Counting chickens before they hatch

A few years ago there was a lot of controversy over a proposal by Mighty River Power to re-fire the Marsden B power station using coal.

A long drawn out series of protests and legal actions eventually led the electricity producer to drop the venture.

Greenpeace claims this one as a victory over coal. It isn't however. The plant is being dismantled and shipped to India, where, guess what - it's going to burn coal.

In my opinion, if anything, it's worse than had we fired it up, as I suspect maintenance and monitoring will be much less in India than it would've been here. A loss, not a victory for green ideals.

The Chicken Tax

There are many cases I've seen where the system is working against the environment - here is one example, from the United States.

It's a strange world - a fifty year old tax in the US causes many thousands of brand new car seats to end up in the landfill each year...

Roll back to the sixties - when the West Germans put a rather high tariff on imports of poultry from the states. In retribution, the US put a 25% tariff on imports of commercial vehicles, targeting the VW Kombi van.

Today, both tariffs still exist. This makes it economically viable for the Ford Motor Company to import it's Transit Connect van from Turkey as a passenger van, and upon arrival in the states, promptly remove the windows and seats, throw them away, and sell the vehicles as commercial vehicles.

Ford would object to my use of the wording "throw away". They claim to recycle them, which, in pratice means that the scrap metal is recyled, and the fabric and foam goes to the landfill. I for one object to the word "recycle" being used when an item is not recycled in it's entirity.

If Ford is going to choose to work around the so called chicken tax, then what is the point in it's existance at all? The status quo just serves to create waste.

Ford Transit Connect

Dead gum trees

I always like to believe in the illusion that New Zealand is clean and green. Unfortunately, we are not, and the proof comes out on a regular basis.

Driving along State Highway 32 the other day I was confronted by these dead gums trees. Sprayed to death for miles in each direction...

Dead gum trees - State Highway 32, Waikato - 27 Feb 2011

In this case, this land is to be converted for dairy farms (based on the limited information I can find on the matter). I guess there is just too much money to be made from milk at the moment.

The last time I saw trees killed on this scale was when the Kyoto protocol first came into effect - kill off young forests before the protocol came in, then replant and claim carbon credits for planting new forest.

I don't believe in destorying what's already on land in order to make the latest buck. We all know that dairy will sooner or later go the way of kiwifruit or apples - a glut with no money to be made.

A simple green move...

When it comes to the environment, every little bit helps, particularly, when there is no opportunity cost.

As you will know, the Lego company holds a special place in my heart - so to see them reducing the size of packaging is great. The same product in a smaller box is still the same product. Less paper is used, and as more product can fit in a shipping container, less is fuel is consumed (less emissions, less cost).

A simple example of a win-win...

Let us hope the consumer doesn't punish them. Everyone wants to buy big presents for their children, despite the toy inside being identical.