Climate Change or Just the Weather?
New Zealand has suffered some extreme weather recently. It was a disappointing Summer (but not the worst we've had). I have to remind myself, we live in a sub-tropical climate here in The Mighty Waikato and rain - torrential rain - is to be expected. It's what keeps our landscapes so green.
The reality of our recent catastrophic storm - nearly 22cms of rain in one night - inevitably exposes the longstanding abuse of our soils through poisons and commercial forestry. We are also suffering the result of weaknesses in our aging, neglected infrastructure and the incompetence of our bankrupt, bureaucratic councils. Let me have a rant and give some example of this here.
Our local area is in a "State of Emergency" - that means Council has access to Central Government funding. Great. A council that is already >NZ$400million in debt, overstaffed, overcommitted and hasn't allowed any contingency for (un)expected events, doesn't have a secure future IMHO. And printing money to enable more Public Private Philanthropic Partnerships to profit from ratepayers, is not the future either.
Of course one of the narratives alongside this 'state of emergency' here, is the promotion of the Antenno App, which harvests our data for the technocratic machinery. I wrote about that corrupt App in terms of our pathetic recycling services here:
Ursula Edgington
Thank God we didn't receive one of those fear-mongering 'alarm' calls on our phones. And meanwhile the machinery of the 'climate action' continues, through fake academics that are actors and PR social media posts that are commercially-driven and simply unethical. I've written about that whole nonsense here:
Ursula Edgington
The reality is, this season's rain is nowhere near as bad as the past floods. Yet year after year our fields are full of a single intensive crop of maize that is grown for feeding stock in soil that is constantly treated with chemicals. Common sense tells us that abused soil with glyphosate etc over decades like that, cannot sustain life, and therefore will not hold water. Nearby flood plains are exploited and built on. Like many smaller NZ settlements, we don't even have a mains drainage system here, despite the numbers of properties doubling over the last ten years.
Our mountain was recently subjected to an eighth aerial poison operation - the first was many years ago. 'Two weeks to flatten the curve" the corrupt chemical companies insisted in 1956. Soils that are routinely poisoned cannot provide the nutrients life needs to thrive. Earth suffers when living matter cannot hold it together.
When economic times are tight, entities that are overstretched like our Councils seek to cash-in investments. Ironically, alongside its 'property portfolio', our council also has 'investments' in forestry land and it's possible the premature harvesting of that timber (export market, China) has contributed to the flooding and damage from resulting slash (forestry debris). My heart goes out to the residents nearby who were evacuated from their homes and/or now face an enormous clean-up job.
Our drinking water reservoir was built in the 1960's when there was a fraction of the current population to serve. Back then, the Fonterra dairy factory also wasn't drawing thousands of gallons a day to process its milk into powder to send to China! I've observed over the years - the Council's future budget plans repeatedly raised the need for renewal of our water infrastructure, but requests were dismissed in favour of the numerous vanity projects - impractical, expensive cyclepaths, skateparks and children's playgrounds, warehouse buildings (that remain empty unless they're used as covid pop-up 'vaccination' centres), seasonally-replaced flowers in the roundabouts....I could go on. Every few months pipes burst in the village and are (eventually) fixed, only to burst again elsewhere. It's a false economy. And now the reservoir itself - always precariously located, looks like this:
Meanwhile, Fonterra, a mega-corporate I have written about here: NZ Corporate Giants Fonterra, Mainfreight, Warehouse Group and Fisher & Paykel were in cahoots with Ardern Government about 'No Jab, No Job' policies, continue to use the drinking water that is now in short supply for commercial profit. (Shouldn't Council insist they have their own supply?)
What future do our Council's have in NZ? It seems they are totally out of touch with the residents, and rising rates are just not sustainable, given the basics like proving drinking water and general waste collections are collapsing like our hillsides. With tens of thousands of residents in debt with their rates already - where does the council think their income will come from?
Now is the time (if you haven't already) to make some provision for independent water collection. It doesn't have to be a major project. The more we can be self-sufficient and network with our neighbours who can share provisions, the more secure all our futures will be. One thing is for sure, after seeing our Council 'in action' this week - we cannot rely on them!
Do you have an experience with your council to share? Let me know in the comments below.