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Mahurangi marquee gallery Mahurangi Regatta Dr R H Locker’s history of the Mahurangi Light the Fuse
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Light the Fuse
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Climate-action mobilisation Mahurangi Magazine pre-pandemic content

Light the fuse

Not the great New Zealand mobilisation novel

An early work-in-progress dedicated to helping,
circuitously, precipitate the Great Mobilisation

Dare to be wise!
Kant
Front matter

Introduction

Contents
author Cimino
work-in-progress published 20250601

Dear Sir or Madam,
will you read my book?
It took me years to write,
will you take a look?
John Lennon
Global primary energy consumption by source, based on the substitution method for energy accounting

Biomass and Coal Plateau. Oil and Gas Climb Ever Higher: Despite 40 years of climate conferences and relentless renewables hype, 77% of primary energy in 2023 was from fossil fuels. Solar that year contributed 2.3, having enjoyed a nearly 130% increase since 2019. In that time, however, solar only added 2404 terawatt-hours, whereas fossil-fuel added 3931. covid-19, meantime, demonstrated what it takes to put a Great Mobilisation-sized crimp in fossil-fuel use—oil shocks and economic crashes barely checked energy demand, never mind the effortless net-zero hubris. chart Our World in Data

Tammadge Lodge. Cimino’s mother loathed   it. Not the spacious Californian bungalow, carriage-sweep property sited across Kūiti valley at the town’s particularly picturesque, narrowed northern end. No, Noeline Adelaide Cole née Cimino radiantly imbued  that. After a succession of crabbed, neglected rentals—the last in particular—she was deeply appreciative to reside in such a fittingly gracious residence where family and friends could visit, stay overnight and enjoy genteel lodgings and hospitality. No, what ‘Noel’ hated was her husband’s, octave-lower, telephone voice and airs:

Tammadge Lodge;
Mac Cole speaking.

Had the richly detailed Arts and Crafts bungalow been named Tammadge Lodge  by its original town-fatherHenry Thorne Morton: town mayor 1938–1946; National Party representative for Waitematā 1943–1946 owner, Noel would probably have supressed her staunchly egalitarian sympathies and accepted use of the appellation. When employing it, Mac was wise to ensure his study doors were closed, lest Noel’s instant upbraiding be overhead by the caller. Mac was the youngest of the youngest, as was his son Cimino. Not surprising, each had been doted on by their respective, golden-hearted mothers. Such boys can possibly be somewhat forgiven for a tendency towards narcissism.

Grand schemes and grand narratives were Cimino’s every waking moment. His first book, at the age of eight or nine—hand written, illustrated, and bound—was a we-didn’t-mean-to-go-sea epic. Although the urge to write such manifestos never went away, Cimino had long since submerged the conceit that the world needed his first, or first-and-only, novel. Had his childhood best friend lived a full life, no novel would have been attempted. But Skerman’s tragic death had demanded a response. Part tribute to their respective, charismatic hearts-of-gold mothers, part a duty to field a concept that could be key to civilisation salvaging a survivable climate, no less.

Machiavellian might be one word for Cimino’s plan, but that would probably be praising it. Megalomaniacal, certainly, but circuitous , possibly too circuitous for its own good, is probably the pertinent adjective here, in describing the convoluted, immediate mission of this work of near-term-future fiction. Readers are reminded that the mission of writing Light the Fuse is not for it to not to be published, much less be read by more than a few hardy or quirky souls. Writing it is one man’s moonshot-attempt to intrigue just one, award-winning author sufficiently, that her publisher, in turn, becomes similarly curious, to convinces she, or some other hapless soul, to accept the writing commission—the sweet fruits of which, become the best seller, provoking the movie, the sequels, prequels, miniseries, and more.

Such blockbuster literature and cinematography, not being and end in itself of course, but to de­ter­minedly help build a mandate for the Churchillian leadership, specifically in the antipodes, to democratically initiate a proto-Great Mobilisation, then regional, Aus­tralasian–Southwest Pacific-Great Mobilisation, and, ultimately, to light the fuse of the beyond-urgent, global, Great Mobilisation…

To be continued…

 

So yes, Dear Sir or Madam, please read my book, but only if you promise to remember that it not intended as the great New Zealand Great Mo­bil­i­sa­tion novel, but as a desperate prayer to an award-winning author that such book, movie, et cetera , et cetera , might materialise to help precipitate the  Great Mobilisation.

 

 Acknowledgements   |  Prologue 

Return to top of page  | End notes

 

Disclosure The editor of this content is no longer the secretary of either the Mahurangi Action Incorporated or the Mahurangi Coastal Path Trust. Regardless, the content published here continues to be that of the editorially independent, independently owned and funded Mahurangi Magazine.

 

Dedicated to helping light the fuse of a democratic   Great Mobilisation
Copyright ©2025 Mahurangi Magazine
All rights reserved

Prologue and first chapters

Winston Churchill inspecting units of the New Zealand Division with, clockwise, Bernard Freyberg, Bernard Montgomery; John Poston, driver

Light the Fuse 
Prologue

Cimino | 3 April 2024
Readers of its unedifying history, in millennia to come, will scarcely credit that the Climate Polycrisis took so long to be convincingly named. Successive cohorts of historians will struggle to explain this phenomenon, and labour to quantify quite how critical a lacuna…

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Dorsey Burnette

chapter 1
Light the fuse, step back

Cimino | 6 Jul 2024
Given Hutch’s deterioration, it risks seeming a cruel question. Judging, however, he’ll welcome it, Cimino asks his old primary school friend—and author of a round forty published books: “Hutch, are you currently writing?” His eyes light up. Enthusiastically, walking-

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Norman Kirk

chapter 2
Recruiting an irresistible face

Cimino | 12 Jul 2024
Gifted his first chapter by Hutch, Cimino suddenly realises he’s been gifted his second, by Biden. The previous day, on their way home from visiting a 92-year-old friend whose face, voice, and faculties, would render him far fitter than the incumbent, for…

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