Our sources on the West Coast tell us that between 15 and 20 groups of potential buyers, mainly from India, have been through Solid Energy’s big Stockton mine there.

We also know that Bathurst Resources, the Australian coal mining company that fled Australia and set up in New Zealand, and which has managed to make a fearful mess of the unique and biodiverse Denniston Plateau in the course of a largely failed attempt to extract coal from it at an economic price, is trying to buy Stockton.

Work on the Denniston Plateau has now stopped – but the destruction wrought by Bathurst Resources remains.

Republic Investment Management of Singapore recently bought a 20% stake in Bathurst Resources, and they are seeking to acquire more, possibly with a view to taking a controlling interest. This has allowed Bathurst to raise funds in relation to “an impending NZ coal opportunity”, which we believe may be the attempted purchase of Stockton and other coal deposits which Solid Energy has the rights to but has not attempted to mine.

As the industry mouthpiece NZ Resources notes (24 June 2016), “for coal in NZ this is fire sale season”.

On one level, that’s a good sign: it reflects the parlous state of the coal industry both domestically and internationally, and the growing acknowledgment that King Coal, bruised and weakened but still dangerous, must be prised off his throne.

But fire sale season carries a high risk: with the backing of their mystery overseas investors, Bathurst – or one of the companies that has toured Stockton – might be able to take advantage of those fire sale prices to sweep up a bundle of former Solid Energy assets and bundle them with its own resources, such as the nearby Denniston mine.

Bundling Stockton, Happy Valley (adjacent and now being mined), the Escarpment mine on Denniston, and the proposed Te Kuha would create an asset large enough to interest a big overseas miner. Then, taking a cavalier approach to the environment and worker safety alike (as the record shows occurs in India), they might seek to claw what coal they can from the ground while there is still a buck to be made.

Whereas the coal industry in China has been in decline in recent years, in India , coal is still trying to expand. If we are not vigilant, we might end up with a future in which Indian steel mills and cut-rate New Zealand milk powder plants alike are supplied by coal made cheap enough to mine by Solid Energy’s past recklessness and the Government’s continued avoidance of real action on climate change.

This story has been hiding away in the shadows. It’s time for it to be brought into the light.

The post What’s Going On At Stockton? appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

If the New Zealand cricket team needs a new spinner to replace Daniel Vettori, they need look no further than mining industry lobby group Straterra. Perhaps because Solid Energy is in a tailspin and the mining industry has been coming under challenge all around the country in recent months, they have chosen to highlight a survey carried out, in somewhat mysterious circumstances, by Pauline Colmar, formerly of survey firm Colmar Brunton, which purports to show strong public support for mining.

However, on closer inspection, the survey was worded along these lines:

Survey company: Would you swim with sharks – if sharks didn’t bite?
Lots of respondents: Yes
Survey customer press release: “Majority of New Zealanders say they love swimming with sharks”
(notice the lack of options here for a respondent to say “hang on, but sharks DO bite”).

There’s more on that survey below. We have also more on Solid Energy’s troubles and their future plans; more on the forthcoming Powershift conference in December and 2013 Summer Festival in January; and the latest news on Denniston legal action.

Check out our international section that discusses the links between climate change and the horrific “Superstorm Sandy” in the US this week. Our thoughts are with the families of the people who died,  from the Caribbean to the US and Canada, and with those suffering in the devastation Sandy left in its wake.

Editor’s Note: In February 2011, I took on the job of editing a monthly “Supporters’ Update” for the Coal Action Network Aotearoa. That first update had five items. The September 2012 CANA newsletter had fifteen items, including a number of sub-items. This is a reflection of the breadth, depth and growth of our campaigns, but it’s all getting a bit much for your frazzled editor. So I am taking a break from newsletter editing duties to focus on the other work I should be doing for CANA, but keep on running out of time to get around to!

Along with a change of editor, we’re also going to take another look at how we put together the newsletter, aiming to reduce both its length and the effort required to produce it while still bringing you up-to-date news about our campaigns and the coal industry’s manoeuvres.  Please take part in our upcoming survey.

