New Zealand Prime Minister to Green Actress: Don’t Quit Your Day Job

A New Zealand actress best known for her Oscar-nominated performance in ‘Whale Rider’ has been publicly mocked by the country’s Prime Minister for her involvement in a Greenpeace campaign. Keisha Castle-Hughes is one of the celebrity faces of the ‘Sign On’ campaign, which is urging the New Zealand government to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2020.

PM John Key told a crowd of 500 at a business gathering, “My advice to Keisha is this: stick to acting.”

New Zealand’s Labour department is asking the Prime Minister to apologize for the remark.

From The National Business Review, via Ecorazzi:

In Parliament, Acting Prime Minister Bill English was questioned about the remark.

Labour’s Charles Chauvel asked: “Does the Prime Minister agree with Keisha Castle-Hughes that telling her to `stick to acting’ is really odd, given that he had previouslyencouraged her to make a submission to the Minister for Climate Change Issues on New Zealand’s pollution reduction target?”

[English] said an ad campaign did not replace serious analysis and a 40 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 would seriously hurt the economy and people’s livelihoods.

In a later statement Mr Chauvel said Mr Key should apologise.

“Young New Zealanders, whatever their profession, should never be discouraged from taking a stand on issues they feel passionately about and the Prime Minister’s decision to criticise the Kiwi actress for doing so to an overseas audience was a bad call.”

Castle-Hughes’ classy response was to offer to meet Mr. Key to discuss her concerns, saying that she knows a lot more about the issue than he realizes. Key has since agreed to a meeting.

The subject of celebrities speaking out about important issues is a tricky one. Obviously, no one is going to take Paris Hilton seriously if she suddenly makes demands about, say, food safety laws. But there are those celebrities who are passionate and knowledgeable about certain causes, and many an organization and campaign has received more funds and more exposure due to the participation of famous faces.

“If I’m going to put my name to a campaign as I’ve done with the Greenpeace Sign On campaign, I want to do more than read brochures and fact sheets. I want to see first-hand what I’m fighting for,” said Castle-Hughes. “I haven’t come out of the trip with the knowledge of a scientist, nor have I come out with all the answers on how to solve climate change, but I do have a stronger passion than ever before to see New Zealand do its fair share in this global crisis.”

Link [National Business Review] via [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Sign On Campaign

Glide Through the Sky on a Pedal-Powered Monorail

If you’ve ever had dreams about riding your bike in the sky, a new human-powered monorail is about as close as you’ll ever come in real life – unless you want to brave the rickety-looking pedal-powered roller coaster in Japan. The ‘Shweeb’ has users enclosed in clear capsules, gliding along a monorail track on what are essentially recumbent bicycles, which can go up to 25mph.

From Inhabitat:

Although we don’t expect to see cities connected by pedal-powered monorail systems anytime soon, there are a number of applications where they could be useful. Think of guided tours through natural parks, scenic routes, adventure camps, and developments that require large pieces of land and a reasonable amount of population.

For now the system is in use on Schweeb’s grounds in New Zealand. If you are feeling adventurous, feel free to visit them at Ngongotha, New Zealand.

We can definitely imagine this kind of system in use in parks and other nature preserves, since they would minimize the impact that visiting humans would have on the ecosystem while still giving riders exercise and great views.

Link [Inhabitat]

New Zealand’s Green Party Gets Punked

People, this is why you need to do research before you start jumping up and down hollering about dangerous chemicals. New Zealand’s Green Party got a little ahead of themselves when MP Sue Kedgeley received an email detailing all of the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide and spoke out against its use, saying she was ‘absolutely supportive’ of a ban on the chemical solution – otherwise known as water. This has one of New Zealand’s other political parties, the National Party, doing a merry little dance in their haste to point out how ignorant the Green Party’s response was.

From The Scoop:

“The Greens’ support for a ban on dihydrogen monoxide shows just how scientifically illiterate the party is. They would ban anything if it has a slightly scientific name, regardless of the fact that all life would cease without water,” Dr Smith said.

