Archive for the 'General' Category

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RE: Earth Day – My Call

On the 11th of August 2008 I received a reply to my Earth Day Call. Below I have typed out the letter and you can also see the attached pdf document if you would like.

Dear James Turner

Thank you for your email to my office, dated 22 April 2008, regarding energy efficiency and renewable energy. I admire your resolve to make New Zealand a more sustainable place.

The government is committed to ensuring the country has a reliable supply of low-emission energy. In fact, the recently released New Zealand Energy Strategy sets the target for New Zealand to use 90 percent renewable electricity by 2025. The New Zealand Energy Strategy can be downloaded from www.med.govt.nz.

As you also mention in your letter, solar water heating has the potential to significantly contribute to household energy savings. The government currently offers grants of up to $1000 to install solar water heating and other energy efficient water heating systems in both new and existing homes. To find our more about the governments solar water heating grants please visit www.energywise.govt.nz/solar.

Additionally, the government is committed to improving the energy efficiency of New Zealand homes, enabling the introduction of alternative vehicle technologies such as electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids and continuing the uptake of renewable sources of energy generation, including wind, hydro, bio energy and geothermal. To find out more about these initiatives and about the range of grants and other forms of support that the government offers please visit www.eeca.govt.nz.

I am proud of the steps that New Zealand has taken so far and of our well deserved reputation as a world leader when it comes to addressing both sustainability and climate change.

Yours sincerely

Hon David Parker
Minister of Energy

PDF Version

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Earth Day – My Call

Today is Earth Day (EDN) and I love our home planet earth and know we have the ability to be more respectful to our home. We just need to work together more. Earth Day is about taking action to make a difference.

Here is my email to the New Zealand Government.

Dear Government,

Thank you for your time on the phone this morning and passing on my ideas.

The reason I picked up the phone and made the call was today is Earth Day http://ww2.earthday.net/ and they suggested I call my local government and make a difference.

There are many things we can do as a nation and I feel New Zealand is in a unique position in the world to be a leader in the area of energy and other environmental projects.

An ambitious but highly achievable goal for New Zealand is to become 100% renewable in its energy. We are so close, up to 70% already is. Lots of countries want to achieve 30% renewable energy in comparison.

This doesn’t just have to come from installing more forms of power generation. New Zealanders need to become more energy aware and responsible. We also need more help from the government.

Solar water heaters. New Zealand could save a huge amount of energy by taking more advantage of this. The government should look at helping to make them more “affordable” in some manner.

You say the power companies and others are going to cry about lost business, well maybe they need to rethink their business models in this changing “environment”. Maybe they need to start providing more or different services. If they want to play ignorant like the music industry then they will be left behind while the people move. Or they can be proactive and start providing new technologies like solar water heaters, be the leaders, innovate and stay ahead in these times of required change.

The people are moving, we are thinking, talking and acting. Take Kev the electric car guy, www.kiwiev.com as an example. He is making a difference, and more people are doing the same everyday. The people are leading and sharing the information required to make the difference on their own.

Listen up government, New Zealanders need your support to change the way we think and act about energy as many big business don’t want to know about it.

There is no shortage of New Zealanders who are more than capable of making this happen. Nurture them!

Everyday there are new advancements in the technology required to make a huge difference. I watch it and read about it on the internet everyday. Mainstream media no longer provides information that I am interested in. I have discovered a whole new world of proactive new thinkers who are making a difference.

This is an opportunity for the New Zealand government to expand and be seen, not only for its anti nuclear stance but its goal to become the leader in renewable and efficient use of energy!

I have tried to keep this short while still pushing some simple yet I hope powerful ideas. I have also forwarded this email to Earth Day Network and Meridian Energy as I feel that they are listening and will also appreciate the ideas in this email.

Thank you for your time.
I hope it has provided more food for thought.

James Turner
New Zealander

My 10 cents!
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Welcome to the country

Hillbilly Hicks
We wanted to welcome Kees to the country in true style. To celebrate his house warming we made sure we had our best clothes on ;-)

Also a couple of photos of the new Teece member, Isac at 9lb 13oz.

A few more photos from Feb here. Next round will be from while Felix was here in NZ.
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A couple of photos for Feb

Another project

Hehe, photos, yeah, I have been pretty slack in this department again. But I have made a start of February ;-)

This scooter is a wee project I have found. I will put it back to its former glory one day! And the rock! isn’t that cool!

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Words from Joel

Was thinking of Joel this morning and his massive road trip on the other side of the world. I checked his domain IThoughtYouHadTheMap.com for updates and had a pleasant surprise to see a blog post.

Their plans have been delayed by at least 2 weeks due to a shipping hiccup but at least they seem to be alive and well ready to take on the adventures by foot until the vehicle arrives.

Good Luck Guys!
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My latest T-Shirt

I just updated My T-shirt History with my latest T.
printed_suit_t.jpg
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Free Rice

I was reading my brothers blog and thought that this was a very cool idea.
FreeRice.com feeds the hungry while you feed your brain.
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Funny the things you notice

So we were on our way back from a swim up the river and R pointed out that Kees looked a lot like the X-men character Wolverine.

I turned and to my amazement sure enough I saw a blonde Wolverine staring back at me. Being a photo-holic I had to take a picture so I could do some more serious research.

wolverine-has-a-son.jpg

With those blonde sideburns of manliness there was a strong resemblance to his perhaps true father.

wolverinekees.jpg

Personally the similarities are to strong to ignore.

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2008 Photos

Swimming Gear

Photos from 1 Jan 2008. Fun in the sun and plenty of water. I have plenty more to go through for Jan. Lots of Good Times ;-)

Today is also the day of surgery for me. Last week I managed to break my elbow or my left radial head for those more anatomically informed. We managed to capture the breaking event on video so we will put one up after we have edited it. At least it wasn’t all in vain ;-)

See you on the flip side!
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Merry Christmas for the other day

I hope everyone had a great Christmas day. Have a happy and safe New Year too.

The boys and I are still up to silly things to do with gravity. Mountain boards down the full length asphalt Queen Street in Richmond. Find a few new photos in December. More to come, the month is not over yet ;-)

Santa came early for me too with a brand new Cody’s longboard which I won in an in-store raffle.
Codys Longboard prize

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