Bonus Joules: Heated Ups and Downs

Bonus Joules and the KnowledgeEconomy Heated Ups and Downs Bonusjoules is hit by a storm in a tea cup. Bonusjoules Blog - 10 November2005 Chapter 3 No 12 Connecting to our ThermalBeings. Blog by Dave McArthur - published 13 Feb2006

I did find it a strange experience becominga cartoon; even if it is a cartoon I drew myself some yearsago. However there I was, living, being the cartoon. It felta bit spooky and rather hilarious. The occasion: The NZAssociation for Environmental Education nationalconference in Auckland in New Zealand. Here is thecartoon:

The conferenceorganiser s call is loud and clear, "Bonus Joules! BonusJoules! Anyone for Bonus Joules and the Knowledge Economy."The venue for my seminar has suddenly been altered and now Istand watching as 280 delegates representing the mostpowerful in New Zealand s Environmental Education industryfile past. There are top policy makers in the Ministry ofEducation teachers and lecturers from preschool groupsthrough primary through secondary throughuniversity educators from Government agencies, city andregional councils, NGOs, "sustainable business" companies,conservation trusts and then there are a half a dozen bodslike me who come from nowhere. The conference list recordsus as a blank.

Filing past are the representatives of afast growing multi-million dollar industry who have anenormous impact on how we perceive the world and act. Indeedby the time various industrial and merchant banking sectorsleverage off the activities of these people they can be saidto be part of a multi-billion dollar industry in NewZealand. And still they file past. Finally one person stepsaside and joins me. Bonus Joules may have an audience.

Mycompanion is tall, sort of languid fellow from the WWF andhis face moves with a wry humour. Together we walk with theorganiser to the new venue. " This guy is right out of leftfield," he tells me with great enthusiasm, " right out ofleft field and I have just gotta see this guy." I mention Iam the guy concerned and ask how he got to see about BonusJoules. " read his stuff on the web and thought wow this isso out of left field. Just where is it coming from?"

Ittakes a few moments for him to connect that I am the authorof the website and he seems a little nonplussed, as isusual. I have a nondescript, inarticulate presence and donot exude charisma and mana. I am finding my stereotype isdeepening as I fade white and bald. That s OK as I am moreinterested in ensuring good ideas happen than in pushingideas for their own sake. Let them do the work when peopleare ready for them.

At the venue the organiser realises myPower Point is not loaded and disappears to find someone. Now I am a very poor public speaker and, after manypractices, I have carefully pared my script down to 37minutes so I am safely within the strictly regimented40-minute time limit. I built the Power Point thataccompanies the presentation on the computer of kindneighbours. As a result I have had little chance to reviewmy creation but have practiced tapping out the time for eachslide, as my good neighbour mate taught me. The organiserarrives with tech help and three other people, one of whopromptly realises she is at the wrong session and departs.

I have no idea what to do with the remaining time. Idecide to scrap the script for the extended introduction andjust rip through the slides until I get to the maindiscussion. I never did get to open my folder of notes and Ifail to get through the slides in the remaining time. At onepoint I notice one of my audience has slipped away and seemy time has expired -- or has it? I have a vague recall thatthe conference is running 20 minutes behind. Rather thanstrain the loyalty of my two audience members we wrap up asother people have arrived to prepare theirpresentation.

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Itso happens my next session is in the same room - thecomputer room - and I have time to reflect. It sure seemslike I have hit a dead end here. Unlike almost all the otherdelegates I pay my own fees and costs. These are over $680 -- well over two weeks of my income (I take home about $290 aweek as a school janitor). Many of the delegates are paid toattend. I am using one week of my annual holiday entitlementof three weeks. A large number of New Zealanders peoplecould not afford to attend if they wanted to. How on Earthare these educators going to draw on the strengths of ourcommunities if they restrict conferences to the money makingfactories we call universities?

The trip up here had beentough on me. I no longer travel by air for a range ofreasons. The industry is the fastest growing source ofcarbon emissions. The vast energy inefficiency of flying isa needless destruction of our dwindling oil reserves. Thelittle research that has been done suggests the impact ofjets on the stratosphere may be excessive. I read somewherethat after airlines were grounded in the aftermath of 9/11,a survey indicated temperatures averaged 1°F cooler at keypoints across the US continent than they would now normallybe. And as health systems break down as oil/Gas become moreexpensive, airlines will put us all at much greater riskfrom pandemics. I figure that perhaps it is better topromote a more fun, energy efficient global economy bypromoting alternative means of travel.

