz which is already putting solar panels on roof tops in town.  

Interview incorporated above... two birds with one stone,  Rick is a coordinator of ‘Raglan Local Energy’ To get ideas and support for your town check out Aotearoa’s Community Energy Network, www.communityenergy.org.nz.
 
Whaingaroa Harbour Care, www.harbourcare.co.nz
Episode 1
In 1995, Whaingaroa Harbour had the worst recreational catch rate of any harbour in NZ taking on average 18 hours just to catch one fish.  Two million trees later, the harbour is one of the best in New Zealand and it’s now possible to catch your fish quota within 1 hour! The project has had one of the most successful engagement rates with farmers and fishers in the country.  Interview with Fiona Edwards, Whaingaroa Harbour Care Project manager

 
Kari-oi Maunga ki te Moana, www.karioiproject.co.nz
Episode 1
​A community led epic trapping project to provide a safe habitat for grey faced petrels and other New Zealand sea birds tracking toward extinction. People said it couldn’t be done, but this group of 350 volunteers check 2048 traps every two weeks, and are transforming Kari-oi Maunga in a remarkable way.  Interview with Kristel van Houte,  Kari-oi Maunga ki te Moana  Project Manager. If you are inspired to make a difference in your local community, on land or sea, you could start by checking in with your local Forest and Bird group,
 www.forestandbird.org.nz/branches or learning more about Aotearoa’s predator free movement here: www.pf2050.co.nz/the-predator-free-movement.

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Raglan / Whaingaroa nestled between Whaingaroa Harbour and Kari-oi Maunga.
​Photo credit: Waikato District Council
Local food resilience
Episode 2

Growing and eating local food is arguably one of the most important things we can do to secure a regenerative future, and Whaingaroa / Raglan boasts an impressive cluster of local projects including a government sponsored project exploring national options for food resilience project; a seed saving project to save locally loved seeds from the area; ‘crop swap’ a public event, held regularly, for anyone to share their homegrown surplus food; and an extraordinary group collecting food waste from each and every Raglan home to create a high grade compost (that can be used to grow more local food!) Interview with Liz Stanway,  Whaingaroa Environment Centre committee member and Organics Team Leader at Xtreme Zero Waste. 
  • Link to Food Waste Collection service
  • Link to Whaingaroa Environment Centre's projects 
  • Connect with Crop Swap on their Facebook page 
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Raglan locals enjoy Crop Swap, a free exchange of homegrown surplus. 
Photo credit: Raglan Chronicle
Hang on wait! Why is growing and eating local food arguably one of the most important things we can do to secure a regenerative future?? Well there are more reasons than you can point a stick at. Here's five. 
  1. It reduces your food miles. Both from what you buy and by increasing the opportunities for food producers to sell locally (and therefore less imperative to sell internationally). If you feel you don't need another reason other than lowering carbon emissions and avoiding climate caused calamities  - feel free to skip ahead. 
  2. It removes the blindfold! - lets consumers see how their food is produced and gives them the chance to decide if they want to buy from that producer or not (oh! this one running a bulldozer through my local national park nooooo!...but THIS one's farming methods are cleaning up the streams. Hooray). 
  3. It encourages biodiversity. If we want to eat a wide range of delicious food AND eat local it allows farmers safer ways to transition from export led mono-crops to biodiversity on their farms. Biodiversity is one of the key ways avoid herbicide, pesticide and synthetic fertilisers and let nature restore the soil and in turn give us longer than 53 years left to farm. 
  4. It gives us humans lots of extra nutrients which in turn helps to keep us well and all the better to fight climate change with. Local food is usually more nutrient dense because nutrients from food start to decrease from the moment they leave the garden; and also because well travelled food is usually less nutritious on the day it was picked anyway. (because Fruit and vegetable have been selected over the last 100 years for their abilities to travel well without bruising or going off - which has inadvertently meant that we haven't been particularly breeding for the nutrient profiles of food, which have been reliably decreasing for some time. Its also because of how modern farming methods reduce nutrient profiles in soils, which can happen locally too of course, but if we eat local we might be able to support farming practises reversing that trend, i.e. spray free / regen ag /  permaculture / organic / biodynamic). 
  5. It helps create a resilient local economy more capable of weathering international supply chain shocks, provide local jobs and keep local profits circulating with in the regional. The benefits are like a feedback loop on a sound system - infinitely amplified. A sustainable future isn't so easy with brittle supply chains and local "money" (read local '"ability to provide for each other; give back; do cool stuff for the planet") constantly sucked away to some unknown destination. 
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Marae celebrates joining the Para Kore programme. 
Photo credit: Te Ao Māori News
Para Kore , www.parakore.maori.nz
Episode 2
​Para Kore means Zero Waste in te reo.  It is also a for Maori by Maori programme that came out of Whaingaroa / Raglan in 2009 and now has national impact. It’s goal is to support all marae to be working toward zero waste by 2025.  Incredibly 449 marae have joined and over 500 tonnes of waste that would have gone to landfill has been completely avoided.
The Para Kore programme works with marae to increase the reuse, recycling and composting of materials thereby helping to reduce the extraction of natural resources and raw materials from Papatūānuku.  Interview with Jacqui Forbes, Para Kore cofounder and General Manager. 