Regards
Tim Jones
Coal Action Network Aotearoa

1. Coming Events
2. More Spin Than Shane Warne
3. Got Something To Tell Us? Use Coal Tips
4. Summerfest 2013: Registrations Open 5 November
5. Powershift 2012
6. International News
7. TPPA Negotiations in Auckland, December 2012
8. Solid Energy: Still Not Getting It
9. Denniston Update
10. Top of the South Speaking Tour On Lignite
11. Regional Reports: Auckland, Wellington, Top of the South, Canterbury, Southland
12. CANA Social Media
13. Our Blog And Website
14. How To Donate To CANA

1. Coming Events

November

2: Closing date for submission on the Crown Minerals Act review – see this Forest & Bird submission guide at Greenpeace’s draft submission.
3: Auckland Coal Action meeting, 11am start, shared lunch 12.30-1pm, meeting ends 4pm.  Quaker Meeting House, 113 Mt Eden Rd
12: Wellington Ka Nui network meeting, 7pm, 19 Tory St. Contact michelle@ducat.co.nz to confirm venue or for more information.

December

3-12: Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiating session in Auckland. Seehttp://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/ for details of planned actions.
7-9: PowerShift 2012, Auckland. See http://powershift.org.nz/
8: National Day Of Action Against The TPPA. Keep an eye on http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/ for details.

January 2013

18-21: Summerfest 2013, Dolamore Park, near Gore

2. More Spin Than Shane Warne

Tim Jones writes:

I had recently had the dubious pleasure of attending a function at Straterra, the mining industry lobby group that is headquartered on the Terrace, conveniently near the Beehive for those Ministers who don’t like traveling too far from their natural habitat.

Cindy Baxter and I from CANA joined the mining magnates and government officials (surprisingly difficult to tell apart) at the event to hear Pauline Colmar, formerly of Colmar Brunton, discuss the research her firm carried out for Solid Energy.

Her headline message to the miners & their Ministry cheerleaders was that mining was much more popular in New Zealand than the industry thought, and that they should get out and celebrate the fact. But even the most cursory look at the figures she presented shows that the survey achieved its numbers by asking New Zealanders whether they would support coal miningif the environment could be protected, or if it didn’t lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

But here’s the problem: coal mining wrecks the environment and leads to more greenhouse gas emissions. And the survey figures show that New Zealanders don’t want either of those things. So, nice try, wannabe Shane Warnes of the mining industry. But your spin is well wide of the mark.

For more on this, see:

* CANA’s press release: 
* Claire Browning’s column in the Otago Daily Times
* Summer Burstyn’s article on LiveNews, which provoked comments both from pollsters and from the person asked to fill in the survey who alerted us to the whole shebang in the first place:
* Beau Murrah’s piece on how he persuaded the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to take the Straterra press release about the poll down from their site.

3. Got Something To Tell Us? Use Coal Tips

coaltips@gmail.com

Since early 2012, we have been getting interesting tidbits of information from people inside the coal industry. They have tipped us off to health and safety problems which have substantially delayed the opening of Solid Energy’s pilot briquetting plant (see the Solid Energy item below for Solid’s take on this), and also given us some other useful information on Solid Energy’s future plans.

We know that there are a lot of disgruntled people in the coal industry right now, and with good reason. So our message to people inside the industry is this: even if we don’t agree on everything, we might agree that the coal industry and its leading players need to be made accountable to the public.

If you’d like to help us with this process, or if there is some information the coal industry is hiding that you think the rest of the country should know, then all you have to do is drop us an email to coaltips@gmail.com.

You don’t have to give your name or contact details, although of course it would help us if you did. We promise to keep your name confidential if that’s what you want. You can send the message from any email address you like. And, if you’ve got a picture or a document to send us, gmail addresses can handle nice big attachments.

We think the coal industry is in trouble, and we think people inside the industry know it. This is your chance to share what you know.

4. Summerfest 2013: Registrations Open 5 November

In January, the Keep The Coal In The Hole Summer Festival, aka Summerfest, held on Mike Dumbar’s farm near Mataura, was a big success, not least because it led to the formation of a number of regional anti-coal action groups.

The Southland regional group Coal Action Murihiku (CAM) has taken on the job of organizing the 2013 Summerfest. This will be held from Friday 18-Monday 21 January 2013 at Dolamore Park, a beautiful native bush reserve near Gore, just outside the north-western boundary of Solid Energy’s landholdings in the Mataura Valley.