As I sat at homesearching the web for maps of Auckland I was constantlyconfronted by pop ups telling me I could get flights fromWellington to Auckland for $NZ69. Outside my window, planesland and take-off at the Wellington airport and I know theywill be in Auckland within an hour. My bus fare is $70 and Iam splashing out for a return trip on the train (minimumfare $119 but it was to eventually cost $145). I did ask forthe "backpacker s carriage" as these traditionally are halfprice. I am informed they have been taken off and are beingrefurbished for the Wairarapa line. When I ask why TollHoldings does not just import another couple of oldcarriages I am told if it is money that is required Tolldoes not have it. Sorry.

The bus trip up is 11 hours longand by four hours of road travel my damaged neck is lockingup. With that comes ringing in my ears, painful spasms ofthe neck muscles, intolerance of light and growing nausea. Iam unable to relieve the nausea by spewing as I normally canand the last three or four hours are spent in a twilightexistence. Great ripples graunch through my stomach. I workto suppress their full expression by bringing up mybreakfast and lunch. At times I get chest pains and wonderif my heart can take the strain.

It does and a taxi whisksme to the Baptist Youth Hostel near the conference centre inEpsom. The wonderful kind people there welcome me and I fallinto a blessed 11-hour sleep in a beautifully made bed in asparkling clean room. (Now I am a school janitor I noticethese things more.)

I awake refreshed next morning thoughmy body is fragile in the aftermath. I wend my way down toNewmarket. There I am invited to have a free stress test ata stall promoting Dianetics. It s a simple Galvanic skinresponse test that detects variations in our conductivity. Iam asked if anything stresses me and mention my recent bustrip. The needle shoots to the top of the dial. I alsomention that I am not enjoying the prospect of delivering myseminar. The needle shoots right off the dial and the gadgetrequires several adjustments before it can register me onthe dial. The man asks what lies behind this reaction.

Iexplain that I come with a message of hope to the NZAEEconference but most people will not hear it. For years theseeducators have cultivated flawed symbol uses and images ofthe nature of energy and of how our climate works. I tellhim how passionate and caring for the environment thesepeople are and how devastated they can become when theyrealise whose interests they really serve. Part of mymessage is that their symbol use is riddled with Greenwashand Spin generated by the bankers of the Bulk-electricityand fossil fuel sectors. I tell him I bring simple proposalsto ameliorate the unsustainable situation humanity hasgotten itself into and I understand the barriers in thesegood folk that prevent them seeing and believing the hope inthe proposals.

Often the needle swings to high stresslevels as I talk of their pain and drops to new lows as Italk of the hope I know. We talk a while of how sustainablechange can occur and how we can tap the immense power andwisdom that resides within each of us.

That image of theoscillating needle stays with me as I walk away and suddenlyI am released by the conversation. It occurs to me with someforce that "These people are my friends". What does itmatter how people react at the conference. They are myfriends, no matter their moments of hostility and anger.From that moment I am at much greater ease with thechallenges I face.

I take a ferry to Devonport and climbMt Victoria. I breast the brow of the hill and amoverwhelmed by the beauty of this volcanic land-sea scape. It is sobenign and bounteous and yet is so transparently sculpturedby some of the most violent and transforming forces on ourplanet. I am aware of the glorious bounty ofenergy.

Sunday afternoon the conference opens with a longpowhiri or Maori welcome ceremony at the University marae. Atui talks away in the trees that shade us, a cascade of belltones. The air is balmy on the skin and it does not matterthat I do not understand the long welcome speeches in Maori.I know maybe only two hundred words of the language and forall I know the speakers may be taking the micky out of us byreading out their shopping list. Fair enough if they are.One of the inaugural speakers later that day did talk of theunsustainable nature of biculturalism and the Cook Islanddelegates I shared the hostel dining room with commented tome that back home they considered it a matter of greatcourtesy to interpret all speeches into the tongues of thevisitors.

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Dick Hubbard, Mayor ofAuckland, opens the conference. His is a thoughtful speech.He is prominent in the movement promoting triple bottom lineaccounting (environment, social and economic) and speaks ofthe tensions in our current culture. He is a breakfast cereal manufacturer and speaksof exporting rolled oats (20,000 kilometers/12,000 miles)right around the planet to Scotland, home of the rolled oatstechnology. He knows it is bad for the environment and suchtrade practices are unsustainable yet the Government patshim on the back for improving our trade balance with hisexports. He offers it as a graphic example of how in ourcurrent culture a benefit to one bottom line comes at a costto another bottom line.

