THE GREEN PLANET BLOG - Our World and Environment...

All about conservation, ecology, the environment, climate change, global warming, earth- watch, and new technologies etc.

Friday, June 29, 2012

15 facts you should know about New Zealand's southern waters...

 




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B)15 facts you should know about New Zealand’s southern waters...
As we come up to the launch of the Our South Books, exhibitions and talks. I thought it would be useful to recap some of the key points about why New Zealand’s southern region is so important.
New Zealand has stewardship of an area that extends from Stewart Island almost without interruption to the South Pole.
•The subantarctic islands help give New Zealand one of the five largest Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) in the world.
•The Southern Ocean and Antarctica are the engine room of the world’s oceans and climate.
•The subantarctic islands are like life-rafts in the Southern Ocean for animals breeding and feeding.
We need to manage humankind’s race for resources:
•New Zealand has claim over the Ross Dependency, but under the Antarctic Treaty we agreed to disagree over claims and manage Antarctica through consensus with other countries.
•This Treaty system successfully defused conflict over Antarctica and put in place a great deal of environmental protection for the Continent (including a ban on mining).
•Our investment in science and diplomacy are essential to maintaining this Treaty.
•Whaling and sealing were good examples of how not to manage natural resources. These days, partly thanks to the efforts of New Zealand, we are managing resources like fish much better.
•However, the consensus approach to managing Antarctica creates some problems and there is always the risk that countries may leave and do their own thing – we need to work to keep the Treaty relevant





Sunday, June 24, 2012

Dart: Destruction plans for paradise - or an exaggeration?



Dart: Destruction plans for Paradise
There is a place in New Zealand called Paradise. It is located north of the end of the world, in the endless virgin forests past Glenorchy, the last township on Lake Wakatipu. Narrow unsealed roads lead to the access points of some of the famous Great Walks of New Zealand, like the Routeburn Track.
The few people in Glenorchy lead quiet and laid-back lives, far away from the noise of busy Queenstown. Tourists travel to and past Glenorchy exactly for this peace and quiet which they usually have to share with the zillions of sandflies only. You can hear the sounds of nature and silence there. Endangered wildlife like kiwi, kea and the takahe live in this remote region which is so isolated that parts of the Lord of the Rings trilogy were filmed there.
And now a consortium named Milford Dart Limited wants to turn the scenic road between Queenstown and Glenorchy and the unsealed routes through the forests past the last inhabited place into a highway for tourist buses, filled with travellers who according to those great thinkers cannot spare four hours of their lives to drive from Queenstown to Milford Sound on the existing roads via Te Anau, and build a carpark in the middle of nowhere in Mt. Aspiring National Park.


http://ecocrap.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/here-there-be-paradise/


http://www.sissistein.com/welcome/clean-and-green-new-zealand/tunnel-vision



http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown-lakes/212670/thousands-protest-tunnel


Department of Conservation approves the scheme:

http://www.3news.co.nz/DOC-approves-Milford-Dart-Tunnel/tabid/423/articleID/232451/Default.aspx


http://www.3news.co.nz/DOC-approves-Milford-Dart-Tunnel/tabid/309/articleID/232451/Default.aspx    View video here:



Ecospree




Tuesday, June 19, 2012

There are signs of a possible re-population of the American cougar...

Cougar leaping Cougars are moving east from their traditional western habitats

The American mountain lion or cougar is now re-populating parts of the US, scientists say.

Their numbers had plummeted in the last 100 years because of hunting and a lack of prey.

Writing in the Journal of Wildlife Management, researchers say the cougar is now spreading far outside their traditional western habitats.

But they say the return of the big cats raises important questions about how humans can live with these predators.

Cougar at rest The cougars' decline was caused by hunting and a decline in their prey

Such has been the decline of the cougar in some parts of the United State that the US Fish and Wildlife service declared the eastern cougar extinct just last year.

For decades mountain lions were seen as a threat to livestock and humans and many States paid a bounty to hunters for killing them.

The Green Planet has  posted a number of stories over the years about endangered or threatened species around the globe. It is hoped the cougar is making an overall comeback.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18425472#

Ecospree



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Thursday, June 14, 2012

Australia announces the creation of the world's largest marine reserve...

Australia to create world's largest marine reserve
This graphic released by Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities shows the proposed Commonwealth marine reserves areas around Australia announced on 14 June, 2012 Plans released by the Australian government to create the largest marine reserve in the world
Australia says it will create the world's largest network of marine parks ahead of the Rio+20 summit.
The reserves will cover 3.1 million sq km of ocean, including the Coral Sea.
Restrictions will be placed on fishing and oil and gas exploration in the protected zone covering more than a third of Australia's waters.
Environment Minister Tony Burke, who made the announcement, will attend the earth summit in Brazil next week with Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
"It's time for the world to turn a corner on protection of our oceans," Mr Burke said. "And Australia today is leading that next step."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18437040

Ecospree






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Saturday, June 2, 2012

Is New Zealand's Clean and Green image a myth...

New Zealand
New Zealand (Photo credit: theboywiththethorninhisside)
New Zealand 2007
New Zealand 2007 (Photo credit: Szymon Stoma)
New Zealand's Milford Sound. Milford Sound, on...
New Zealand's Milford Sound. Milford Sound, one of New Zealand's most famous tourist destinations[59]. Milford Sound, New Zealand. The terminus of SH 94, and the breathtaking view that rewards the weary traveller. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Is New Zealand's Clean and Green image exaggerated at best, or a myth at worst?


To buy a carton of New Zealand-produced milk is to be transported to paradise. It says so right on the package with imagery more than words--a contented cow, a lush pasture, a blue sky that is the way blue is meant to look. The marketing folks are simply reinforcing the image held worldwide that New Zealand's faint ecological footprint makes it clean and green.

But all the hype about New Zealand being clean and green may be somewhat exaggerated. New Zealand is touted internationally as one of the most breathtaking places to visit and as a conservation leader. But is there truth in the "100 percent pure New Zealand" slogan?

"There is a lot of rhetoric about how clean we are, but when you actually look at us, it turns out to not be the case" says Cath Wallace, senior lecturer in economics and public policy at Victoria University and co-chair of ECO, an environmental nonprofit organization.

Read more:http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1594/is_3_17/ai_n16533119/

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/climate-change/news/article.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10489849


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