We will be putting the registration form for the 2013 Summerfest up on the website within the next few days. Please look on the site on Monday 5 November for updated information, including the registration form.

5. Powershift 2012

Generation Zero, 350.org and other groups are inviting young people (13-35) to attend the biggest youth climate summit ever held in New Zealand – and you can see all the details and registerhere.

An important part of Powershift 2012 is its outreach to Pasifika youth. 350.org.nz Pacific Outreach Coordinator Koreti Tiumalu takes up the story:

Imagine a community of Pacific youth with the passion, skills and capacity to shape a safe climate future for New Zealand, and speak out for their home Pacific Island nations. 
Over the last six months, we’ve started to make this vision a reality and have run “Pasefika Climate Change Jams” in Auckland and Wellington. Now as we build up to Power Shift NZ-Pacific, our goal is to get 100 young Pacific Islanders living in New Zealand to actively participate in the event. We will harness that energy, to then reach across NZ’s Pacific communities in 2013 and beyond.
It’s time Pacific people found themselves a seat at the table where these things are discussed and tackled – and I am excited to be a part of an organisation who has recognised the valuable contribution that Pacific people can bring to that table. We will bring colour, new ideas, new life and above all else, heart.
I’m really excited, and I’m also daunted by the work ahead. Doing all of this on top of a full-time job is a real challenge, but I’m committed to making it work, as this is just too important for it not to happen.
Your help can make a massive difference. Here’s some of the ways:

• Do you have connections with the Pacific Island communities here in NZ that we can get in contact with? Let me know at koreti@350.org
• Support the Pasefika Climate Change Jam fund – donate $20, $50 or $350 to enable us to keep reaching out to Pacific Island communities through events (or sign up as aregular giver).
• Volunteer with our Pasefika team – we need all hands on deck to build the movement. If you are keen to help us out, just drop me an email to koreti@350.org

6. International News

Superstorm Sandy’s links with climate change. 
Superstorm Hurricane Sandy has left eight US states in a state of emergency, with the death toll in the US climbing, and 39 killed in the Caribbean.  The superstorm shattered records in terms of depth of depression over the US and the storm surges, predicted to peak at 11 feet in New York, reached nearly 14 feet, causing billions in damage. It was a scary night for millions of people, and many of us in NZ were glued to the news as it unfolded, hoping friends and family were safe.  Unfortunately the forecasters got it right this time.  As we said above, our thoughts are with those who have suffered.

But how much of it was caused by climate change? While Sandy wasn’t CAUSED by climate change, there are several things we do know about it:  that temperatures in the Atlantic were higher than normal.  Some scientists suspect that the weather system coming from the Arctic was caused by the melt.
New York Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg have started making the links.

Here’s some links to more in-depth coverage of the issue.
Close Up talked about it with Kiwi climate scientist Jim Salinger.
Hurricane expert, scientist Kevin Trenberth, has a good summary here.  He talks about how all weather is now occurring against a background of a warming world.
The co chair of the US National Climate Assessment Gary W Yohe talks about how this isn’t the “new normal” – because the changes we’re seeing haven’t stopped yet.
Joe Romm at Climate Progress
Chris Mooney, science writer and author of “Storm World” on Mother Jones.
The New Yorker: Watching Sandy, ignoring climate change
You can find much, much more online, but we’ll leave you with this fantastic video, using a “baseballer on steroids” analogy to explain how the background conditions can lead to extreme weather events.

Calls to end the climate silence in the US elections
A growing chorus of NGO’s in the US have been calling for the election race to break their “climate silence” – it’s the first Presidential campaign in the US to NOT mention climate change since 1998. Why? Blame the massive increase in fossil fuel funding of the elections (to the tune of around US$150m), in particular a coal industry-led campaign against Obama’s so-called “war on coal” (never mind that it’s the gas/fracking industry driving down the demand for coal)   It’ll be interesting to see if this silence continues in the wake of Sandy’s wrath.

Australia confirms its Renewable Energy Target
The Australian Government’s newly formed Climate Change Authority has been reviewing the Renewable Energy Target – and has recommended keeping the target at the energy equivalent of at least 20% by 2020, shrugging off intense pressure from the fossil fuel industry. The final decision will be taken in December.

True cost of CCS revealed 
Remember how Don Elder keeps telling us that we can reduce coal emissions to near zero?  Well that would be using CCS – carbon capture and storage – technology. Apparently.  If Don thinks he’s got financial problems now, wait til he faces the cost of CCS.  Australia’s full report on the issue was recovered through official information and it’s not pretty.

UN warns of food crisis
Meanwhile the UN warns of a looming food crisis in 2013 in the wake of record droughts and heatwaves leading to crop failure in the US and elsewhere.

7. TPPA Negotiations In Auckland, December 2012

A parasitic organism is on its way to Auckland in early December. It is designed to grow fat on its hosts and leaves them weakened and more vulnerable.

Sounds nasty? It is. It’s called the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, it is currently under negotiation by 11 countries chivvied along by the US Government, and, if adopted as it stands by the New Zealand Government, it would significantly weaken New Zealand’s sovereignty in a whole range of areas, including our ability to impose environmental standards on foreign-owned mining companies.

The TPPA negotiating circus is coming to Auckland in early December, and a coalition has been organised to protest against these undemocratic negotiations, with a national day of action planned for 8 December. For background on why the TPPA is such a bad thing, and news of planned events and actions, keep an eye on http://www.itsourfuture.org.nz/

8. Solid Energy Struggles To Commission Briquetting Plant, But Wants To Press Ahead With Lignite-To- Urea Plant

In the last couple of newsletters, we’ve reported on Solid Energy’s many misadventures. One that hasn’t been well reported in the news media is the delay in commissioning Solid Energy’s pilot lignite-to-briquettes plant in Southland.

As mentioned under “Coal Tips” above, we’ve heard from industry sources that serious health and safety issues have been uncovered during the construction of the plant, leading to substantial delays in commissioning it and raising fears for the health and safety of the six workers who will be employed at the plant. Of course, that’s not quite how Solid Energy put it in their recent Quarterly Report:

“Plant construction is essentially complete and the plant is working through initial commissioning procedures.  During this process some minor modifications have been required which will delay the timing of first saleable coal.  This is now expected late this calendar year.   At full production, the plant will produce approximately 90,000 tonnes per annum of briquettes.”

However, this hasn’t stopped Solid wanting to press ahead with the next idea Don Elder scrawled on the back of a napkin, his dream of a lignite-to-urea plant:

“The CTF feasibility study to confirm the economic viability, including environmental and social acceptability, of a Southland-based coal to urea development is underway. This phase of the project includes identifying project partners and selecting our preferred development partner.”

Since Ravensdown pulled out of the joint lignite-to-urea project, Solid Energy says it has been working to sign up a new partner but extensive enquiries have yielded no indication that anyone is interested. Using lignite to do what can be done more cheaply from gas doesn’t sound like a winner even in Solid Energy’s terms. However, we are not taking anything for granted, and we’ll be taking a keen interest in where, if anywhere, Solid Energy goes with this.

Note: It’s still possible to make Official Information Act requests to Solid Energy, and here’s a site that makes it really easy to do so. If you have ever wanted to find out anything from or about Solid Energy, now is a good time to ask.

9. Denniston Update

Lynley Hargreaves reports:

The Denniston Court hearing began on Monday 29 October in Christchurch. Bathurst, the district and regional councils, West Coast Environment Network, Forest and Bird, and a brave individual called Terry Sumner will start presenting their arguments at 10am at the Environment Court on 99 Cambridge Terrace. This is open to the public.

Four weeks of hearing have been planned: 29 October-1 November and 5-9 November (Christchurch), 26-30 November (Greymouth) and 3-7 December (Christchurch again). Going along is a great way to get a working knowledge of the RMA and court system and you can contact wcent@riseup.net if you want more details about when particular issues will be heard.

The case is going ahead without climate change evidence, while that battle continues on a parallel course through the courts, but pest control, landscape, invertebrates, social impacts, and biodiversity offsets will all be argued.

Also, you can read this excellent letter by West Coaster Jane Orchard about the real reason for Bathurst’s troubles.