I am reminded of when I opened oneof his cereal packets one breakfast a couple of years ago.It contained his usual folksy newsletter. In it he wrote ofhaving his firm audited for carbon emissions. He had neverthought of things like the impact of all his air travelaround the globe. I contemplated the packet and realisedthat his firm could reduce its impact by doubling the volumeof the packet. The surface area would stay the same so itwould still fit the same shop shelves. So I wrote to himsuggesting that by doubling the depth of the packet he couldreduce all the carbon emissions from logging, cardboardmanufacture, aluminium smelting, transport, waste disposalby 17% and increase carbon sinks by the same percentage. Adouble positive whammy.

I received a most kind letter backexplaining that the UK is their major market and Britishconsumers do not like large packets. Also New Zealandershave a "$5" mind-barrier in supermarket purchases. So Iwrote back saying I am sure people will respond to educationand I would provide Hubbards with graphics illustrating theawesome nature of the atmosphere and the balance of thetrace gases that enable our civilisation. What better timeto mull over the wondrous miracle of our existence than atbreakfast time. The extra packaging would provide thegraphic space and people could feel good knowing they canmake a difference by bulk purchases.

I never did get areply. About that time I reverted to the wisdom of myparents who, now in their 80s, still sustain themselvesdaily with a simple bowl of porridge for breakfast. By doingso I estimate I have reduced my carbon emissions fromcardboard/plastic packaging by over 90% and from aluminiumsmelting by 100%. Sorry, Dick. And I find a simple bowl ofpog is actually more delicious too.

Monday morning and JoeHarawira gives a keynote speech -- or rather creates areligious experience. It is an emotional evocation thatreveals how Maori legend links them to the past and to thefuture and to the land. I recognise it as a powerful meansto remind our people, especially our young, of the awe andhumility that resides in us. Unlike the next keynotespeaker, Joe goes to the heart rather as well as theintellect. To that extent he extends beyond the academictreatise and works the primal lands of our minds sodominated by the PR industry. However neither speakerconfronts the spectre of the PR s sector s power anddomination of our lives.

So here I am sitting here lateMonday afternoon, wondering if there are better things to dowith my time than attend this conference. Already I haveheard the despair as delegates joke how their friends jokehow they will go down with their champagne glass claspedhigh as humanity drowns when our supporting ecosystemscollapse around us. For a brief moment I wonder if I shouldjoin them. Yeah, what the hell. There s a lot of good wineout there and this conference cost me half a new roof on mycottage.

At times like that I pray to the greater wisdomfor guidance and ask the universe what would it have me do.Then I notice a curious thing. An instant sign or responseto my prayer?

The computer screen contains one link, justone link. It is to Jason Clark s speech at the inauguralnational conference in Hamilton in 2002. Jason came from"the dark side" as he put it -- the world of PR with itsexcesses of lies, fear mongering, "damage managing" andgreed breeding. He explained that while our formal educationsystem tends to focus on the intellect only, educationforces in the PR industry bypass this region of our beingscompletely and focus on our emotional-primal responses. As aresult they are the dominant force in our lives.

At thetime I observed mixtures of disbelief and even anger at himwritten on the faces of the delegates around me. Manyclearly felt insulted. For my part I was elated, for herewas someone who understood how the Environmental Educationindustry really works. I was relieved to learn I was notalone with my views and Jason s speech gave me addedstrength to carry on these last four years. Search the netas I might I had not been able to establish contact with himto get the text of his speech and thank him.

Coincidence?Serendipity? A sign? It seems a bit much that the one linkon the computer should be to Jason s speech. The poor guyrunning this seminar on bloglines is a bit stuck. Hispassword that worked so well when he tested it at lunchtimeno longer works and the University support staff have gonehome. I only had three people to be concerned for. He hastwo-dozen people staring at locked screens.

While we waitfor help we chat and I ask him why he chose Jason Clarke ofall people. He tells me that he considers that speech theonly standout speech of any NZAEE conference so far. It hadabsolutely transformed him though he knew of no one else whohad liked it. This was a phenomenon I had observed. Manyeducators said they understood what Jason was saying buttheir actions since clearly revealed they did not trulybelieve it. They have continued pouring Greenwash and PRSpin into our schools and households on ever increasingscale, despite all the evidence indicating it is counter totheir objectives. In particular I am thinking of the ClimateChange Office resources and Enviroschools. Many delegatestalk of the latter in hallowed tones.

That night I pullinto an Internet café and check my email. It is burstingalive with commentary on Lovelock s new book and with linksto scientists commentary on it. The conference feels acuriously virtual reality by comparison.

Another smallsign occurs next morning that perhaps I should carry on withthis work. I have bought a supply of shirts for one week andon Tuesday I throw on a tee shirt gifted me by theWellington Marine Education Centre. A delegate stops me. Hesays he now works for a Government agency and has inheritedthe task of communicating atmospheric and ocean issues. Iexplain I am really here pushing an energy efficiencyconcept of bonusjoules. He almost falls over with disbelief.He has cartoons from my website "plastered all over hisoffice" and has even used them in a presentation.

