KEEP THE STREAM CLEAN
How?


Frasers Creek Image

A once barren stream restored in the nineties.

It's really simple and easy!

AT HOME:
Use environmentally safe products and practices
Recycle- to reduce the landfill's size
Compost grass clippings, trimmings and food scraps
Dispose of hazardous substances safely


Key household environmentally safe products and practices

Car maintenance

Many common car features and activities contribute to stream pollution-via:
Oil drips
Rubber from tyre friction
Brake fluid drips
Oil changes
Car washing and grooming soaps and detergents

Water runoff from roads, driveways and carparks carries grease, oil, metals, rubber and organic chemicals into gutters and stormwater drains. There they harm aquatic life.
Oil and grease clog fish gills and block oxygen from entering the water.

CAR FLUIDS:
• use a drip pan or tray to avoid spills
• drain fluids from any stored vehicle
• use a funnel when pouring liquids
• prepare and use non-toxic and easy to find spill containment and clean-up gear, like sawdust, paper, sacks

CAR WASHING:
• Use biodegradable (phosphate-free) detergents
• Use a bucket of water as a water source rather than a hose
• Wash on a lawn or grassed area
• Use baking soda paste on battery heads and clamps, tyres and wheels
• Use white vinegar or lemon juice in washing water for windows

House painting

Removing paint- all lead paint and marine-paint chips and dust are hazardous and especially needs to be captured, but other non-biodegradable paints also must be caught or swept up to prevent entry to waterways.
• Place rags, old carpets or similar material down to catch paint and dispose of this at the landfill.
• Block access of paint chips and flakes to drains whilst blasting/scraping paint off.

Storage-
• keep all paints, solvents and wastes in a covered safe place, away from gutters and drains
• thoroughly dry all used brushes and dispose of used rags or drop cloths and empty paint cans
•
Safe Materials-
• select water based paints especially recycled water-based paints or even better, use certified bio-paints
• re-use thinner and drain off the residues into a cloth or paper to dispose of it


Gardening and landscaping

Weed control-
• use hand tools and mulching to control weeds
• pick up weeds, leaves, twigs, clippings etc and compost or take to greenwaste recycling depot

Pest control-
• use organic or non-toxic pesticides such as pyrethrins, soap, pepper spray or garlic spray for plant pests like aphids
• use beer dishes, salt trails and ground-up shell trails as barriers for slugs and snails
• control ground and leaf pests also through companion planting and planting specifically to attract pest predators such as insectivorous birds

Material management-
• store all chemicals in a covered secure place, away from gutters, drains etc
• cover bare soil with tarpaulins or droprags or similar to prevent erosion
• store bags of cement and plaster away from the weather
Window Cleaning

Vinegar for Cleaning

Preparation-
• brush down window frames with a cloth or hard brush
• remove dust and other loose material from windows also

Window cleaners-
• make up dilute solution of white vinegar and water in a spray bottle and spray onto surfaces
• buff window panes with crumpled newsprint or sturdy paper until clean


AT WORK

Service stations

• Sweep clean the mechanical service areas and fuel dispensing areas- don't hose them down
• Use rags and absorbents like sawdust, paper etc to soak up spills and leaks
• Use baking soda paste for cleaning battery heads, clamps etc and white vinegar to clean engine surfaces
• Use drip trays to collect use oil and other fuels during servicing and repairs
• Recycle used oil, antifreeze, scrap metals etc
• Maintain a spill response plan and a waste management plan with employees trained to fulfil these
• Keep pollutants such as oil and grease out of stormwater drains

Metal industries

Storage
• Store all materials under cover; using containment methods if outside, such as
sealed containers
• Keep raw materials off the ground and finished products on impervious surfaces
• Store hazardous wastes in sealed drums on pallets in a contained area
• Clean empty drums and contaminated wooden pallets before storing