10. Top of the South Speaking Tour On Lignite

Rosemary Penwarden reports from Dunedin:

In 2011 I wrote ‘Just Lignite’, a small booklet about Solid Energy’s Southland lignite proposals published by the Anglican Church Social Justice Commission. 15,000 have been distributed around the country. Dr Anthony Dancer, Social Justice Commissioner, and I were invited to speak on the issue in mid-October in Nelson, Motueka and Takaka. We both really enjoyed speaking with a range of people and exploring this beautiful part of the country.

The issues we face are so big. The association with the Anglican Church brought in some who may have not considered the issues before and was really valuable. Face to face discussions are a big part of what’s needed for change to happen.

Thanks so much to Top of the South group ‘Renewables’ for your hospitality and the fantastic work done in organising the tour, the amazing media afterwards and the other work being done in your region. It was great to put faces to names from the lignite discussion group and make new friends in our work towards a coal free Aotearoa.

Media reports:

Southland Times:  Anti lignite campaign on road 
Motueka online: Lignite mining an ‘international crime’
Scoop: Archdeacon speaks out against coal 

11. Regional reports: Auckland, Wellington, Top of the South, Canterbury and  Southland

Note: A quick way to find contacts of all the regional anti-coal action groups is on the website.

Auckland: Auckland Coal Action

Jill Whitmore reports:

We identified in mid-August that the NZ Symphony Orchestra was advertising an upcoming concert tour of major centres as “The Solid Energy Tour”, sponsored by Solid Energy, and decided  to picket the Auckland performance and put our anti-coal message out to the public. We were concerned not to alienate concert-goers, and also to make it clear that we support the NZSO though we abhor their SE sponsorship. We explained this in a letter to the NZSO management before the event.

Most of us attended the picket, including a “Climate change elephant”, and gave out leaflets to people as they arrived. (Banner: “Love NZSO, but coal cooks the climate”.) We felt the actions (2 so far) were successful, good-natured, and well-targeted, and worth repeating at further concerts sponsored by SE.

Fonterra intends to open a new (small) coal mine near Mangatangi, about an hour’s drive south of Auckland. The coal, which will be very cheap for them, is intended to power their dairy factories in the region. Four of our members attended a meeting which Fonterra hosted for local residents, mainly to gather information. We are seeking initially how we might persuade Fonterra to use wood waste instead of coal for drying their milk powder.

In a similar vein, ACA has decided as part of its coal-free Auckland campaign to try to persuade schools still using old coal-fired boilers, to switch to wood pellets/chips or electric.

Next Meeting, all welcome:  Saturday 3^rd November, 11am start, shared lunch 12.30-1pm, meeting ends 4pm.  Quaker Meeting House, 113 Mt Eden Rd.

Auckland Coal Action was formed in July 2011 following the visit of Dr James Hansen. We recognise that coal is the dirtiest of the fossil fuels and that its ongoing use will lead to catastrophic climate change. We aim to achieve a coal-free Aotearoa by 2030, initially by opposing the expansion of coal mining. We do this work to play our part in sustaining a benign climate for us, our children and grandchildren.

Our website is at http://aucklandcoalaction.org/ and you can contact us ataucklandcoalaction@gmail.com

Wellington: “Keep the Coal in the Hole” Gatherings

Tim Jones reports:

Our most recent “Keep the Coal in the Hole” two-monthly gathering in Wellington was on 18 October. Dr Anne MacLennan of Ora Taiao gave us an excellent presentation on coal’s many risks to human health, covering both its local effects and the bigger global health risks of climate change brought on, in large part, by burning coal. We hope to be able to make this presentation available in electronic form soon.

We are currently considering whether to keep these separate two-monthly gatherings going, or bring them under the tent of the wider Ka Nui! network on resource extraction issues that is emerging in Wellington. The current gatherings strike a good balance between education and activism; on the other hand, it makes sense to bring together people working on closely related issues. We expect to make a decision on this after talking more with our friends in the Ka Nui! network.

Next Wellington Ka Nui network gathering: Monday 12 November, 7pm, 19 Tory St. Contactmichelle@ducat.co.nz to confirm venue or for more information.

Top of the South: Clean Energy Future Action Group

The Clean Energy Future Action Group, based in Nelson, has set up a Kickstarter-style fundraising campaign for its latest campaign against coal mining. You can check out the campaign, and help it meet its fundraising goal here.