Yes,who knows where a seed lands and what it grows into. I thinkof our prominent climatologists like Jim Salinger and KevinTrembath. They fly all over the world communicating climateissues to all who will listen and yet never question thescience underpinning their communication. I have long beenat loss at how to communicate to them. Maybe there is a wayyet? I will keep on with this stuff despite all.

The nextkeynote speaker is Sir Jonathon Porrit CBE. Jonathon ischairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commissionand Programme Director of the Forum of the Future. Seemslike he has pretty direct contacts with Prime MinisterBlair.

Well its also seems like Jonathon is struggling toretain hope. On his plane flight to New Zealand he had readJames Lovelock new book. James generated the great modernsymbol of Earth as a living entity he called Gaia. Just about all sustainedcivilisations have used similar symbols to express theliving entity that is our planet and to remind humans thatthey ignore its balances at their peril. James, using 86years of insight and experience of this global civilisation,now feels we have triggered unsustaining changes to ouratmospheric balances. This means over the vast bulk ofhumanity may well soon perish.

This is a probability Ihave long confronted along with the risks of destroyingglobal oil-Gas reserves this generation. It is easy to losehope, as most have. Jonathon struggles openly and honestlywith his ability to retain hope before the whole conference.People listen intently. He then proceeds to discuss how hehad spent time at a session listening to how Enviroschoolsis being implemented throughout NZ schools and the greatthings it is doing. He stops at this point, bows and shakeshis head before speaking with passion. What he could nothelp noticing, and maybe I paraphrase him, is that amidstall the quantities of data and presentations of Enviroschools there was not one singlemention of carbon, not one single mention and yet our use ofcarbon is the great issue, the overwhelming issue, the mostenormous issue facing us all at this time.

There is aprofound silence in the hall of 300 people. One solitaryperson at the back of the hall begins clapping. The clappingechoes on itself in the silence and for some reason I amreminded of the ancient meditative exercises where oneimagines one hand clapping and where one asks if a treemakes a sound falling if there is no one in the forest tohear it. Surely soon others will join the lone clapper butno one does. Surely others see the fatal flaws in thesymbols employed by Environmental Industry in New Zealandand beyond? Not one person joins the lone clapper. I ceasequickly as it more fully dawns on me that I am that loneclapper and probably will remain so.

Jonathon then goeson to tell us how he did recently have a wonderfulexperience up in Scotland. There he discovered children werecalculating their schools impact on carbon balances. Whenyou entered the school entrance the results were there forall to see. He tells this as a story of hope. Clearly whatnone of his hosts have told him is that 10 to 12 year oldswere doing this in hundreds of schools in New Zealand in the1990s through their community-owned Bulk-electricitydistributors.

Then I note the ParliamentaryCommissioner for the Environment sponsors his visit.Suddenly Jonathon s ignorance makes sense. TheCommissioner s published history of the Bulk-electricitysystem in New Zealand reveals no knowledge of life beforethe Electricity Reforms of the 1980s. Seemingly what was theworld s most advanced electricity system came from nowhereas the Commission ignores the extraordinary role smallcommunities played in creating this remarkable system over aperiod of 90 years. It was they that were teaching about thepotential impact of carbon emissions and how we can reduceour use of fossil carbon.

Similarly the Commissioner spublications on Environmental Education such as See Changemake no mention of the Energy Action programme, despite orbecause its external reviewers were the top EnvironmentalEducators in our universities -- Canterbury, Massey,Victoria, Macquarie Life does not exist before 2000 forthese guys or the Commissioner. That happens to be whenfunding ceased for the carbon education programme ascommunity ownership of local grids was destroyed by theElectricity Reforms legislation and the new Parliamentaryculture/ertia.

Afterwards I slip up to Jonathon and informhim that the absence of carbon is no mistake. Enviroschoolsis easily a case of Greenwash and isdesigned to enhance our Government s Clean Green Imageprogramme and to obscure New Zealand s Unclean UngreenPractices. No programme that effectively communicated aboutour carbon use and its possible impact on the environmentcan get funding from Governments here now. I sense hebelieves me; his eyes go a bit bleak. I hasten to inform himthat ideas are happening in NZ that he will not find outabout on this visit and he should know they could give himcause for hope. I wonder to myself whether maybe he will oneday check out the ideas I presented to the conference andfind hope there?

