As we head rapidly towards the holiday season and the end of a challenging year for many people, we could just wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and head to the beach. However, since we are facing an economic downturn next year (being engineered by the Reserve Bank in order to cool… Continue reading What Happened to our ‘Climate Emergency’?
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Democracy and Sustainability
Tauranga has moved from a state of democracy + no sustainability, to a state of no democracy + no sustainability. We are looking for something better than either of those options: democracy + sustainability. While many Tauranga residents are looking forward to the opportunity to elect councillors in 2024, the risk is that the return… Continue reading Democracy and Sustainability
Tauranga’s Climate Inaction Plan
We have long since reached the time for action of climate change. Call it a climate crisis, declare a climate emergency if you like, announce a net zero 2050 target, even set a 2035 target for each sector – the government has done all those things, but none of that really matters in the long… Continue reading Tauranga’s Climate Inaction Plan
Time to Talk about Tauranga’s Climate Plan
We don’t want to scare the horses, but did you know we have about 4 years left of our carbon budget if we are to play our part to meet NZ’s goal to limit global warming to less than 1.5 degrees? Let’s approach this through a decision tree: Do you observe the global climate is… Continue reading Time to Talk about Tauranga’s Climate Plan
Losing Our Democracy
“SmartGrowth” is a collaboration between Tauranga City Council, Western BOP District Council, BOP Regional Council, Tangata Whenua and central government that was established in 2004 to “manage” growth in this part of the country. On 17 August 2022, in a SmartGrowth Leadership Group meeting that wasn’t even livestreamed or uploaded onto YouTube, representatives of the… Continue reading Losing Our Democracy
Tauranga’s City Centre
Photo: BOP Times We’re a bit worried about who’s left at Disneyland, because Mickey Mouse and Goofy seem to have moved to Tauranga and taken over urban planning! If this paywalled article in the BOP Times is correct, then “Greerton Village could be Tauranga’s future city centre”. Which will be news to the people of… Continue reading Tauranga’s City Centre
Our ‘3 Waters’ Submission
Please click here to read our submission.
Three Waters Reforms
It’s been a while since our last blog, and there’s no lack of topical sustainability-related issues to write about. Ranging from the impacts of climate change to the effects of fuel price inflation, NZ and the wider world are facing some big challenges. However one sustainability issue that has struck a chord with many New… Continue reading Three Waters Reforms
Tauranga Civic Precinct and Sustainability
We’ll start this post by stating we support an appropriate-sized central library and museum or heritage centre in Tauranga… just so we’re all clear. But as we said in our submission to Tauranga City Council, we do not support their favoured option, and based on what we hear around the city, there’s a lot of… Continue reading Tauranga Civic Precinct and Sustainability
Tauranga By-election and Local Democracy
https://www.sunlive.co.nz/election-debate.html The Sunlive byelection debate last night was an interesting discussion about some important topics, so as an independent, non-aligned organisation, we’d encourage Tauranga residents to watch it before you vote. The most striking difference was Labour’s candidate being (unsurprisingly) strongly in favour of the removal of democratic elections for Tauranga City Council, while the… Continue reading Tauranga By-election and Local Democracy