Kate Mackness is a new staff person in the Environmental Planning programme.  Kate has a Master of Planning Practice from the University of Auckland, and a Diploma in Tourism from the University of Otago.  She has 10 years’ experience as a policy and resource management  planner.                                 

Professor Bob Evans, from the Northumbria University in the UK, has joined the environmental planning programme at Waikato.   WELCOME BOB EVANS!

Around the world prparations are already underway for the next great global environmental conference.  Rio+20 is the name of a conference to be held in 2012 to take stock of the changes and progress that has been made since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero in 1992.

http://www.earthsummit2012.org/index.php/news/331-uncsd-

Yesterday the report back to Parliament of the Local Government and Environment Select Committee report on the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill was released.

The report recommends changes in some important areas to the Bill as originally tabled. Set out below is a Green Party email outlining some of the changes. These matters will be discussed in more detail on the blog as time permits.

The EDS website,  http://www.eds.org.nz/content/documents/pressreleases/Report%20Back%20-%20Streamlining%20%26%20Simplifying.pdf provides  a copuy of the report and some useful information as do Central government sites: http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/minister+welcomes+resource+management+bill+report-back

SUSTAINABLE! VIBRANT! THRIVING! AFFORDABLE!  LOOKING FORWARD TO A GREAT FUTURE

I am sick of the word ‘sustainable’.   It usually disguises the fact that a proposed plan or activity is totally unsustainable.  When I see the word I ask: who and what are to be sustained?  Usually the answer is ‘business as usual’.

Equally nauseating are the words ‘vibrant’, ‘thriving’ and ‘affordable’.  Apart from the fact that they are seldom compatible with each other, they are also seldom compatible with ‘sustainable’. 

In summary, I think the Government’s response will create a centralization of power in the hands of those rich and powerful enough to afford the cost of an election campaign across a city of more than a million.  It will have the effect of increasing the divide between Auckland central and south Auckland and it will mean that the key decision-makers of the Supercity will have little reason to behave democratically or heed the concerns of ordinary people.

 http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/

This is a report by WWF International (also known as the World Wildlife Fund) that provides an easy-to-read overview of the state of the natural world, including its biodiversity and supply of natural resources.  It includes a "Living Planet Index" which is a time series index of the state of the world's major biogeographic entities (eg tropical forests, freshwater, marine etc.) from 1975 to 2005.

Energy - one way or another, questions of energy use and energy supply will continue to dominate. Energy efficiency and renewable energy projects will continue to hit the headlines, including:

• retrofitting of buildings for eco-efficiency;
• wind farms and possibly tidal power and wave power
• hydro power including  micro-generators
• manufacture of biofuels (e.g. bio-ethanol and bio-diesel) from sources such as wood and animal waste and landfill gas.