At lunch time secondary school studentsshow us their award winning work for the environment. Onegroup has worked to restore a local stream destroyed bylocal industry practices. They worked to involve thecommunity, promote better agricultural practices and ingeneral succeeded in their attempts. They made a humorousvideo explaining how they achieved their aims that won themsecond place in an international competition. The spirit oftheir video entrances the audience while my own faith in thepower of our youth to sustain us is reaffirmed yetagain.

My mind goes back to 2001. Energy Action has foldedfor lack of funds. There is no coherent climate educationprogramme anymore. I am realising that to the extent theGovernment is serious about reducing the negative impact ofour carbon use on the atmosphere and our children, it isdoomed to failure by its use of symbols.

I write a longand detailed proposal to the Climate Change Officesuggesting they create a video competition between schoolsat Level 4 (11-12 year olds). Students would create a video3-4 minutes long portraying the nature of trace gases andthe fact that trace gases, including water vapour, togetherconstituting only parts per thousand of the atmosphere keepEarth s surface 33°C warmer than it would be in theirabsence.

I knew our students would come up with brilliantways of portraying the huge numbers, tiny fractions andleverage involved, whether it was filming a thousand beansor human beings and dicing the thousandth one into pieces orwhatever.

The six best videos would be compiled on a discas a peer-peer education resource and I suggested that onereward would be to get the State owned TV1 to broadcast avideo a night just before the 7pm weather forecast in forthe week of the 2002 Rio+10 Conference on SustainableDevelopment in Johannesburg. I fail to receive even a letterof acknowledgement from the Climate Change Office to myseveral page detailed proposal. This is despite sending itto a couple of people there.

Since then we have seen NewZealand s carbon emissions rocketing, inordinate investmentin carbon emitting technology, the scrapping of the proposedCarbon Tax, Carbon Trading has become a fiscal laughingstock/liability and the scrapping of the proposed Methanetax. Overseas readers should know we are unique in NewZealand in that our methane emissions from industrialprocess are even greater than our carbon dioxide emissionsand, of course, methane is over twenty times as potent as aWarmer Trace Gas. Our schools have produced a remarkablyignorant group of farmers and journalists. These peoplebelieve methane is largely generated from the farting oflivestock such as cows. Hence they dismissed the Methane taxusing the derisory symbol "Fart Tax". They do not understandeven the basics. Ruminating animals produce four times thequantity of methane from belching as they do fromfarting.

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Tuesday afternoon and ourbus inches and idles its way down the crowded car park whichis the expressway to EarthSong, a "sustainable housingdevelopment". A minor tropical storm is affecting Auckland.Trees are falling over and vehicles crashing into eachother. Coming from the boisterous climate of the Cook Straitwhere this is considered only a breeze I am bemused.Conference members doing field trips to the local islandsare being sick in their boats.

I chose to go to EarthSongas I lived for a decade of the 1970-80s in a communitydevelopment in Christchurch till I could take the city ssmog no longer. Creekside then had seven houses spreadover two acres. Half of the 27 people were children and manyof us adults had determined we would have only two, one orno children. Commodities such as vehicles, laundries,freezer storage, lounges, televisions etc were pooled toreduce our environmental footprint.

EarthSong with aplanned 33 households is even more sophisticated. They donot have innovations that we had such as an intercom so onehousehold could baby-sit four other households in theevenings. However they collect rainwater off their roofs forall but cooking purposes. Their ground catchment systemeasily contains the heavy rain falling on their land today.Each house is built to the sun and has solar heating.(Goddam ugly things -- the sooner the guys who made SUVs sosexy start designing solar technology the better. And who isthinking ahead so the systems can be adapted to smartWhispergen, wood pellet type technology that they stick thetanks on the roof? I doubt EECAis.)

A most advanced feature is that the communitybulk-purchases its Bulk-electricity. You buy into a low ampsociety and soon learn to not put on all your heavyconsumption appliances at once. My last bill for 555 unitsover 35 days was $131. Their reward is a $30 bill per month,$40 at most. Their system has vast positive implications forour hills, valleys, rivers, lakes and our lives ingeneral.

I groan as I think of the environmental andsocial devastation that the flog-off of Vector Ltd to a couple of overseasbankers is going to cause.

Wednesday morning and I amreally lit up. Dr Jenny Su is an absolute gem. In four and ahalf years as Executive Secretary for the Division ofEnvironmental Protection at the Ministry of Education inTaiwan she has transformed school campuses and theircommunities throughout the island. Hearing her is tounderstand how she does it. She does not own ideas orexpertise and works to draw out the wisdom of institutionsand their communities.

Schools, and I includeuniversities, come to her with a proposal and she asks "What is the benefits for your community and show me how theysupport you." If they cannot show the connections they aresent away. Her Minister is so impressed with the gains insustainable practices he has offered her a billion dollarpackage to work with. She has refused to take it up, as shebelieves that sustainable change best comes from communitiesand it is more vital that the Government really supportsthis ideal.