Operations
• Enclose and cover delivery areas, with berms, dikes and kerbs to contain fluids
• Sweep clean all areas rather than hosing down; collect and dispose of pollutants appropriately
• Use straw, sawdust, absorbent clay or similar materials to soak up spills and then dispose of to landfill or other appropriate place
• Recycle oil, antifreeze, wastewater, scrap metals, filings etc
• Use drip pans and funnels to reduce spills; use non-toxic cleaners such as white vinegar and baking powder paste to remove grease etc
• Use paints made from non-toxic materials such as bio-certified paints or at least water-based paints
• Conduct painting and sanding indoors to contain dust, fumes etc
• Inspect: containers such as drums; storage areas, piping, valves and pumping equipment regularly- and repair promptly
• Dispose appropriately of chemicals and hazardous wastes
• Post notices for all practices in operational areas and train all employees to meet standards of management


Timber Industries

• Contain all chemicals in sealed containers and contain all areas of chemical application and spraying; cover these areas or perform indoors and store sprayed materials under cover
• Line wood storage areas with impervious materials so as to capture any seepage; elevate treated woodin storage and contain the area with berms, dykes and sumps
• Use drip trays under conveyance equipment

Textile Industries

• Reuse bleaches and other wash wastes
• Segregate non-mixed water to return to use
• Use low or non-toxicity dyes
• Dispose of all hazardous wastes appropriately
• Label all materials clearly
• Inspect all storage facilities regularly and repair or replace promptly
• Use permanent sealed containers for chemicals

Food Outlets and Production Places
• Contain all chemicals safely
• Avoid cleaners which are chlorine-based or contain phenols, fomaldehydes , phosphates, dyes and perfumes. Look for 'non-toxic' and 'ammonia free' labels
• Use water-based products with recycled and recyclable containers
• Use durable products such as ceramic dishware, cloth towels and paper napkins- this will reduce landfill volumes
• Clean floormats, filters and rubbish bins in a sink or tub or into a floordrain which connects to a sump or the sewage system
• To control fats, oil or grease using a grease interceptor in plumbing facilties and recycle fats where possible
• store materials inside a building or covered area from which runoff does not enter stormwater drains; store foodstuffs inside rodent-proof and water-tight containers

Construction and Other Industries

• Store glass, clay, cement, concrete and gypsum in an enclosed building
• Use dust collection systems eg. baghouses for processing
• Use sweeping and shovelling for cleaning of dust, particles , dry spills etc
• Install buffer zones of native plantings and pollution filtration facilities eg raingardens, vegetated swales and retention ponds, to keep pollutants out of streams and to filter debris and sediment to reduce stream pollution and sedimentation of the estuary
• Inspect and maintain all equipment regularly; conduct maintenance and refueling away from stormwater drains
• Limit tracking of soil from excavation sites and soil compaction with gravelled approaches
• Clean up spills on soil/grass by digging up and disposing of contaminated materials
• Cover soil heaps to prevent soil runoff

Council Practices To Reduce Urban Stream Pollution

Management of Council activites
• Street sweeping and collection of leaves and other yard waste, rather than hosing down
• Reduce fertlilizer use and herbicide use in parks through use of leguminous cover plants, mulching, weed eating etc
• Use natural areas and systems (mown swales, raingardens, retention ponds and bioretention areas) to slow water flow and increase infiltration and water purity
• Regularly conduct environmental audits
• Convert buses and cars to low or no-emission models

Implement Council policies to advance water quality

• Entrain development of Stormwater Plans to address water quality management needs and future objectives, involving all stakeholders and creating catchment plans for all urban catchment basins, which create a 'whole solution'- by
A) Enhancing urban aesthetics and amenity facilites through improving and adding parks and ponds,
B) Enhancing residential and commercial facilities through enhancing flooding control and beautification through natural flooding and stormwater control facitlites,
C) Enhancement of fisheries , through use of natural structures and native plantings and reduced pollution
D) Biodiversity enhancement through all of the above

• Plan to reduce pollution as a first priority through education of householders and businesses in safe practices and products

• Plan catchment- level, low-cost, natural pollution prevention measures


• Set clear performance levels for the Stormwater Plan, it's administrators ( which ideally are a dedicated Council department or a stand-alone fee-receiving Council Utility) with routine monitoring and consistent enforcement- this is key!

