This week on Green Desk Mitchell speaks to Auckland Council’s water manager Andrew Chin about the Auckland’s Lake Pupuke. There are concerns regarding a potential toxic algal bloom in Lake Pupuke which could have serious implications for the health of the lake, its users and its biodiversity.
The Auckland Council have recently applied for a resource consent to place flocculants in Lake Pupuke in case a toxic algal bloom does occur. Mitchell begins by asking Mr Chin about toxic algal blooms, what they are and how they form.
This week on Green Desk, Mitch speaks Cawthron Institue’s Dr Susie Wood who is leading
the Lakes380 Project. Currently Lakes380 is the largest undertaking of data collection on
Lakes done in New Zealand possibly the world, making use of the best technology in the
world. Mitchell and Susie discuss the scale of the project and the processes involved with
such a large undertaking. To begin, Mitch asks Susie to explain what Lakes380 is.
Protesters have begun occupying Lake Rotokākahi, a tapu lake in Rotorua, over a decision by the Rotorua lakes council to construct a sewerage pipeline, with the last 1.3km of the pipeline being laid near the lake. The protestors, largely descended from Tūhourangi and Tūmatawera hapū, believe the works will desecrate the lake site and pollute it and seven arrests have been made so far.
The week before, Stats NZ published their annual child poverty statistics report, which showed that the number of children living in material hardships increased by 0.9% from last year and that the government missed all three of its targets for reducing child poverty.
And in that same week, Green Party Co-Leader Marama Davidson’s Consumer Guarantees Right to Repair Amendment Bill passed its first reading in Parliament, which would require manufacturers to provide repair parts and resources to allow consumers to extend the life cycle of the products they use.
Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March for the green party’s take on all of these issues.
Takunda and Aniket join Rachel and Sam in the studio to chat about being part of the series Rediscovering Aotearoa. Discussing decolonisation, Takunda's spoken word poetry in the Reo episode, and Aniket's medical education in the Hauora episode, as well as how watching this series impacted them. A moving and important watch.
Jenna's just read Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu and highly recommends it. If Charles' work on HBO series, Westworld, isn't enough to entice you to read this book, perhaps winning the Fiction prize in the National Book Awards for 2020 will.
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