Canterbury: Canterbury Coal Action

Check out this press release from Canterbury Coal Action, “Court Process Deeply Flawed”:

Some key quotes:

“In New Zealand we currently have a remarkable situation in that our premier piece of environmental legislation, the Resource Management Act, can only consider the effects OFclimate change, but not the effects ON climate change.  So the court is not able to learn how every tonne of coal that might be extracted from Denniston will add to an already pressing problem of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

As such the court process this week is deeply flawed – it is only hearing part of the evidence.

What happened to “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” ?

Would a murder trial proceed without the key witness?

Would a fraud trial proceed without the accountants?”

It’s well worth reading the whole release. You can contact Canterbury Coal Action atcanterburycoalaction@gmail.com

Southland: Coal Action Murihiku (CAM)

In addition to work on Summerfest 2013, plenty of other things have been going on in Southland, as Jenny Campbell reports:

Coming up 18-21 January Summer Fest at beautiful native bush reserve Dolamore Park near Gore.

Guest speaker Rob McCreath from Queensland who has successfully fronted the ‘Friends of Felton’ will tell us a success story of how they saved their valley from mining and the establishment of a chemical plant there. Rob is keen to connect with local farmers who are being challenged by the possibility of fracking/coal seam gas exploration in Northern Southland. More speakers are being organised to fit in with our theme and as soon as these are confirmed we will enlighten you.

You can find out more about the Felton story here.

Help wanted: we are looking for a person with a passion for organising food for the Summer Fest camp – cooking on gas burners, in a tent…for 120 people – just a wee holiday chore maybe ?

CANA and CAM members are busy organising the programme so hope you are looking at making bookings to come south, make a holiday of it and explore our fabulous scenery and hospitality….

Further information and registrations. 

Briquette plant opening at Mataura: still no date set yet but latest talk from Solid Energy is end of the year. An action is still planned once we get the word.

CAM members went on Solid Energy’s October Newvale mine bus tour. Only one ran as the numbers weren’t as high as expected. CAM member John Purey- Cust reported that on the surface it was hard to see if they were keeping to their conditions – but of course they aren’t taking lignite to the briquetting plant in any quantity yet, so that will change the scale of their operation. We still need to be vigilant.

CAM information stalls were held at Invercargill’s Eco Spring festival 6 Oct and at Gore’s rhododendron festival on Sun 14 Oct. About 400 sign ups were recorded for the Asset Sales petition thanks to keen Green and Labour party members. A few CANA sign ups too.

An excellent front page item appeared in the Gore Ensign with two of our members featuring with local controversial artist Wayne’ Hill’s sculpture about possible fracking and coal seam gas exploration featuring in a paddock at the entrance to Riversdale, close to Gore.
Rangimarie,
Jenny Campbell
Co- convenor, CAM

12. Social Media Rivalry: Facebook Leads Narrowly

In the last month, CANA’s Twitter account has almost closed the gap on our Facebook group. At the time of writing, our Facebook group at
has stalled at 687 members, while our Twitter account has 670 followers.

So, if you’re a Facebook fan, what do you do? You join the group yourself and invite your friends to join!

If you’re in the Twitter camp, then please follow @coalaction, RT our tweets, and encourage your Twitter followers to follow us too.

The race to 1000 is on!

14. Donate to CANA! 

We rely on your generous donations to keep the campaign going. Here are the account details if you want to donate:

Coal Action Network
Kiwibank
38 9011 0484435 00

The post Coal Action Network Aotearoa Newsletter October 2012 appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

Aotearoa has been up in arms over asset sales, the privatisation of our state owned assets. In reasserting their claims to fresh water and geothermal resources, Maori have thrown a massive spanner into the plans. Meanwhile, the latest government changes to the emissions trading scheme seems to have woken a whole lot of people up to the fact that the scheme has been destined to fail from the start. An intense debate over the ownership and guardianship of natural systems is just beginning in Aotearoa.

Despite its inability to address climate change carbon trading has inspired a whole new range of copycat ‘ecological services markets’ as they are called. Next on the agenda for Aotearoa is most likely to be soil based emissions trading and horribly enough, the development of biodiversity offsetting and trading. I won’t get into the details here, but take a minute to imagine what could happen if species become “valued”, commodified and traded on a global market. The supporters of such made in the U.S.A. free market environmental approaches live in a bubble of relative wealth and comfort compared to the 1.6 billion people of the world without access to electricity and the 1.5 billion small scale farmers who feed 70% of the world’s people.

