I'd wondered if the the recent publicity for this blog through the Southland Times and Southland Express might have had an effect of readership - I imagined it might have a beneficial effect but there was no way of knowing whether it would boost or kill off my readership, so I took a look behind the scenes at the 'stats' facility that Blogger provides for its bloggers and found that it's climbing strongly. That's very pleasing and I know what to do if at some stage it begins to dip - wind up my fellow councillors to such an extent that they throw me into the spotlight again! It won't be difficult - they're getting very tetchy about my expressed interest in Solid Energy's plans for mining Mataura, even though I assure them, quite genuinely, that our role as councillors is to unearth (sorry for the pun) all of the facts from all sides of the argument, before making any decisions. Hasn't placated some of them though and they continue to simmer :-)
4 comments:
Robert what a pity you cant name ( and shame) the lignite devotees then pressure could be put on them to get real. They need a reminder as to what they were elected in the first place for. That is to look after Southlands environment for the benefit of ALL Southlanders
Pauline - I wouldn't do that :-)
They are using the argument that looking at the criticisms of the lignite mining would sully their 'untainted' opinions, that hearing from, say, James Hansen would render them biased. That's nonsense. They/we hear plenty from Fonterra, Federated Farmers and other industry big-boys about dairy farming but they don't consider themselves compromised by that contact. Odd.
I've pushed for Solid Energy to come to council and explain their position and after opposition to that idea, a meeting has been brokered. Next, we'd better hear from the Coal Action Network, in the interests of balance.
Eh.
Yeah play the balance issue remind them of the one sided point of view you are getting from FF etc I am very concerned at the damage to the land re lignite mines ... the question I would ask is where has rebilitation worked well in open cast minds ie return of soil etc ..bit like Henderson where has it been a success
Eric Roy cited one massive lignite mine overseas where the repatriation has resulted in 'beautiful' farmland. I've more concern than him for the structure and quality of the subsurface - when everything gets ground up and mixed, then dumped back into the hole, alarm bells go off in my head. Even turning soil over in a garden has its downside :-)
There are reasons for strata and it's careless to ruin them and simply cover them over with pasture. Waituna tells me that soil is King and to treat it mechanically rather than organically results in disaster down the track.
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