A household’s role in creating a sustainable region
Episode 2
Our hosts during our Raglan stay were Clare and David Whimmer, a household of adept permaculturalists living 20 mins out of town.  They kindly agreed to let us interview them as we were blown away by how they lived and inspired to see a tangible example of people living in and enjoying a thriving, sustainable region... and oh my the food was good. 


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(From left) Waveney, two lovely wwoofers, David, Clare and Tim all enjoying an off the farm dinner and would-be-award-winning home brew beer. Photo Credit: Matthew Luxon

To all those who took the time to talk with us, and who are giving everything they've got to create better outcomes for tomorrow, 

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. 

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ECO PETS - THE 'DIRTY' CAT LITTER TRUTH

12/13/2020

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By Guest Blogger Alex, Auckland, NZ. 
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Image: Alex (human) with Pippi (tabby cat) and Bodhi (black cat)
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Here is my scintillating Kitty litter saga! 
 
When I got my two cats, Pippi and Bodhi, I chose So Phresh Clumping Litter with Activated Charcoal because I thought it was an eco-friendly option. You can buy it in bulk from Animates (so no plastic bags), and the info says: “100% Natural. Made from clay and charcoal, no added chemicals.” I thought- clay- well that’s just dirt isn’t it? Totally natural! It must be eco-friendly! It also seemed relatively cheap compared to other litter products at the pet store.
 
I started putting the used litter into my compost bin, but then got advice that cat poo can be very toxic and should not be used to make compost that might end up in a food garden. Also- the cats generated a lot of used cat litter and the stuff was beginning to fill up my bin, and not show any sign of breaking down into compost. It looked more like it was turning into concrete. I don’t have my own garden here as I share a yard with other flats, and also I rent- and so I couldn’t bury the used litter here.
 
I even asked a friend if I could bury the waste out on their rural property - far away from food gardens out in the bush, which we did once. Then Covid hit and I had to manage the waste here at my place by myself.
 
I then – feeling very guilty- started putting the bags in my general rubbish bin that goes to land fill. I have felt awful about this but couldn’t work out what else to do. In a landfill clay-based litter, tied up in a little plastic bag is not biodegradable.
 
Whilst in lockdown I started to investigate what Clay-based litter is and where it actually comes from. I was shocked to discover that it is not actually eco-friendly at all. There are a few websites that explain this including:
  • https://greenlivingideas.com/2015/08/13/how-cat-litter-is-made/
  • https://groundswell.org/kitty-litter-not-6-cheap-ways-to-reduce-your-pets-environmental-impact/
  • https://tofukittyclub.com/blog/the-environmental-impact-of-cat-litter-how-eco-friendly-is-your-cats-litter
 
Basically, Clay-based litter is made from raw bentonite clay that is strip-mined in places like Wyoming and Brazil. It takes a lot of energy to mine, and then treat, not to mention package and ship to our stores in NZ. Strip mining also causes environmental devastation. To add insult to injury, there is a lot of information to suggest that Clay-based litter can contain silica dust which is a carcinogen. This type of litter has also linked with digestive problems in cats when they clean themselves, and also asthma and respiratory issues in humans and pets due to the dust.
 
I don’t know where and how SoPhresh manufactures their Clay-based cat litter. It’s very hard to track the whakapapa of the product through google searches. I am not happy with this lack of transparency.
 
So- the stuff that I thought was a sensible ecologically-aware choice has turned out to be not only environmentally catastrophic all the way from manufacture to disposal, but also possible actually harmful to the health of both me and my pets. Epic fail.
 
I started to look for a cat litter alternative that was more ecologically sound, but also effective to use… and also cheap. I wanted something that would ideally limit the smell, and allow me to scoop out the poo and wee. I tried a few options until I came across a website that suggested the use of wood pellets- the kind that people use to light fires. I tried them with my cats- and am (currently!) totally sold on them as an excellent eco cat litter.
 
I found Azwood Energy Eco Pellets: https://www.azwood.co.nz/, and also Nature’s Flame wood pellet fuel: https://www.naturesflame.co.nz/shop/Wood+Pellet+Fuel.html
 
Here is why I like wood pellets for kitty litter:
  • They’ve got way less air-miles and are HEAPS more eco-friendly than clay-based litter: Wood pellets are made in NZ from untreated waste products from the timber industry: wood shavings, cut offs and sawdust. No harmful glue or additives are required. Nature’s Flame state on their website that they hold a Dinplus certification that “ …gives us great confidence that we are providing our customers with the highest quality wood pellets in New Zealand, and that we are doing it in a sustainable, earth-friendly way.
  • They’re WAY Cheaper: a 15 kg bag of Nature’s Flame Wood pellets currently retails at $9.98 at Mitre10, compared to SoPhresh Clumping Cat Litter which is currently on sale on the Animates Website as $22.49 for a 12L bag (it usually retails at $29.99 per 12L bag).
  • Eco Pellets can be bought from loads of different places- including The Warehouse, Mitre10 etc, not just pet stores/ places that sell pet products.
  • They’re functional: Because the pellets are hard and dry, the moisture is pulled from the poo, so that it is left in a hard lump- which is easy to scoop out. The wee turns the pellets into sawdust, which sifts to the bottom of the tray in a pile, and is also quite easy to scoop out because its consistency is different from the hard pellets.
  • The Wood Pellets absorbs the smell quite well.
  • The Pellets can’t get tracked through the house from the cats’ paws in the way that Clay-based litter can (ewww). Any pellets that get kicked out of the litter tray are easy to sweep up.
  • It’s possible to dispose of the litter in an eco- friendly way (though I am still working on this myself).
    • My intention is to build a worm farm and put the cat poo in there. Cat poo can be toxic, but this is not a problem for worms who (I understand) will convert the poo to a product that is safe for the garden.
    • The cat wee sawdust and old pellets that are left when I change over to a fresh tray can all go straight into my regular compost, and should eventually be safe for the food garden (as long as there is no poo in it).
​
The only downsides:
  • The packaging: Azwood Energy have Eco Pellets that are packaged in a cardboard box that is wholly biodegradable and compostable, but it looks like they are phasing out this product as it is hard to find in stores. All the other Wood Pellet products are packaged in a plastic bag which is a bit stink. I have not seen anywhere that allows one to buy wood pellets in bulk with your own container, but I guess there may be a place somewhere in NZ that does this… maybe a timber yard?
  • One of my cats is happy with the transition to the wood pellets, but the other one still isn't too sure. I once caught her having a wee on the bathmat in protest. Hopefully she will adjust soon!
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Gift giving suggestions for sustainability