• Require all new development to be low-impact and to conform to Council standards ( Councils must set Low-Impact Development Standards: see LIDS info box)

• Set Standards for stormwater discharge for all landowners,

requiring businesses to to seek a permit or a consent for their stormwater systems using industry-based standards and setting a practicable timeframe for implementation;

and providing incentives for householders to adopt safe practices, such as stormwater management fee reductions

William Kotke: The Hero's Journey
Wednesday, 4 April 2007, 2:00 pm
Opinion: William Kotke
THE HERO'S JOURNEY

By William Kotke
April 01, 2007

The End of the World

We are all looking at the end of the world as we know it. Our attention is focused on the holes in the ozone layer, planetary warming, Peak Oil, the spread of DU weapons, the collapse of the house of credit cards, and the prospect of the planetary financial elite quickly establishing fascist control of the planet. Below this threshold of conscious awareness our biological survival systems are rapidly eroding. At this point some twenty percent of the planet’s soils erode each twenty-five year period. Each year at least two hundred thousand acres of irrigated crop-lands go out of production because of salinization or water-logging and experts say that sixty to eighty percent of all irrigated acreage is due to follow the eight to ten million acres that have historically gone into ruination from irrigation. The total drylands of the planet are 7.9 billion acres of which 61% are desertified, that is, driven by human abuse toward uselessness. Globally, 23% of all arable crop lands have been lost since 1945 through human use and experts say that all arable land on the planet will be ruined in 200 years.

It is estimated that prior to the human culture that we term civilization, one third of the planet was covered with closed canopy forest. Now forests cover 10% of the earth. In the oceans the collapse of major fish stocks is increasing. At least eight stocks have collapsed beginning with the Antarctic Blue Whale in 1935 to the Peruvian Anchovy stock collapse in the late-twentieth century. Since 1984 the world fish catch has been shrinking even with greater investment and the taking of what in former times were considered "trash" fish. Of the 32 ocean fisheries, 30 are in decline and some of those are collapsing. At the same time coral reefs and mangrove swamps which are considered the "incubators" of sea life are dwindling precipitously.

Soil is the basis of the planetary terrestrial life. In the best of circumstances such as old growth forests and prairies, soil builds at the rate of one inch each three hundred to a thousand years. It is being exhausted and is eroding away. The way that the industrial system has continued to increase the food supply is by trading off soil fertility for fossil fuel energy through artificial fertilizers. Now, nearly half of the world’s people eat because of the added production of food caused by artificial fertilizers being injected into depleted soils and the use of all of the other accouterments of fossil- fueled industrial agriculture.. Half of the planetary population are hanging out on a limb essentially eating petroleum! Now as the population continues to explode, we reach Peak Oil and its decline. We do not need to continue filling in the details. Our intellect can draw the conclusion for us. An exponentially exploding world population with increasing material consumption, based on dwindling resources and a dying planet, won’t work!

But this is not a new phenomenon as some would assume. This culture of civilization, of empire, was an ecological catastrophe when it began some eight thousand years ago. It is this culture and its inculcated reality-view that is the disaster. Half of China was once a great temperate zone forest. That forest was gone before recorded history, destroyed by the Han Chinese Empire. The Indus River Valley Empire had ecologically destroyed its habitat before recorded history. We do have recorded history of the Sumerian and Babylonian empires. We know they decimated the forests and overgrazed the landscape. One third of the land in Iraq that should be arable right now is still so salinized from imperial irrigation four and five thousand years ago that it cannot be used. The erosion material coming down the Tigris and Euphrates rivers from that destroyed the watershed has filled in 185 miles of the gulf. As we follow the history of this type of human culture we find the Mid-East ecologically denuded. The empires of Greece and Rome used Turkey and North Africa as "breadbaskets." Now, there are towns in Turkey, North Africa and even in Italy that were port cities during those empires which are now ten and fifteen miles from the water - all filled in with erosion material from the ecologically destroyed landscapes. Then we go on to the destruction of the great forests of Europe and now the whole world. These examples and many more are indelible effects on the world ecosystem which have not recovered in thousands of years.