The cracking of the jaws dropping onto desksin disbelief was hilarious. Conference delegates are stunnedthat anyone might turn down a billion dollars inEnvironmental Education. Coming from the community-ownedBulk electricity days I understand the wisdom of what shedoes. I think of our current anti-community, fragmented andsecretive Bulk-electricity structure and our hostileParliament. I think of our fragmented competitive schoolsystem with institutions scrambling over top of each otheras they strive for student numbers and funds. I think of howour formal Environmental Industry is riddled withintellectual dishonesty and PR spin as each sector in itscrabbles and fights to keep its pet project alive.

Jennywas confronted with this too and yet now has universityprofessors and graduate students enthused to share theirknowledge with their colleagues and communities. Principalsno longer dread the topic and instead delight in talking totheir communities of their work in making their campusesmore sustainable. Some schools are even off theBulk-electricity grid and place zero demand on localstormwater and waste infrastructures. Her big focus is onidentifying and publicly acknowledging good criticalthinking, no matter how small the campus.

I ask does shework with private companies and if so how does she preventthem using the programmes for Spin and Greenwash purposes?She replies that at first the CEOs would ring her up and shewould just put the phone down on them. They got the message.This said, she does involve some private companies but sheidentifies the good ones. It is she who approaches them andit is all on her terms. An example is the world s largestphotovoltaic panel manufacturer. She describes the guysrunning it as just a bunch of engineers out to create a mostsustainable product who happen to have made a lot of moneydoing it. They were happy to be involved and there was neverany thought that their company s name would be in anywaylinked.

For me, Jenny is an example of the power of theindividual, of the community, of our schools, of a smallisland people to show the world a sustainablefuture.

Afterwards I notice a small phenomenon. A fewpeople begin coming up to me saying that I must feel myideas are at last being supported. I am kind of surprised asI had little inkling that they knew the ideas I promote. Iguess some NZAEE exec bods might have read my submission tothe conference. Though NZers visit my website I rarelyobserve them there. The bulk of my readers are overseaswhere I have noted people spending up to 9 hours over twodays on it.

(I mentioned this to a mate and when he hearsone extended visitor is Virginia-based he laughed and saysthat is where the headquarters of the CIA is based. Yeah,well. I am well aware of the mass misery that the Agencycauses. Then again their intelligence must surely berevealing that our present systems and activities areleading to an inevitable mass collapse of civilisation.Maybe someone there loves their child and wishes more for itand finds hope visiting my website?)

At the end of theconference a teacher asks if she can see the Energy Actionprogramme. She wants to teach about "energy" and carbon. Ihave bought a dozen teaching posters with me and I pass themby her back at the hostel. A couple of other delegateshappen in on our discussion, including the president of theNZAEE. I think they are amazed at the scale of the thinkingin the resource and I have to tell them much of it isalready superseded. It certainly is in my mind.

Before Ileave Auckland I visit the SkyTower like a good little tourist.Noble attempts are being made to wean Auckland city from itssevere oil addicted ways. One of my first acts on arrivinghad been to pay homage to the new Britomart rail centre. I admire themillions of dollars of sculpturing though the dead pungatrees had a sad effect. Perhaps they died in sympathy withthe dead train sitting at the platform. Periodically theline of people sitting glumly on their handbags and satchelswere informed that mechanical breakdown would mean atwenty-minute delay. I do not know how many twenty minutesthat was on top of. No train came or went while I wasthere.

I ask to change my train ticket back to Wellington."This must seem stupid but you cannot buy railway tickets atthe railway station -- you will have to go elsewhere." Iwalk around the block to a place that does sell them. "Thismust seem so stupid that you cannot buy such railway ticketsat the railway station", offers the woman behind thecounter, perhaps anticipating the zillointh such comment. Iagree and we discuss the stupidity and inefficiency of theNew Economic Order.

I have to pay an extra $26, whichtakes the price to $145.This is over twice what an airfareis. I think unkind thoughts about our parliamentarians whopromote this nonsense with their billion dollars subsidiesto airlines while dumping on rail.

Later at the railstation I am told I could have avoided this extra charge byjust coming down and buying my ticket at the time ofdeparture. I note 50% of the seats are empty all the way toWellington. What a rort. And the contracting caterers failedto turn up with food for the canteen. As a result there wasnot much else available than the traditional pies so scornedby our version of the Neocoms, those people who destroyedour rail potential in New Zealand too.