11/30/2020

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This holiday season, we're trying to be conscious of not buying plastic-y, non-Earth friendly gifts for people that they may not even like! So we've got 10 suggestions for sustainable gifts for everyone you will be gift-giving to this year.

1)     Christmas Crackers from KidsCan
They’re only $2.50 each from Countdown, Harvey Norman, The Coffee Club and other retailers. Inside you’ll find a party hat, cheesy joke and the chance to win a spa pool, trampolines, toys, and sweet treats instead of a plastic toy everyone throws in the bin.
Even better, DIY crackers – You can buy the "Bang" from spotlight, rescue the rest.  At Creative Junk in Christchurch (who also do gift vouchers) you can buy a big bag of craft supplies for $10.  North Shore Recycling Centre in Auckland is also incredible value.  OR if you just want to buy ready made sustainable christmas crackers you can't go past  Hopper in Wellington, available online. 


2)     Ethical, natural cosmetics and skincare from Go Native NZ
Go Native are a premium online seller/supplier of natural, organic and ethical skincare ingredients. Over the almost 20 years the business has been around, they’ve developed a global network of suppliers of essential, carrier and fragrance oils, cosmetic butters, waxes, raw materials, ready-to-go bases, and more. The ingredients must be ethically sourced and where possible they buy direct from the growers, so they can establish a relationship with them. You can buy raw ingredients, made products OR Make Kits which are a really fun gift.

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3)     Nectar Feeder
A fantastic way to support native birdlife and easy to make yourself (or buy one). Forest and Bird have a great guide on the basics of bird feeding and how to make an upside down bottle feeder.  The feeders take a sugar water solution that is easy to make and can help birds get through hungry seasons. 
To make a feeder, take a one-litre milk bottle and attach the lid to a shallow dish or jar lid. Fill the milk bottle with sugar water and make a few small holes about 0.5cm from the bottom of the bottle. Screw it into the lid and turn the dish upside down. Sugar solution will come out of the bottle and fill the dish to the height of the holes.
Banks Peninsular Conservation Trust pamphlet (warning: PDF) on care and concerns. Buy ready-made for about $60 delivered to your door.


4)     A Bee House
It’s crucial we start looking after our pollinators and a the most effective in the bee family are solitary bees, which need housing while doing their job all day. The ready-made houses start from $30. You can even make these with recycled materials, using a waterproof container (1.5L fizzy drink bottle), wool, air drying clay, string, holy tubes such as bamboo. Video instructions are here and here. Also if you receive a gift like this and really want to learn more, get to the Big Buzz Festival festival, 14 Feb, Matakana. 


5)     String Art Kit
They’re back in fashion and a beautiful way to provide art and stress relief to someone you care about. All you need is a backing board, nails, wool or string and an image. You tack nails in and provide string. Any wooden backing board (renovation off cuts, flatish drift wood, chopping board) will do and any string or wool that isn’t too fluffy will work. Check TradeMe and secondhand craft stores to source what you'll need. Reverse image tree is here and a feather template is here.


6)     Sustainable Coastlines Merch
We love Sustainable Coastlines and you can support their cause AND share their brand. They’ve got jandals made from recovered plastic from the ocean that are 100% recyclable (but very strong and hard wearing - $30), water bottles and t-shirts all available here.


7)     Inoculated Mushroom Log
Admittedly, a bit of a weird one but for the right person – a fantastic gift! You can grow your own NZ native Oyster and Shitake mushrooms by using dowel plugs and use own log, see here for instructions. Takes six months to a year for the spores to take, then lasts for years. Note –you can only use a log from a deciduous (hard wood) tree. The log needs a shady spot, damper the better. Great video (apart from USA imperial measurements) is here. SporeShift NZ have what you need here.
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8)     Donations informed by Givewell
If you’re giving in the name of someone, GiveWell is a nonprofit dedicated to finding outstanding giving opportunities and publishing the full details of their analysis to help donors decide where to give to produce the greatest impact for those in need. Rather than try to rate as many charities as possible, Givewell focus on the few charities that stand out most and assess them using a rigorous criterion. They’re also extremely accountable and transparent (and free to use).


9)     Ticket to a Show
There’s few things more sustainable than a live show (especially comedy; Just a person, a microphone and a stage). Why not give the gift of an experience this holiday season. It has the added benefit of supporting your local musicians, comedians, threatre-makers and other artists and you could introduce the recipient to something they never would have taken a chance on themselves if they were paying!


