The Oxfam Trailwalker event will be held in Taupo, April 10/11 2010. The event raises money to support Oxfam's humanitarian work.  Participants walk or run 100km in under 36 hours. The organisers are looking for keen volunteers to help run this major event and are looking for people to be involvved in their green team. The material forwarded by the organisers states that  Oxfam Trailwalker is at the forefront of sustainable event management in New Zealand. In 2008 and 2009 Oxfam Trailwalker was awarded Best Environmentally Sustainable event by the NZ Association of Events Professionals.

To find out more about the event visit www.oxfamtrailwalker.org.nz   or contact the coordinator below

The Environmental Defence Society website deals with many hot topic environmental issues. In the last few weeks we've seen media releases on land use consents relating to cows in cubicles, High Court decisions relating to Maui dolphins and the release of the National Policy Statement on Freshwater. Visit  http://www.eds.org.nz/ to catch the latest news and when the rush of the start of semester settles, we'll investigate these matters further. 

Feel like getting some fresh air, meeting some like-minded students and professionals and giving something back to nature? The NZPI Waikato Branch has extended an invitation to a planting event on 10 March as follows:      

Have you ever wondered  why academics are so particular about references when writing research papers? Have you ever considered why the sometimes pedantic and nit picking process of peer review is so valued in the research process?

The recent debate about farming cows in enclosures has taken another turn with the Minister for the Environment calling in the discharge consents at the heart of this matter.The Beehive website records that  consent applications have been received from Southdown Holdings Ltd, Williamson Holdings Ltd, and Five Rivers Ltd and involve nearly 18,000 cows being housed eight months of the year on farms totalling a land area of 8555 hectares, holding ponds totalling 77 million litres and discharges of 1,743,000 litres of effluent per day.

Wrybill at Miranda, 2010

Today is World Wetland Day and there is a host of interesting activities occurring as a result. Look out for the events at Lakes Kaituna and Serpentine this Saturday.To view upcoming events visit;

http://www.doc.govt.nz/getting-involved/events-and-awards/world-wetlands-day/resources/

Several more books I can recommend for Christmas are:

Peak Everything, by Richard Heinberg, 2007

Climate Wars, by Gwynne Dyer, 2008

The world is blue, by Sylvia Earle

Looking for a good book for Christmas?

Here are a few goodies:

Keith Woodley from the Miranda Shorebird Centre has researched an written a fascinating book on godwits; Godwits; Long haul champions. The book should be available from most good bookstores.

Two others I would recommend are by an American Professor of Journalism, Michael Pollan. The  Omnivores Dilemma; the search for a perfect meal in a fast food world, (2006) provides an eye-opening excursion into the industrialisation of the food chain. Pollan's latest title, In Defence of Food  is equally as interesting.

Anyone have some more ideas?

Godwit in flight, pwallace 2009    

 In 2008 Birdlife International updated its comprehensive assessment State of the world’s birds. The report documents a global situation with some notable conservation successes, but generally characterised by continuing species extinction. It records thata total of 153 bird species is believed to have become extinct since 1500 AD, with 18 species lost in the last quarter of the twentieth century and three more known or suspected to have gone extinct since 2000. It is assessed that 1,226 species (one in eight of the total) were considered threatened with extinction. (BirdLife International State of the world’s birds 2008: indicators for our changing world (United Kingdom: BirdLife International, 2008). http://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/index.html