The email on dihydrogen monoxide points out it is a colourless, odourless, tasteless chemical used in all sorts of dangerous industries and that in gaseous form it causes thousands of burns; in liquid form millions of deaths from overdose (drowning), and in its solid state causes tissue damage.

Here’s an important thing we all need to know about the world: everything in and on it is made up of chemical compounds. Scary sounding chemicals are often extremely innocuous. It’s important for environmental activists especially to avoid making assumptions about chemicals and figure out what they are before getting worked up about their use. Scientific literacy, as Dr. Smith of the National Party rightly points out, is very important.

That said, we think this story is hilarious. We love seeing greenies get punked – it keeps us all on our toes.

Link [The Scoop]
Photo credit: Flickr user CTD 2005

Off-Grid Homes Save Electricity and Provide a Great Example for the Rest of Us

We can all learn a lot from the people who have decided to go off-grid – completely or just partially – using renewable energy to power their homes. When most people think of being off-grid, they imagine living like the Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie: using candles at night, spending hours doing back-breaking manual labor to keep your home heated in the winter and having no televisions or computers.

The fact is, using alternative energy sources for at least some of your home’s power isn’t just within reach, it’s not going to force you to sacrifice all that much. Your quality of life won’t be adjusted beyond feeling better about your energy consumption.

Charmaine Watts of New Zealand is a great example of making off-grid work while still living a modern life of convenience.

From the New Zealand Herald:

Her family of two adults and three children are one of hundreds around the country generating their own electricity.

With power prices on the rise, the $20,000 the Watts spent installing solar panels, a small wind turbine, storage batteries and wiring is starting to look like a good investment.

“I don’t need to worry about power cuts,” said Ms Watts. “It’s just like a normal house. I flick the switch on my computer or my DVD player and away I go.”

Watts says solar panels lasting between 25 to 30 years cost $25,000 , making them a good option even for city dwellers.

“Anyone with a roof has the potential to make their own electricity.”

$20,000 is definitely a lot of money, but many homeowners spend that much or more just on a bathroom remodel. Why not live with a smaller, vintage bathroom and spend that cash on something that’ll reduce your dependence on electricity and lower your carbon footprint? Seriously, watch those HGTV remodel shows – they spend exorbitant amounts on something that doesn’t even look all that great when they’re done. That money could be put to much better use.

Living smaller and keeping older stuff longer isn’t really the American way, and that’s part of what got us into this mess in the first place. Instead of focusing our consumerist drive on crap we’re going to get sick of in a few years and toss in a landfill, we could focus it on turning this country around for the sake of the planet.

You can learn more about going off-grid at Off-Grid.net.

Link [New Zealand Herald] + [Off-Grid.net]

Can a Power Company REALLY Be Carbon Neutral?

Yes, it can be done, and a New Zealand power company has been doing it for more than a year.

Worldchanging explains:

Meridian Energy generates around a third of New Zealand’s total energy demand (approx 12,000 GWh) exclusively from wind and hydro sources. The company has a history of advocating a carbon credit marketplace.

But not all New Zealand state-owned enterprises can boast the same carbon neutral certification.

Solid Energy is the largest coal mining company in New Zealand, and also state owned. It’s the company, I’m ashamed to say, that dig up and export New Zealand’s coal to be burned in China—and the ones that intend to create a new open cast mine in Happy Valley.

It sounds like a terrible place for a coal mine—even though I’m not certain what or where Happy Valley is (but then, what do Americans know about New Zealand really, except that it’s where the Hobbits live?). Before we all get too happy about this, I should note that Meridian Energy is carbon neutral in large part because they operate nine hydroelectric projects—big dams, that is, of the sort that would be considered an environmental disaster if they were under construction today, but are somehow okay if they already exist.

Meridian Energy also operate wind turbines—like the one in the photo above, in Wellington—on a really large scale.

Link [Worldchanging]

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons