All articles
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Havelock, water and Ruataniwha – it’s time to join the dots
In the last two weeks, roughly 4500 adults and children have been struck down with a waterborne gastro illness found in Havelock North’s water supply. That’s a third of the town’s entire population.Most likely source? Ruminant farm animals - quite possibly cows.The crisis has sparked concerns about industrial agriculture - not just in the Hawke’s…
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John Key is the last man standing as another oil rat prepares to jump ship
The revelation that Shell has advised its investment bank to offload its $1 billion New Zealand portfolio is another big nail in the coffin of the Government’s petroleum agenda.
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Three myths the electricity industry wants you to believe about solar
MYTH 1: Solar is only for the richThe most common argument we hear against solar energy is that encouraging it will somehow widen the gap between rich and poor. The logic goes that because “only rich people can afford solar”, the so-called poor people without it will then have to pay a larger share of…
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Drought is real… but dams and irrigation are not the answer
There’s no question about it - drought is causing serious problems for our farmers and communities.
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NZ’s electricity watchdog afraid of the sunlight?
This week the Electricity Authority – New Zealand’s supposed power watchdog – decided it wasn’t keen on being stuck in the middle of public and private interests anymore, so it picked a side.
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7 ways bottom trawling is bad for the seabed
Overfishing. Millions of tons of sea life find themselves engulfed in trawl nets each year. Trawling has been done so intensively that it’s depleted many kinds of fish in many parts of the world. Catches must be strictly managed or in a few years there’ll be little left.
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Too many holes in dam scheme
Dodgy Ruataniwha Dam will destroy rivers and indebt farmers. The Ruataniwha dam is one of the largest irrigation schemes planned in New Zealand. If it goes ahead it will create more industrial dairy farms and pollute the rivers in the Hawkes Bay. And despite overwhelming evidence that industrial dairying is not only destroying rivers but…
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The music of the voices for the Arctic
When you see the Arctic with your own eyes the sheer beauty of it is overwhelming. You are overcome by many sensations and emotions. The cold, the silence, the cracking sound of the ice. The Arctic is pristine, with life popping out to welcome you when you least expect it. It is undoubtedly unique.
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Why piss is the problem with industrial dairying in New Zealand
It’s pretty obvious that letting cows wander into waterways, collapsing stream banks and defecating in the water is not good for our rivers. But the most serious freshwater health issue facing NZ’s waterways still involves cows but is much less obvious and there’s no amount of fencing or streamside planting that can deal with it.
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Regenerative farming – farming for the future
Industrial dairying is failing. It’s failing people who want to swim in clean rivers, its failing our tourism industry, it’s failing our climate, and it’s failing farmers. The good news is that there are alternative ways to produce food that are not only better for our rivers, and the environment, but also good for farmers'…