10)  Cooking Someone A Vegan Dinner
Speaking of introducing people to a new experience, cooking someone a vegan, vegetarian or sustainable meal can be a great way to break some myths in their head about more eco-friendly food options lacking taste or punch. These days, people are time poor and we’re missing out on connection with each other more than ever, so hosting someone round at yours for a delicious meal could easily be the significant gift they receive in the season (plus – it doesn’t have to cost you the Earth).


Bonus: Here’s some eco-friendly tips for decorating these holidays.
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Eco-Friendly apartment living In NZ

10/17/2020

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By Waveney Warth
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How to Save the World visits sustainable apartment dweller to record episode. 

Beautifully Urban

Apartment living is a very new cultural idea in Aotearoa. What we know is growing up with space for kids to run around and private backyards. But as house prices climb, and lives get busier, there is a new generation of urban kiwi's beginning to embrace a totally different way life - with totally different pros and cons - not just for lifestyle choice but also for sustainability outcomes.  It's interesting that while in theory a big backyard means the opportunity grow most of your own food (e.g. Urban Garden Research Project) in reality most of us are (or feel) too busy make the most of the space.  Choosing to have land in a city, if its not integrated into a sustainable lifestyle (growing regeneratively, working & playing local etc), can actually be a pretty unsustainable model. Its funny that on the one hand people living in apartments can sometimes view their situation as a barrier to sustainability and then on the other hand you have people like Chloe Swarbrick and the low carbon team at Auckland Council in favour of doubling down on apartments and urban intensification in order to prevent urban sprawl.  What's the problem with urban sprawl? gee - perhaps go back and read blog 1 (Wait!? Why are we here?). This generation needs to stop the creep into wild spaces and treat the arable farmland around cities like the taonga that it is.  These two images contrast the path we have been on with a vision of the very best of how apartment living could help save the world: 
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Auckland sprawl
Proposed Chinese city

The pro's and con's of apartment living in NZ

Apartments have another advantage over the traditional free standing New Zealand house: energy use. The embedded energy in an apartment block with 1000 homes is a lot less than 1000 new freestanding homes. Even if they were the same size homes. But often apartments are actually smaller as well which amplifies the effect.  Then add to that the daily energy use in an apartment.  When visited Otahuhu apartment dweller Anglea Lees to interview her for the first in a series on different Green Living lifestyles,  I was really impressed when she said that she has never used the heater. Not even on the coldest winter days. Usually, in a free standing house, heat leaks out of the house and thats that. In an apartment block, heat leaks out of your ceiling or walls and where can it go? It leaks into your neighbours floor and walls, and happily, theirs leaks into yours. 

Matthew and I lived in an apartment when we first moved to Auckland and we loved it! In the end I missed the actual 'earth' - but I did love the light and air, the view, the warmth and the location. We were downtown and didn't need a car, we could walk or catch a bus everywhere  and occasionally used City Hop, a car sharing service.  When apartment dwellers are supported by local farmers markets, bulk food stores and other sustainable consumption options there really is some sustainability magic that can happen. 

Aside from sustainability, if you are thinking about whether or not to jump into apartment living Angela also highlighted the lifestyle bonuses:
  • She feels safer in the air, e.g doors and windows can be open without worrying about what might be happening on the street or intruders
  • She has a 'stairwell community' where she has developed a close sub group of friends and support within the small cluster of households sharing the stairwell. 
  • There is less cleaning in a smaller space and less opportunity for clutter. 
  • And like I found, the view, warmth and location - awesome. 

In addition, I observed a massive difference in free time when we were unshackled from the quarter acre with weatherboard house (never again).  House and grounds take a huge amount  to maintain, we even found it demanding with two adults and no kids.  

But there are also obvious downsides, and this is actually why we decided to do this episode, I've heard people, so many times, say that they can't compost, garden, buy bulk etc because they don't have space (or because they rent).  So we went on the hunt to see if we could find someone who had figured out how to work around the constraints and that's how we found Angela.  
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Angela (left) and Waveney, at Angela's apartment

​Angela lives in a 60m2 apartment in Otahuhu, Auckland, with two flatmates and two cats. It’s a sunny spot with a sweeping view of the Auckland isthmus, maunga and city.  Angela, who works from home and keeps very busy with part time study as well, made a conscious decision to buy something small and central. Angela’s story highlights how apartment dwellers can be part of the solution.  She embraces local shopping options, transport hubs, and vertical balcony gardening. But the thing I was most excited about was her solution to food waste: a bokashi bucket to collect scraps, which takes about 3 months to fill up before it needs emptying and which she then empties via Sharewaste.  A free online platform that connects local gardeners who want food waste with people who want to give it away. This is fantastic because its scaleable and anyone can do it. If you don't have a service like Sharewaste in your area you should be able to find a community garden or friend who wants it. Bokashi solids and liquid are incredibly valuable in garden and farm ecosystems and when that is understood there should be a calamitous grab to be the first in to get it.  (E.g. one litre can create 7.5 tons of organic Bokashi compost, rich in beneficial microbes).

Angela is an inspiring subject! She also somehow finds the time to make her own yogurt, kombucha, sourdough and mend and upholster! Check out the episode here. 