Following the deregulation of financial markets, many people living in OECD countries have fallen from a temporary middle class lifestyle, once propped up by an illusory bubble of wealth, others pushed out of consumption all together. Many commentators have warned that the financialisation of nature, turning it into tradable credits and speculating in regional or global markets would likely lead to the same sort of corrupt financial scamming that led to the financial crisis. An ecological version of such a financial bubble we cannot afford for as a protest banner outside of the European Carbon Exchange once said, “nature does not do bailouts”.

Nonetheless, New Zealand and other OECD countries responsible for producing almost all [approximately 80%] of the greenhouse gases causing climate change push ahead with the financialisation of nature and public private conservation partnerships.

DOC, strapped for cash from budget cuts because the Nats wanted to keep that money for their mates, is now turning to banks for funding. Last year, DOC took NZ$100,000 from mining company Oceana Gold in exchange for their silence on an application to expand the East Otago gold mine. Most kiwi conservation projects are now funded by the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ), Mitre 10 is saving the takehe and one of New Zealand’s worst climate polluters, Genesis Energy is saving the whio. The conservation of Aotearoa’s utterly priceless biodiversity being privatised.

We are receiving a pretty simple message: the wealthy can manage the global environmental crisis without compromising profits, the power structures or the economic system that got us here. Entrepreneurs, financial traders and heavyweight polluters are teaming up and getting on board the “we care about the climate, too” bandwagon telling us that privatisation can save the planet. How convenient.

On one hand it seems, we’re demanding that state owned assets stay in people’s hands, yet on the other, we’re privatising Aotearoa’s natural assets and handing their defence over to private interests. Public private partnerships are hailed by polluters and OECD governments as the future of conservation. Campaigners connected to environmental justice movements in developing countries see it as a con. Others embrace it.
With their techno-optimism, seeing everything through a lens of neoliberal theory, perhaps because they know no different, they seem to believe in a level global eco-social playing field. The young blue greenies, neither left nor right, or so they think, see business and science providing all the answers. Meaningful public participation need not be involved and societal values need not come into the equation. The intrinsic value of nature is thrown aside as the market decides what the most profitable green investments are, and somehow, as if by magic they will be the greenest ones.

For a massive proportion of the worlds people, so much more in number than those living in OECD countries their environmental front-line as it were, lies at maintaining ecosystems that will enable them to feed, clothe and shelter their communities. Step back for a moment, take a look at the enormity of the ecological crisis, the disparities between those benefiting and suffering from land grabbing, resource theft and resource exploitation and you may recognise that a massive and very convenient contradiction is at work here.

How many of our young green environmentalists, so many emerging from the business departments of our universities, recognise, let alone call out this contradiction? Many are quite openly supportive of business led, privatised environmental management it seems. A sort of blind faith in science and the development of new untested and unregulated green technologies is evident as is a great deal of faith in market based environmental policy. But the reality remains, there are no detours around the kind of politics from below that are needed. Historically, this is what works.

Meanwhile, back in the majority world, rights based methods of protecting natural systems have been with us for a very long time. Rather than putting a price on everything that moves, people have often used a thing called democracy to ensure that processes that keep life ticking along locally, regionally and globally are defended outright.

Democratic approaches to environmental defence can be seen in Taranaki community groups calling out their regional council for its allegedly corrupt relationship with fracking oil companies, in East Cape iwi blocking seismic testing by the oil giant Petrobras. A democratic approach we saw within the GE Free movement, likely to re-emerge in response to some of these so-called green technological solutions like nanotechnology and synthetic biology backed by the blue green sorts. Such an approach was seen in the massive mobilisation of people on the streets of Auckland in January 2010 saying NO to mining on conservation lands.

In terms of food production democracy is being practiced not by Fonterra but by the 200 million small scale farmers of a global network called La Via Campesina who are already cooling down the earth, feeding the world and defending their sustainable livelihoods against a greenwashed industrial agriculture. Closer to home it can be seen in efforts to preserve traditional, truly sustainable agricultural techniques practiced by Maori and promoted by organisations like Te Waka Kai Ora.

