Think about the Future.
David Calder Hardy
Electricity versus Fossil
Geographically, New Zealand is blessed, and there is no doubt about that. That we have messed our country up in many ways is shamefully apparent and the continued destructive conversion from forest to pasture should be halted and the overall ballance restored to a very large extent. Global warming and additional carbon content in the atmosphere will increase perhaps in spite of all efforts to halt it. The question is, how much carbon pollution is enough before something really dramatic happens on our planet?
Electricity seems to be the one clean green way to go, if we can harness the means of producing a sufficient and constant supply. Could New Zealand lead the world in harnessing the power that the moon provides for us?
I believe we can through the use of the tides and the waves, and that is where New Zealand is blessed perhaps more than most. We have a number of harbours on the west coast that have narrow entrances ideal for tidal generation. With, of course, Cook Strait offering us a potential far far greater than our present needs.
Auckland is growing faster than any other city in the country and it is drawing it's power from several hundred kms., away in the Waikato. I don't think that this is a sustainable situation - the Waikato River has limits and its own region is also growing. It could well be that the river's potential power will all be needed locally in the not very distant future. The public have made it clear that enough is enough and more pylons marching across our landscape is simply not desirable. So, why not utilise the huge potential of the tidal flow through the entrance of the Manukau Harbour. True, there will be a shortfall between tides so either storage systems or some east coast tidal activity can be harnessed to cope with it. In the meantime, existing power supply from the Waikato River could, of course be maintained for shortfall or be dismantled if other systems are adequate. Few cities have such a wonderful as yet untapped power source right on their doorstep. Manukau Harbour is an area of 350 sq kms., The amount of water filling and emptying it each day is vast, so let's use it.
Several systems are working well overseas, such as windfarm type propellors submerged and anchored near the bottom, or floating barge like surface support units with generators housed within them. One very versatile system is to have a submerged string of turbines tethered to the floor of the ocean. Such a system works well in rivers also and of course is out of sight.
The west coast also offers exceptional wave power which can be harnessed in several ways which would not be affected by tide change. Waves channelled into a container to blow and suck air in and out is being used to drive wind turbine generators, and anyone who has witnessed the spectacle of a blowhole will appreciate the power potential that provides.
Cook Strait is ideally suited for submerged string systems of turbines, eventually kilometers long, providing more than enough power for much of New Zealand for many years to come.
The technology is there, the need is there, and as long as some aliens don't
steal the moon from us, come hell or high water, we have enough cheap power
potential to provide us with electrically powered transport for freighting
and commuting. Fossil fuels could be a thing of the past. Imagine, no more
smog, far less noise, clean healthy air, and no longer dependence upon others
for so much fuel. If we have the will to do it, what's stopping us? All that
is left to be coped with is air and ocean transport, and I have ideas about
that as well. Search
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Genesis Continuous
Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand
by R A Falla, - R B Sibson, - and E G Turbott
202
ROBIN Petroica australis
Maori name: Toutouwai.
Description: 7" to 7.5". Dark slaty grey upper surface, together with
long legs and upright stance are characteristic. Differs from Tomtit
in absence of tail pattern, faint wing-bar and much reduced sexual
dimorphism. Male-head, upperparts, sides and throat dark grey,
meeting the pale underparts in a definite line; wings and tail brownish
black; white forehead spot; on inner webs of the mid-wing feathers is
a white spot which is not generally visible, but faint buff spots on the
outer webs of the same feathers form a weak wing-bar; bill black;
feet brown, yellow soles. Female-slightly browner and paler, with
a reduced pale breast and abdomen, and with throat and sides not
sharply marked off from the pale underparts.
Tameness and tendency silently to inspect the intruder are charac-
teristic, and it has a pattern of aggressive behaviour essentially similar
to that described above for the Tomtit; a habit often noted is spreading
of white frontal spot especially to warn off a straying Robin in the
territory, but also in display to a human intruder.
Voice: Call note is a short chirp. The song is varied and sustained,
according to Wilkinson's observations on Kapiti, delivered frequently
for half an hour at a stretch, and broken only by very short pauses.
" Beginning with slow, almost plaintive notes, the song soon gains in
volume, until it is ringing through the bush with almost startling
vehemence. The variety of notes is astonishing. . .. Usually when
singing, the Robin chooses a perch fairly close to the ground . . . never
does it perch on an exposed branch, like the Thrush does, but always
keeps well under cover. When near the end of its song, the pauses
become more frequent and of longer duration, until it ceases altogether.
The bird then hops on to the ground, where it obtains food."
Habitat and range: The present discontinuous distribution of the
Robin is difficult to explain: although " chiefly confined to native
forest in districts at least moderately remote from areas with high
human populations " (Fleming), it readily enters second-growth scrub
(e.g. on Kapiti Island and Stewart Island); is one of the forest species now increasing in\the exotic plantations
of the Volcanic Plateau. It was probably originally universally distributed in forest or scrub. Like the Tomtit is insectivorous, but a much higher proportion of the food is taken on the ground; it does not make darting flights like those of the Tomtit to pick up food, but unlike the Tomtit spends much time bopping over the forest floor. Food includes worms (not regularly taken by the Tomtit) and a variety of invertebrates. The habit of "caching" surplus food has been several times observed. Fleming describes the Robin as "a bird of the lower stratum of the forest." . .Like the Tomtit is sedentary and probably territorial throughout the year.