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The only pest this garden needs protection from! 
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New Zealand's Most Sustainable Bank

9/21/2020

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BY Waveney Warth

Is your bank doing all that it can to make a difference for good? Banks are one of the most powerful ‘future creators’ in modern society. More or less they get to choose who they invest their millions (and billions) in, empowering some and squeezing others. They can also affect climate through their operational footprints and have significant opportunity to give back to communities through grants and other charitable activities. 

How to Save the World podcast decided to delve into finding New Zealand’s most sustainable bank. So I rolled my sleeves up and spoke with financial experts from across the sector to devise a five point criteria and weighting system for assessment and then researched and contacted each bank to see how they performed in each category. Special thanks to Professor David Tripe, (Professor of Banking at Massey University); Barry Coates, (Mindful Money CEO); John Berry, (CareSaver CEO); CEOs and Heads of Sustainability within the banking sector that were happy to speak with me; and to the people seeking finance who shared their stories.   

The five criteria are: 

Internal sustainability
Looking at the carbon footprint of the operations inside the big five banks including things like electric vehicle take-up in their fleet (shout out Westpac), getting 5 and even 6 Green star buildings (that’s Kiwibank]) sorting out green business procurement (ANZ and Westpac is using Fwd.) and ASB, Westpac and BNZ all getting Toitū Envirocare[https://www.toitu.co.nz/] certification, for being carbon zero (well ASB & Westpac) or enviro mark gold (BNZ - making a start).

Corporate Responsibility
Looking at the social and environmental activity of the banks, how they treat their employers and what they’re doing for the wider communities they’re a part of. Including BNZ’s support of Kauri 2020 Trust and Westpac’s CoGo Partnership – a cool organisation making ethical living clearer and easier.

Investment and Lending Portfolios
Looking into where the bank’s are putting their money. Which banks still ‘fuel’ climate change by providing oil companies with capital? To check on your bank: 
  • Kiwi listeners: 350 Aotearoa (check out graph ‘Does your bank fund climate change?’) 
  • Australian listeners: Market Forces
And on the positive side, which banks are actively trying to make a positive difference? Some examples include BNZ who, since 2017 have facilitated NZ$2.875 billion of green and sustainable bonds [https://www.bnz.co.nz/about-us/sustainability]; SBS’ affordable housing products; Westpac’s interest free Warm Up Loan scheme to help add insolation and heat pumps and heat pumps and Kiwibank’s Solar Subsidy and support of the Nga Tangata Microfinance programme.

Eco-literacy of lenders
As our society seeks to transition to a circular-low-carbon-economy, new enterprises with different profit and risk models are emerging, (examples include social enterprise, community enterprise, iwi enterprise, co-ownership, micro-finance, regenerative farming, organic farming, permaculture design and alternative housing solutions like homes without land, prefabs, and co-housing). We spoke with people from these sectors and asked them to share their experiences in seeking finance.  In short, the experiences are frustrating. Banks can only lend to what they know and no one seems to yet have a frame of reference for loan seekers who may for example, be actively trying to reduce productivity or mitigate risk through community involvement. This doesn’t mean positive discrimination! It means banks knowing how to assess risk accurately in these new contexts. And although it may take a while to trickle through, Sean Barnes director of Fwd: says  ``there is a great deal of interest from banks wanting to be better involved”.  

Ownership. 
Several of the experts I spoke with pointed out that it's important who owns a bank. While things are never clear cut, a locally owned bank in such a small country is forced to be more transparent and is able to be more responsive.  Banks that are listed and accountable to shareholders have an obligation, above anything else to do all it legally can to maximise profit. Offshore owned and locally owned banks suck or circulate profits through our communities in very different ways. 

SPOILER ALERT: If you are planning on listening to the show to find out who we 'awarded' the most sustainable bank mantle to then don't read on....

IN SUMMARY all of the banks are doing some great things, I spoke with so many passionate people and the big banks in particular are supporting some great outcomes in the charity sector and leading the way with operational sustainability. 

I thought picking a winner might be really hard, but actually, each independant financial expert I asked, if they felt like they could make call agreed.  If we asked the UN what they were doing to further sustainability would we expect them to talk about their office recycling programme? NO UN has power. Banks have power (arguably more power that the UN?!? - I don't know but its a lot of power). Transformational power.   We have judge a bank on what it is doing with its true power - its power to shape our future by who it lends to. It also helps to be locally owned and the co-operatives are such a great business model I feel like the title is there for taking...BUT SBS, TBS and Co-Operative Bank haven't really jumped in there. A great example of what they could be is in Bank of Australia and Triodos Bank (UK). They have claimed the sustainability space and have been going gang busters ever since.  May be next year you guys! 



The winner of the How to Save the World most sustainable New Zealand bank  is …Kiwibank.  The bank is New Zealand owned, and even though its not a cooperative, (because its owned by the government) it is really owned by all of us. Essentially Kiwibank won because like a lot of the other banks they tick a lot of awesome boxes but in addition they have one of the strongest no lend policies for Fossil Fuels in the world.  And THAT is fantastic! Something to be so proud of! And Kiwibank is doing some great stuff in the community too.  Well done Kiwibank!

THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to this episode,  all of the banks; all of the independent organisations from the financial sector; and all of the varied representatives from the sustainability sector: 
The banks
  • ANZ (Environmental policy https://www.anz.co.nz/about-us/corporate-responsibility/environment/ and Sustainability Framework  https://www.anz.com.au/about-us/sustainability-framework/environmental-sustainability)
  • ASB (About us page) https://www.asb.co.nz/about-us?fm=header:menu:about_us
  • BNZ (Sustainability page) https://www.bnz.co.nz/about-us/sustainability
  • Co-operative Bank (https://www.co-operativebank.co.nz/everyday-banking)
  • Kiwibank (What we stand for https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/about-us/who-we-are/what-we-stand-for/) 
  • SBS https://www.sbsbank.co.nz/
  • TSB (https://www.tsb.co.nz/)
  • Westpac (Sustainability Report https://www.westpac.co.nz/who-we-are/sustainability-and-community/how-we-re-tracking/sustainability-reports/
Independent finance sector experts
  • Professor David Tripe, Massey University, https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/expertise/profile.cfm?stref=537230
  • Mindful Money [https://mindfulmoney.nz/]
  • CareSaver https://caresaver.co.nz/
  • Living Economies [https://livingeconomies.nz/], 

Sustainability experts and enterprises
  • 350 Aotearoa [https://350.org.nz/]
  • Zero Waste Network https://zerowaste.co.nz/
  • Community Energy Network https://www.communityenergy.org.nz/
  • Manawatū dairy farmer Sam Hogg, also featured in this NZ Geographic article https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/regeneration/
  • Fwd: (pronounced ‘forward’),  enabling social procurement https://www.fwd.org.nz/
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What now? are we screwed or not?

9/14/2020

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By Waveney Warth

The task of humans in the 21st Century is to shift the momentum of 50,000 years of human history from growth to balance


​Can we stop climate change? 

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Photo credit: Parnell Gallery, Auckland NZ. 
The last blog, “Wait, Why are we here?" fascinating as I found it, left us hanging as it offered a summary of our situation – without attempting a prognosis.  To recap, our situation, (underlying whatever sort of eco problem you’d like to highlight) is that we are catastrophically too dominant on the planet.  Therefore, the task of humans in the 21st Century is to shift the momentum of 50,000 years of human history from growth to balance.  

So what now? If that is what we have to achieve, are we screwed or not?  This is the topic of this blog and the conversation Tim and I dig into the second half of the How to Save the World episode, "Why are we here?" 
​

Can we switch from growth to balance?

If changing the momentum of human history is possible, it doesn't sound easy.  It goes against all our biological drivers; its beyond the mandate of government legislation for sure, and it doesn't sound like the kind of task well suited to technology (in kind of the same way we wouldn't expect technology to save our marriages).

Albert Einstein famously said “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. To turn the ship before we hit the iceberg, we have to pull one out of the box. But how can we have different thinking when all our ideas on how we might think differently are from the brains stuck in the old operating system?   

What about the collective power of small action? Well, yes, but if we start biking or buying local without understanding the ultimate goal it’s like setting off to summit Everest thinking that you are jumping out the car to quickly stretch your legs.  If that happens you’d be perilously under prepared – and you’d whine a lot. 

Our goal goes against the momentum of life on earth to grow whenever possible: to self-limit our species in order to protect our long term survival.   Some would say it can’t be done….others would say, ...oh for goodness sake?! Really?!
​

SO big I missed it


Ever failed to see something because it was too big? Like not being able to see to the back of the fridge because of all the clutter, and then realising the thing you are after IS right in front of your face.  Well…this is kind of the same.
​We actually have hundreds of longitudinal case studies, many spanning centuries, of entire civilisations that have already cracked this.  If this comes as a surprise, it might be because, you, like me, come from a western cultural perspective and when you came across the “data” you didn’t see it for what it was.

Globally we actually have thousands of examples of societies that have already successfully made the transition to "self-limitation" hundreds or thousands of years ago when they faced the same issues (that humanity now faces on global scale) on regional or continental scales.   That’s why locally here in Aotearoa te Ao Māori  - the Māori world view is so important to our survival. Te Ao Māori, is one example of many, of humans having successfully 'curved their enthusiasm' to avoid collapse and voluntarily live in balance with the world so that it can continue to sustain us.   (Yet we Pākehā can get the wrong end of the stick ay and sometimes think we are ones that have figured it all out.)
​

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Another stand out is the Pachamama Alliance, started by Amazon indigenous communities under threat. They needed the help of wealthy savvy westerners to save their communities from bulldozers but they knew right from the start that they could gift something just as valuable in return, so they started the Alliance, which has been epically successful, to share their world view. They say, “With roots deep in the Amazon rainforest, our programs integrate indigenous wisdom with modern knowledge to support personal, and collective, transformation that is the catalyst to bringing forth an environmentally sustainable… planet.”. They have courses and all sorts of online resources and opportunites, get involved here, www.pachamama.org

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​This isn’t about idealising. Not all indigenous societies find balance.  Which is soooooo fascinating. There are two categories of societies that didn’t (or haven’t so far): The first category is “Societies-that-collapsed” and literally haven’t survived to tell the tale; and second category is our own society, which is now global as it continues to grow and consume.  Jarred Diamond in his classic book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed contends that our future is either “transition to balance” or collapse.  That’s it. 
Its’ a great read for anyone wanting to learn more about the well-trodden pathways to successfully avoiding collapse. 


Idealism v realism

Far from utopian idealism, curbing ourselves is actually part of being human; a cornerstone of our success as a species. It’s basically how we always get what we want.  Toddlers snatch. Grown-ups share. 