Democratic approaches can be seen in a rising number of anti-pollution demonstrations in China, including demonstrations against the toxic effects of the manufacture of green technologies destined for the West. It can also be seen in local struggles to stop a renewable energy project in the Kaipara harbour. A few weeks ago, it was seen when a bioethanol plant was shut down in the Philippines by a network of militant farmers who had their land stolen to produce biofuel they could never afford themselves.

It has been ignored for decades of United Nations environmental summits as our leaders paid more attention to corporate lobby groups rather than their own people, yet it was heard from the 50,000 or so people of the world’s environmental and social justice networks who converged on the Rio+20 Earth summit this year. There they said NO to a wealth driven globalised “green” economy and YES to real, just, and truly ecological solutions from below. If you look around you, you can see democracy at work in the community level campaigns across Aotearoa successfully keeping fossil fuels under the ground and poison out of local water, soil and atmosphere. This is now widespread in practically every country on the planet. This is what democracy looks like, and it works.

On one hand we have a rights based approach, powerfully enforced by those with the most to lose from environmental exploitation. On the other a privatisation based approach of commodification and privatisation. It’s nothing new, just another way of getting access to other people’s resources and transferring wealth in the wrong direction.

When we discuss environmental solutions, it’s important to remind ourselves that real ecological solutions leave people with the power to control their own destiny, to defend and generate their own green solutions and livelihoods. Those on the front lines of environmental injustice are already doing a better job of defending and cooling down the planet than a minority of shareholders utterly disconnected from the effects of environmental exploitation.

A powerful movement is emerging to confront ecological destruction in Aotearoa, staunchly standing up to polluters in their own back yards. We are selling ourselves and Papatuanuku short by buying into the privatisation of environmental management and the selling off of Papatuanuku’s so called natural assets.

Gary Cranston
Climate Justice Aotearoa
For a free booklet expanding on some of the issues covered in this article contact: climatejusticeaotearoa@riseup.net

The post Papatuanuku Is Not For Sale appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

The petition to force a Citizens’ Initiated Referendum on asset sales is rapidly gathering signatures: you can download the paper petition (that’s the one that matters!) and get involved at keepourassets.org.nz

And there is another day of protests against asset sales coming up this Saturday. The Government may have persuaded Peter Dunne to vote in favour of asset sales, but it certainly hasn’t persuaded the country. Check out the action nearest to you this Saturday, and get involved.

 
Facebook page for the day: http://www.facebook.com/events/381201455270099/

The post Saturday 14 July: Aotearoa Is Not For Sale Action Day Nationwide appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.

From a Coal Action Network Aotearoa perspective, we are most concerned about the planned privatisation of Solid Energy, which may allow them to raise investment capital for their planned massive lignite projects in Southland. Solid Energy is towards the back of the queue for privatisation. That means that, even if some asset sales have occurred by the time the referendum takes place, we should do everything we can to mobilise political opposition to the remaining sales.

The wording of the referendum question will be:

Do you support the Government selling up to 49 per cent of Meridian Energy, Mighty River Power, Genesis Power, Solid Energy and Air New Zealand?

For the referendum to go ahead, the promoters of the referendum need to obtain over 300,000 valid signatures on the petition – that is, the signatures of people who are on the electoral roll, with their name and address details listed as they are on the electoral roll.

That makes collecting signatures a job that has to be done carefully and well. And that’s why we’d like Coal Action Network Aotearoa supporters to help with the signature-gathering process.

You can do so by going to the Keep Our Assets website at http://keepourassets.org.nz/. This is where you can download the petition form, and find out how to get more involved in the campaign at

http://keepourassets.org.nz/help-build-the-campaign/

If you have already signed the AVAAZ petition against the bill that is currently going through Parliament, you should still sign the Citizens’ Initiated Referendum petition as well. Passing the bill does not sell the assets – it just makes it legally possible. It will still take months after that before they can float companies on the sharemarket.

Solid Energy does enough damage as it is. Let’s make it as difficult as possible for the Government to make matters even worse. Recent events show that this Government will buckle when sufficient political pressure is exerted on them.

The post Getting the Numbers: How You Can Help The Asset Sales Referendum Campaign appeared first on Coal Action Network Aotearoa.