Transport and climate action
Road transport is the greatest single source of greenhouse gas emissions
Reimagining the roads of Mahurangi
Roads, historically, were not about cars. They were not even about private vehicles, until the last 100 of human civilisation’s 5500-year existence. So perhaps the Labour Party’s pandering to Penlink is understandable, as it seeks to wrest more of the...
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Climate-reaction rubber meets the road
New Zealanders have just demonstrated the perfect problem, perfectly. After three decades of denial and procrastination, including nine years of Clark-led Labour government inaction, Jacinda Ardern has announced transport policy timidly…
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Triggering automatic change to green
Most Warkworthians are unhappy that their town is now a satellite growth centre. Had a concerted campaign been waged against it, and unlimited funds spent fighting it, Auckland Council may have been forced to rethink. But that would not have…
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Tidal-river-power and grid electricity
Most public transport in Aotearoa is fossil-fuel powered. But that would not excuse a fossil-fuelled ferry forming a key component of the Mahurangi Coastal Trail. Fortuitously, as described in Minimum Impact 100% River-Powered, a fossil-fuel-free solution…
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Democratise coalitions and the lists
Half voted for change, and half for the status quo. The 44.4% who voted for the New Zealand National Party, and the 0.5% who voted for what remains of ex-Labour-finance-minister Roger Douglas’ rebel act party, are now represented by 57 opposition…
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Urgent need for nonpartisan Brown transport plan
There are mandates, and mandates. The mandate fairly claimed by the newly created Auckland Council’s inaugural mayor, Len Brown, was for building the city rail link. However, since Len Brown’s election, a National-led government has been…
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Prime Minister asking for it but oblivious to criticism
New Zealanders have been told to put up or shut up: “Show me how you’d go faster? Show me how you’d do anything different?” Told by their Prime Minister, John Key, no less—in response to widespread incredulity that a ship with 1700 tonnes of…
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Shweeb and/or trail-with-rail saving rail
Aotearoa must urgently re-invent its tourism model. Currently it is heavily dependent upon air travel, which will increasingly become cripplingly expensive thanks to peaked oil and user-pays for greenhouse gases. Aside from the obvious need for more…
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Time to submit to better transport
It can be done online, up until midnight Friday 28 January. Feedback is sought by the New Zealand Transport Agency regarding the indicative route of the Pūhoi–Wellsford motorway. Submissions that a motorway should not be built…
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Rodney seat shapes up as green transport battleground
Possibly not panning out exactly as the National Party planned. By freeing up the Rodney seat, Lockwood Smith stated he was facilitating more firepower to be directed to the defence of the planned Pūhoi–Wellsford motorway—his position as speaker necessarily limiting...
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Future of Aotearoa is nuclear visits
Footnote added 2 November 2010 It was for all the right reasons. In 1984, when nuclear warships were banned from visiting Aotearoa, the French military was to continue testing nuclear weapons beneath Moruroa and Fangatafoa for more than 11 years. And the following...
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Google and the Shweeb sounds of success
The first section would run to the Wilson Cement Works. In time, it could run between Snells Beach and the Mahurangi College. And then form a coastal ‘walkway’ from Waiwera to Warkworth. Largely unnoticed by New Zealanders, the Shweeb is set to become an international...
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Smarter models gagging for it
The agency must be bemused. A community reacts in outrage to the prospect of being denied direct access to a proposed motorway, when it should be erupting in righteous indignation at the absurdity of continued motorway construction. Not that it is likely that the NZ...
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Power and the dammed Mahurangi
Dam the Mahurangi River and generate electricity! Such a proposal would face fierce opposition. But what if the dam was already in place—built more than a century since? The dam, otherwise known as the Wilson cement works weir, is located almost beneath the Elizabeth...
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Sustainable energy without the hot air
Bill Gates puts it as well as anyone: “If someone wants an overall view of how energy gets used, where it comes from, and the challenges in switching to new sources, this is the book to read.” Sustainable Energy: Without the Hot Air was written by physicist…
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Well-spotted that big wheel
Master mariner Melvyn Bowen warmed up his audience with a quiz. ‘Where am I?’ he asked of the dozen or so who turned out on Friday evening to hear from the commercial sail aficionado. The first image of the presentation was of Melvyn stood in a wheelhouse featuring a...
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The way it could be – commercial sail
Event Presentation by Melvyn Bowen, Warkworth 14 November 2008, 7.30 p.m. Venue Catholic Church Hall, Alnwick Street, Warkworth After thousands of years powered by sail, commercial navigation switched over completely to fossil fuels. Since then, the revival of...
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Low impact design that’s got to (be) smart
In a perfect world, economic drivers would be indistinguishable from environmental drivers. Readers of Mahurangi Magazine will no doubt range from climate change sceptics, all the way through to those in the ‘chances are we’re already dog tucker’ camp. But regardless...
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Some capping and trading but an electric redemption
This piece was going to be titled: Too little, too slowly—pray it’s not too late. But then it would have been doing the Labour government’s announcement on climate action a huge disservice. And it wouldn’t be doing any better than the New Zealand Herald editorial that...
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