Tauranga a reminder of Environmental Sensitivity

11 October, Tauranga, New Zealand.

One medium size contain ship + one small reef = "The Worst Environmental Disaster in New Zealand's History".

For a quick look at the amount of oil that has esaped, check out this nice graphical comparison from Greenpeace:

Rena-oil-spill/Oil-spill-volumes

It is obviously not so much the amount of oil that has excaped, about where it went.... some our most sceenic and treasured costal areas in Bay of Plenty and Corramandel. The estimated 2 million litres of oil has travelled far in rough conditions and a month the clean up is far from over. Much critisism has been handed to Maritime New Zealand at their slow speed to respond, missing clear weather and then being prevented from action by heavy seas. The victim of this slow response is the bird, costal and marine life, with thousands of aminals dead.

This is a clear call that we need environmental protection and capacity to deal the effects from environmental disasters like this. Resillience comes from planning, management and action. The only thing preventing this disaster from being a 500 year scar on our beautiful costal land now is the actions of DOC, Maritime New Zealand and the hundred of volunteers. 

Collection points of imbalance

On the balance of things you could be forgiven for thinking that the state of Planet Earth is pretty good. We appear to be happily supporting some 6,973,506,710 people every day, although this number is increasing by the second... check out worldMeters! Already it has climbed over 300 people while typing this line. 

Planet Earth appears resilient, infinite and stable. We take, we mine, we pollute and still the planet just bounces back. Burn a patch of land and something grows in its place. It is like a natural equilibrium. Except that it is not a equilibrium like we may think. If we burn a piece of land and don't grow anything back, instead over-fertilize it or level it with a carpark, that little bit of natural balance is lost. It does not take a hard look to spot some of the obvious collection points of imbalance.  Here are some of the bigger examples I am aware of that appear to have no immediate solution:

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch! A collection of plastic particles collecting in the ocean, currently over twice as large as Texas and growing...

Water quality and availability is continuing to deteriorate at an alarming rate, with an estimated 2.8 billion people facing freshwater “stress” or “scarcity”.

...and the elephant in the room: increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases causing unpredictable and potentially catastrophic climate change. 

Even in "absolutely pure" New Zealand we are not immune, with some of the most polluted waters in the western world and one of the highest rates of carbon emissions per capita. Climate change is well on the way, with our warmest May on record and making one of the warmest winters on record. I am sure people at our Queenstown winter festival will be looking for answers, there is not ANY snow. As a result, many farmers around the country are seeing fruit trees flowering out of season for the first time.

As the imbalances caused by human activity build up, the pressure on resources increases causing further, deeper and longer lasting impacts. Efforts by individuals and business to restore the balance to the wider environment appear to be our only real hope to change the tide, to release the pressure on Planet Earth and restore some form of natural balance.

We might never be able to fix all the collection points, but we can stop them from causing too much stress on our future generations. Here at EnviroManage we commit to assist Environmentally and Socially aware businesses with the tools and services to help ease the pressure and bring some needed balance back into business.  

Join me as we work together to make a difference. To help our future generations enjoy a life like we have enjoyed. To ensure that plants, animals, people AND business can co-exist in a natural world. 

Welcome to EnviroManage and thank you for reading my first blog. 

Hugh