All power to bats but we need wind energy
I, like most people, wish our native species to be protected but the better part of me has misgivings that the proposed windfarm near Wyndham has been shelved due to the possibility of a native bat falling foul of the rotor blades.
I have no idea what percentage chance there is of that happening but I would imagine the percentage is greater from them suffering harm from natural predators, native or introduced.
In the same ODT was a fear the hydro lakes need more rain and an article which said the climate damage we have inflicted is now irreversible and a rain dance won’t work any more.
The New Zealand power supply system is in a parlous state and it would take little for the balance to be tipped and everything from households to factories could find there isn’t power available for all in the near future.
We are all experiencing ridiculously high power bills and promises of major rises are in the pipeline. Any and every avenue to meet our energy demands needs to be seriously considered to avert a meltdown in the future.
Sorry, but to turn this project down is just batty
Build in Auckland
Shane Jones concerned independent consenting panel has rejected a wind farm in Slopedown. He is completely out of touch with the importance of our natural wild environment.
It’s not Southland needing more power to bolster the national grid. Auckland could build multiple wind farms offshore, closer to where the electricity is required.
This government looks at the South Island like a big open space to be ruined by all manner of projects making foreign business wealthy, very little of this wealth staying in New Zealand.
In the meantime it is destroying everything that makes us special
Lake levels
Your editorial (12.3.25) points out that there will always be repercussions when the minimum operating level of a hydro lake is extended. Such effects include blown dust at Hawea township or permanent damage to Lake Manapouri beaches. The creeping expansion of lake operating ranges is something like the death of a thousand cuts applied in a lacustrine context.
New Zealand’s issue of minimal hydro storage is not going away. We do need to stop kicking the can down the road and work towards a solution. For context, imagine the impact on Manapouri lake beaches if its lower permitted water level was extended so far below the present minimum that the lake’s present energy storage capacity was actually doubled.
That storage gain would still correspond to only 3% of the energy storage capacity of the previously proposed Lake Onslow pumped storage scheme.
Having palpitations
The so-called peace talks in the Russia-Ukraine war are further evidence that as a race we do not learn from history. The similarities with what Ukraine is suffering now and the pandering to Hitler before World War 2 should be striking enough to give us all palpitations.
Time will tell how Ukraine fares, but the world must know by now that kowtowing to bullies does nothing but encourage them.
Not a matter of won’t, it’s a matter of can’t
I feel compelled to point out in response to G. Glendining’s assertion (Letters ODT 19.3.25) that so many Arab countries won’t accept Palestinian refugees.
There are currently 6.1 million Palestinians living outside Gaza and the West Bank, many of whom would like to return to their homeland.
However, they are blocked from returning by Israel — once you leave you don’t get back.
Most live in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Jordan alone has 2.3 million.
Also the assumption that all Arabs should get along with each other and let Palestinians abandon their own country and move in next door so to speak, is like saying all Koreans, all Ukrainians and Russians, all Indian and Pakistan peoples, should get along with each other.
It’s up to all readers to call out fake news.
For shame
Interesting that Winston Peters felt so uncomfortable about dismissing Phil Goff from his post because of his comments about Trump on the international stage, yet has no problem attacking New Zealand citizen Ricardo Menendez for his use of Aotearoa in the house or for Shane Jones’ comment: ".... send the Mexicans home".
I, for one, was ashamed and would, no doubt, not be alone.
Don’t get fooled
Dunedin City Council’s $7 billion estimate to right-size South D’s simple stormwater system and prevent groundwater rise at a short sea boundary.
Has April Fool’s arrived early?
Football and a lunchtime kickabout
Thank you to Noel McAnally (11.3.25) for a very relevant letter regarding the school lunch scheme which sadly has become a "political football".
Having had sandwiches for my school lunch for over 12 years, made by my mother until I was old enough to make my own, I find it hard to accept that so many children need lunch provided and paid for by the government. In New Zealand we seem to have become a nation where we are not happy just to have a hand-up but we want and expect hand-outs.
What has happened to our resourcefulness, our thankfulness to have basic food, our hard work to grow some of our own food in our own back yard or combining with neighbours to have a communal garden?
I fully realise that there are some children who because of circumstances need to be given a school lunch but has it all got out of hand.
For the sake of the children who need to be given a school lunch it is high time the politicians laid aside their petty differences, and worked on a satisfactory and workable scheme which could be an example of co-operation for us all.
On the other hand
I am heartily sick of hearing from old people like me (83) about how we always made good lunches for our kids.
There was virtually no poverty or homelessness then, it was a more equitable society where almost all of us had a house and a job.
You can’t grow your own vegetables if you live in a car or in emergency housing.
I wish all those contemporaries of mine would open their eyes and see the desperate poverty afflicting so many of us, poverty which has come about due to political decisions, and stop criticising people who are struggling like we never knew, through no fault of their own.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