I say this to start out How to Save the World podcast’s Season 2 with well-founded hope, and offer a guiding star that’s simple…but not easy. I think that “simple but not easy” tension is where it’s at: On the one hand we need to know our goal isn’t complex and it’s not new territory. Because its obtainable and simple we have the hope to take a step and start out.  On the other hand grasping the barriers  is important because this gives us the tenacity we need to reach our destination.  Regardless if you are on the left or the right, its not easy to understand how life without economic growth or profit maximisation works when its really all we know.  

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​But back to to the bubbling positivity, lets not forget the permaculture saying "the problem is the solution."  If we do succeed in shifting our momentum, the very things that got us into this (our two super powers: out of the ball park smart and oil)  are the very same things that could get us out - especially the smart bit. 
​Charles Eisenstein, a really good, unique western thinker who is able to reframe the way we see things, puts it this way in his 2013 book The More Beautiful World our Hearts Know is Possible..  

Every member of the ecosystem strengthens the whole, e.g. the top predator, when removed, has a massive harmful effect on the whole ecosystem.  We can think of each contribution as a gift.  We are no different, we have a gift that can make the ecosystem stronger and better...but we aren’t using our powers for good.
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WAIT?! Why ARE we here?

9/11/2020

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By waveney warth 

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Wait. What are we saving the world from? Its a timely question as Tim and I start Season 2 of How to Save the World podcast and launch a website, blog and Instagram account. There's a lot of running around going on, but how do we know we are barking up the right tree?

​This blog is the first of a two part blog relating to the  ‘
Why are we here?’ How to Save the World episode.  The epsiode asks the question "What is our actual problem?" Is it climate change? Our population? Our greedy nature? Our growth based economic system?  This is the most important question in the world because once we really understand the issue we can recognise the solution.
The answer also forms the basis (or not) for optimism, culpability and understanding our power. This in turn effects our response – which in my humble opinion will determine our fate. 

How do humans cause climate change?

Climate change isn't our underlying problem: it's a symptom of our underlying problem. So how do we cause climate change?  Put in simplest terms: humans cause climate change because we are too dominant in the system.

In 2018 the 
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science published a report which Darrin Qualman brings to life in his article 'Civilisation as asteroid.' The article quantifies our dominance on earth by weight. ​
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Here are the highlights / lowlights: 
  • The weight of all the people and our livestock (cows, sheep, pigs, horses, dogs, chickens, goats, etc), is 97%  of the biomass of land animals and birds on earth. 
  • The remaining wild land animals and birds, (elephants, mice, rats, kangaroos, lions, bats, bears, deer, wolves, seagulls, eagles) only weigh 3%.
  • A specific example: the biomass of chickens is more than double the total mass of all other birds combined.
  • Our dominance is squeezing out other life: We are well into the fastest extinction event in the past 65 million years – (when the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs)


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Why do humans rule the world?

Professor Nate Hagens of University of Minnesota specialises in explaining this very question.  We dominate earth’s systems because we have, NOT ONE BUT,  TWO SUPER POWERS (out of the ball park smart and oil)  which we have used in the service of the basic primal forces of life, that is: To out compete; conserve our own energy and to multiply.

The good news is that we aren’t dickheads after all, humans are really just the same as all life.  In the rare moments when other organisms find no resistance from their environments they act just the same (think viruses, weeds, kangaroos). Doing anything else would be weird.  The 40, 000 plant species found in the Amazon aren’t sharing nicely. They are in forced equilibrium. 

Here’s the lowdown on your superpowers… (referencing both the work of Darrin & Nate). 

Super power #1: Smart
  • We are out of the ball park SMART…. we launch satellites.. the next best contender recognises the word “ball”. 
  • We were already outsmarting and killing anything we could see when we  started wandering out of Africa.
  • For 50,000 years the only thing that could keep us in check was bacteria & virus and the daily ration of energy from the sun. 

Super power #2: Oil. 
Until we unlocked the energy in OIL things weren’t too nuts.  The best overview I’ve seen of the impact of oil on our current situation is Professor Nate Hagens Reality 101 video series especially the Energy & Economy video, which explains: 
  • One barrel of oil, (which currently costs a bit over 1 average human work day) allows us to do FOUR AND A HALF YEARS of equivalent human labour.
  • OR: 1 barrel = 7045 human labourers (labouring for one day each). 
  • When oil was cheaper, which is what modern society has been built on, 1 barrel equalled almost 26,000 human labourers! 
He sums it up by saying that oil is a power indistinguishable from magic. 
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How does oil affect life on earth?

Oil is impacting life on earth in many ways, the first that comes to mind for most of us is climate change. But scroll back up to the three bar graph. Can you see something (apart from our dominance),  that is enormously significant? Here’s a mountain bike analogy, hope it’s helpful!
  • If the total biomass of all land based animals and birds before human primacy weighed the equivalent of my MOUNTAIN BIKE then that’s the natural, stable, carrying capacity of the planet (in this geological epoch) – that’s the height of the first bar in the graph.  
  • Today,  earth is now roughly supporting 7 MOUNTAIN BIKES. 
  • While wildlife has gone from one bike down to 20% (- the pedals?) 
  • …Humans have gone from weighing less that one spoke (in the first two bars in the graph the weight of humans is too small to appear) to weighing 2.5 mountain bikes. 
  • ….and livestock from zero to over 4 MOUNTAIN BIKES. 