I had noted thereis rail station near my hostel and ask if I can be pickedthere. There are no city buses to Britomart by the departureclock-in time (7.10 am), I will avoid a taxi fare and I willbe able to sleep in an extra hour or more.

I am told"Sorry, if we did that the train would never get toWellington." I point out that I date from the steam age andit was perfectly possible then. I do not add that the worldlacked MBAs and smart technology then. "The problem is we donot own the tracks and can do nothing about the fact thelines were all welded up by the previous owners TranzRail so our trains cannot go very fast in case the lines havebuckled in the heat."

Its becoming clear to me that thedefinition and purpose of the Economics Reforms is tomaximise energy inefficiency and to allow everyone to passthe buck so oil is used up as fast as possible. Our nationhas been reduced to a state of structured helplessness. Justlike America. An American at the hostel told me how helplessso many of his compatriots feel and that all hisacquaintances who were all for invading Iraq in 2003 now say"Oh I was always against going in." What will they say whentheir dependence on the oil and drug trades collapses theireconomy?

I sit high up in Skytower with a glass of winewatching the sun set over this amazing isthmus. Buildingscrowd its surface to the horizons. There are somebeautifully designed buildings but many recent ones are veryugly and seem to be built by sun-haters. The city lightsgradually replace the day and the roads are revealed asfour-lane wide gashes of red and white that slash throughthe urban scape. Now I can understand why I was the onlyperson on my bus at 8am peak time coming into the citycentre this morning.

People here think cheap oil and abenign atmosphere are forever.

I think of the greatgleaming Humvee I saw inching down Queen Street.I easily walk faster than it. Indeed I have time to stop,window shop, dream and calculate how many horsepower ittakes to move the near stationary ego of its sole occupant amile. With 25000 man-hours of labour/energy in a 42 gallonbarrel of oil, add the military, the extraction, processing(23 gallons are lost) and transport man-hours involved andhe uses a gallon this half hour and only 1% of that gallonactually moves him (the rest disappears in heat andfriction)..hmm..my head hurts.. this individual could beusing a resource of 3000 man-hours of labour to move himselfdown this street. For all that he does not look all thathappy in his tank. How helpless can you get?

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Yes, as I gaze down onAuckland I know this city is in for such a shock when itsaccess to cheap oil suddenly ceases, if the weather getsturbulent. It has not one single electric means oftransport. The pavements are still full of broken branchesfrom the wee breeze earlier in the week. I drink to the factI do not live here, even as I know such attitudes are arecipe for misery.

The train trip back to Wellington is afabulous experience. The length of the North Island issoaking in summer. Much of the first hour is spenttravelling through a frenzy of graphiti, sometimes threestories high. If only we can more tap into the amazingenergy of our young people and create a sustainable futurefor all. Then we are into the lush industrial pasturelandsof the Waikato.

Periodically, just as I am sinking intoa reverie, a commentary on the towns, viaducts and historywe are passing through blasts out of the speakers positionedabove every passenger s head. Nice idea. Terribletechnology. Imagine the hapless passenger who uses the trainmore than once. The powers-that-be really hate trains inthis country and it is often said that Toll Holdings onlywants to move freight.

Sometime after Hamilton I becomeaware of a new force moving us. A quiet force with terrifictow. My heart leaps with joy as on steep curve I see what itis. We are now electric. Unannounced we have changedlocomotives in Hamilton. For some reason I feel quiteemotional and the landscape comes even more alive. I reallyfeel at one with my land now. In my mind I see the windturbines quietly turning and the rains falling onto thehills behind the hydrodams. I feel the atmospheric forcesbeing transformed into horsepower -- 4000 hp I later learn.The engine pulling us has almost twice the power of ourlargest diesel locomotive. My ears are popping at the rateit moves us up into the King Country.

My feelings can bestbe described as a sensation of moving from a crude barbaricera into an enlightened age. I am leaving oil in the groundthat will provide food for my great, great grandchildren andI am not murdering the hapless humans who live in oil-richregions. I am moving through our world leaving only a smallfootprint. The sense of sanity is palpable. I stand out onthe viewing platform and experiences something else new. Ican smell the summer, the crackling broom pods, the dryinghay, the crops of brassicas crushed underfoot by browsingstock and all those smells that were always swamped by thefuggy diesel fumes before.

This is living. I reflect onthe quiet desperation written on so many the faces of theoccupants of cars we zip past. I reflect on the quietanguish expressed to me by conference delegates as theyasked how we can alert people to the need for change and yetstill maintain hope. Daily in their work they are at theinterface with classes of students, workers in industries,streams of tourists, panels of politicians and it is so hardto maintain hope in the face of overwhelming challengescreated by our use of energy. Someone suggests to me I mightbe able to help create an "energy" education programme foran SOE. Someone else suggests an organization might use mefor a "climate" education programme they are planning.Always people come back to the problem of "keeping peoplehopeful as we get them to face the facts".