How is it even possible to get 7 times over the natural carrying capacity of the earth? Was earth full of lazy mammals and birds that could have grown their populations but couldn’t be bothered? No. Earth was maxed out. Any mature stable eco-system is an insanely competitive environment because the general rule-of-thumb its millions of different inhabitants go by is “take every little bit of light and food you can get and multiple." 

So how is it possible then?  OIL IS WHY our population and our farm animals weigh 7 times what our earth is naturally be able to carry.  Modern agriculture is the science of turning oil into food. It’s a marvel. Previously life has pretty much only had access to the daily total of energy from the sun. Oil unlocks sunlight from millions of years ago in a form more concentrated and therefore more powerful than today’s sunlight. 
​

Systems thinking V Reductionism

Mostly I think we don’t see the big picture because its just too big! But also because, if you are a western reader, you have a proud and powerful history of reductionism. Reductionism is an approach to understanding the nature of complex things by reducing them to interactions of their simple parts, AKA science.  Almost all academic study is reductionism.  Very good reductionists  are known experts in their given field.  Reductionism, powerful though it is, is only a tool that works well in the right situations.  It  is not the right tool for the job if the job is understanding or predicting complex outcomes in systems.   

Systems thinking, by contrast, focuses on connections and patterns and crucially – allows us to see emergence, (a great example of emergence: the human consciousness emerges from the sum of our cells).  Nate Hagens, says  “Society now is on the cusp of emergence. Not only in our collective impact but in human collective thinking and understanding about our situation” (quote from: Ecology and Systems video). 

​Here’s to ‘competent generalism,’
#lifegoal.
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THE UNDERLYING PROBLEM TO EVERYTHING...

In case you missed it, the underlying problem is that the smartest kid in the playground, who already had every single other kid and all her teachers under her thumb found a magic wand, which she used to make life better, but its all gone a bit Lord of the Flies.  The usual checks and balances in the school playground ecosystem don't apply. The girl, let's call her Cherry Blossom, has inadvertently reduced the school's original inhabitants from 100 down to 20, but amazingly she hasn't noticed yet because she has duplicated herself 250 times and her magical unicorn horse 700 times and its all been so much fun.  However, the Cherry's ARE noticing that the school, (which floats in space and has absolutely no other inputs or outputs), is not as pristine as it once was. Some of the Cherry's are trying to use the magic wand less and that's about it so far.  And that's 2020. 
We are completely dominating the earth, we have no competitors or natural restraints, and we are using this rare biological occurrence to do what any other organism would do in the same situation: Out compete; conserve our own energy and multiply.

Thanks

Thanks to the two exceptionally competent generalist featured in this blog,  Professor Nate Hagens  and Darrin Qualman. 
  • Nate is a lecturer at the University of Minnesota and can be found on Twitter and Facebook. 
  • Darrin Qualman is an author and commentator, check out his  2019 book,  Civilization Critical: Energy, Food, Nature, and the Future, 

NEXT BLOG covers off the “what now? are we screwed or not?” reaction you may have just had.  
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WELCOME to How To Save The World Blog

9/10/2020

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By Waveney Warth

If you want to connect with your power to make a difference you may have just found your happy place
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Welcome to the new blog (and website) for How to Save the World podcast show. We are based in New Zealand, Tim’s in Auckland city, I’m in Matakana living rurally, (photo shows my farm at dawn).  How to Save the World seeks to find environmentally stable pathways into our future. The blog will primarily delve into the topics we discuss in each podcast episode.  

The How To Save The World Creed

​Recently Tim and I were working on articulating what’s at the heart of what we do and accidently wrote a creed, (which looks like a helpful creed for the 21st Century too).
 
The How to Save the World Creed:
  • We refuse to be paralysed by fear. We are humans and need to live full rich lives with joy and connection, and we can absolutely do this while improving the planet (in fact, those two things seem to be strongly linked!).
  • We believe 90% of the population continually changing 1% of their behaviour has more impact than 1% changing 90%.
  • We strongly believe that by everyone doing their part, we can change the trajectory of our planet’s future.
  • We listen to the experts and the evidence to understand how we can most effectively chip away at the problem.
  • We see the issues and solutions as vast but inter-connected. This means small changes can positively effect 1000s of little unrelated things, all over the world.  Which means change can be SIMPLE.
  • In short, we believe the most under-utilised power on the planet is the collective power of its human citizens and we are here to connect people with their power to make a difference. 
  • Oh! We believe that talking about sustainability can be engaging – even uplifting.  

Connect with us

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How to Save the World podcast
​Instagram: HTSTWpod.  
Facebook:  HowToSaveTheWorld ​
Homebase: Little Empire Podcast Network. Check it & find other popular NZ podcasts
Need help finding the actual show?
  • - HowToSaveTheWorld.nz homepage
  • - All smart phones come with podcast apps, including Spotify.

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Tim Batt
timbatt.co.nz
(well done on having a single point of contact Tim, nice to work with a pro ;-) )

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Waveney Warth
Waveney Warth FB page.
Rubbish Free blog and website (one year zero waste challenge, Christchurch, 2008).
Rainbow Valley Farm FB page (permaculture restoration project and home).
Environmental consultancy work: Envision.nz.



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    AuthorS

    Waveney and Tim co-founded and co-host the How to Save the World podcast show and blog. 

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