Hope issomething I am fortunate to know of, especially in thismoment as I flow through this land, borne along on its windsand rains. It is pointless teaching energy efficiencywithout talking of the power of compassion and how any actlinks us to our environment. It is pointless teaching how weface calamity by destroying our habitat without providing inpeople with simple strategies for ameliorating the impact oftheir activities. I know we can teach the wonders ourclimate so that it inspires sustainable change and energyefficient practice. The programmes cannot work apart. Oneprovides activities with no meaning and the other providesinsights with no hope. I know the power of our children andtheir ability to transform their communities for better.Grant Dunford with his Energy Action programme was a genius.I know we can create an even more inspirational educationprogramme so each may more know their Thermal Beings andtheir Trace Beings.

Palmerston North and back to theBarbaric Ages. The fumes and the crude sounds of thediesel-burning locomotive assail my nostrils. I buy a smallbottle of wine and together with a couple of otherpassengers in the viewing platform we salute Kapiti Islandand the motorists who wave back to us. We have a ball. Imake a toast to life with every sip. Just as Jenny Su istransforming Taiwan I know New Zealand can reinvigorate itsParliament, slough off its fossil fuel addiction and provideguidance to the world with inspiring education programmesand sustainable ways.

We pass a substation. Painted overso it is barely legible is the crafted engraving that readsHorowhenua Electric Power Board. It reminds me of theNational Radio News in the week describing how powercompanies were out fixing broken power poles and downedpower lines and getting the power back on in the Aucklandstorm. I lost count of the number of times Maggie Barry, thenewsreader, abused this wonderful symbol and made it PRgobbledygook. I drink to our much wiser and more scientificgrandfathers and their communities who built and named thissubstation with such care. We can all learn from them. Idrink to the future past and arrive in Wellington feelingrosy and elated from my rail journey.

Footnotes:

Since my last blog our New ZealandParliament has scrapped plans to establish a carbon tax andhas turned its back on the spirit of Kyoto. This will be nosurprise to people who have followed my blogs. Enough said.

Will try to put my presentation to the NZAEEconference up on this website when I get time.

Thursday, 26 January 2006, 9:46 am Press Release: NZAssociation of Environmental Education UK Knight Says Govt Must Support SustainableDev.

The Bonus Joules cartoon, drawn acouple of years ago, is pointing up the fact that our NewZealand schools are turning out generations of plumbers,builders and electricians who are ignorant of the most fundamental principles of thermodynamics. These people makethe major decisions involving billions of dollars ofinvestment that will impact for a century or more.

ENDS
THIS ISSUE Lead NZ News NZ Politics World News FeaturesComment & Opinion No Right Turn on UN Guantanamo Report - Guantanamo must be closed, and its prisoners either released or given a fair trial in the United States under US law. That is the recommendation of an investigation conducted by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Why? Apart from general principles of justice and a respect for human rights, the UN has three reasons. See... No Right Turn: Guantanamo Delenda Est

Kirk MacGibbon: A New York Perspective on Labour's Spending - News that the Labour Party is being investigated for allegedly breaching campaign spending limits by a whopping $400,000 seems almost quaint from a New York perspective. What struck me was just how cheap it is to win office in New Zealand. The Labour party spent $2.8 million to win control of the Treasury for another three years. Helen Clark said the laws were in need of 'clarification. See... Kirk MacGibbon: The Price Of Office

Jason Miller on the Brits' Good News Agency - A succession of scandals in the US has revealed widespread government funding of PR agencies to produce 'fake news'. Actors take the place of journalists and the 'news' is broadcast as if it were genuine. The same practice has been adopted in Iraq, where newspapers have been paid to insert copy. These stories have raised the usual eyebrows in the UK about the pitiful quality of US democracy. Things are better here, we imply. See... Miller: The British Government's Global Fake News Network

Pierre Tristam Defending the Enlightenment - In the eternal battle between reason and regression there's never been a rallying cry as powerful as Voltaire's double-barreled phrase: Ecrasez l'infame. It has been translated variously as "crush the infamous," "crush the horror" or my preference "smash the rogues." Voltaire's targets, his recent biographer Ian Davidson writes, "included superstition, theological repression, Jesuits, monks, fanatical regicides, and the Inquisition in every shape and form; in short, all facets of the dark and regressive alliance between the Catholic Church and the French State." ... It's a lesson the Islamic world has not yet learned. It's a lesson the western world risks forgetting. See... When Liberty's The Ward Of A Higher Power's Rogues

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