The Success of the Human Species

Are humans a failed species? Is it what some Natives Americans have said, "very shrewd but have no wisdom?" When we look around the biosphere we see that most other species devote much of their life energies to birthing, raising and protecting their progeny. In this respect, civilized humans are a failed species. They can’t even keep the planet alive for their descendants. But humans have been a marvelously successful species. For several million years we existed as forager/hunters. We lived in balance with the ecosystem, migrating in our traditional patterns around our areas gathering the fruits of the earth. We were adapted to the planetary life. We developed astonishing oral literatures; we developed a rich cultural life. Anthropology says that each forager/hunter worked an average of 500 hours per year obtaining the necessaries of life. Traditional agriculturalists like the Hopi or Balinese worked 1,000 hours per year and had shorter life spans. Now the modern industrial person works 2,000 hours per year on average and only stays alive because they have health insurance. Anthropology says that the forager/hunters (even those still remaining) have almost perfect health.

They also had a rich culture. They didn’t simply sit around the campfire but created voluminous oral literature, great works of art as handcrafts and a rich ceremonial life of the tribe. Our species lived with the living earth. We had wide knowledge of the living things around us and we respected life. Such a grotesque event as killing thousands of buffalo simply to take their tongues or hides away to market and to leave the carcasses to rot was an act that was inconceivably inhuman in the eyes of a forager/hunter.

Our ancestors were well fed with a widely varied diet. Anthropologists studying the Kung Bushmen of the inhospitable Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa say that each person’s daily protein intake was more than Britain’s and exceeded by only ten industrial countries. The proportion of men and women over sixty was only ten percent smaller than industrial countries. Forager/hunters who lived in more luxurious ecosystems did even better. This means that most of the people of the third world and the poor of the first world do not even have the living standards of the Kung Bushmen, and for eight thousand years, all of those who did breast beating about the superiority of "civilization" did not even come up to the living standards of free living forager/hunters - talk about being sold a bill of goods!

For 99% of the time our species has lived successfully in balance with the energy flows of the earth. The soil community with its millions of inhabitants provides a milieu in which plant roots can absorb nutrients that are in solution. The plant community sheds leaves and other organic debris onto the soil which feeds it as it is eaten by the "decomposers." This cycling of biological energy is then extrapolated to the cycles of life of all the other biological entities of the ecosystem through the food chains and other services species do for each other in what is an energy flow system with photosynthesis as the primary motor. This is the energy flow system that our species was adapted to for an untold period of time. Being a small nomadic group (average of 28 people according to anthropology) we had a cooperative culture, a sharing culture, and being migratory we only carried necessary items so that materialism, the accumulation and adulation of material goods, did not occur.

The Inversion

Then in Central Asia and Northern China, humans began to destroy the living planet with agriculture and herding. The military based empires began to grow by running a net deficit of the earth’s fertility - a human culture based in looting, thievery. This culture began then, in just an eye blink of time, just eight to ten thousand years, and the energy adaptation changed. Humans began civis, towns, the root of the word civilization. Male dominance - patriarchy, the horse and militarism became rooted in the soil, to grow based on sucking out the fertility of the earth. This culture was, in its origin, a culture of coercion based upon biological slaves such as annual plants and domesticated animals and human slaves, in order to extort fertility from the earth. The ecological history of empire is there for all to see. We no longer gather the fruits of the earth, we force the earth to give up surpluses, profits, until the earth can no longer, then we move on. This is the culture of empire, a culture of growth and imbalance. Its main tenets are patriarchy, hierarchy, materialism, and militarism. The configuration of the imperial system is: an Emperor (male), surrounded by a small financial/military elite, who control and profit from a coercive hierarchal command system. That is, they feed off the productive social activities of the people in society!

Now we are near the end. The culture of empire has spread over the earth except for a few pockets of remaining forager/hunters. As the exploding population meets the dwindling resources, societies begin to unravel. We are beginning to see massive cities around the planet, each encircled by millions of the poor. These people are still fed by the dwindling acres, but the breaking point is in sight.

The Gauntlet

The human species is faced with an ultimatum. Will the species die off or can a rabbit be pulled out of the hat over the long term? Inasmuch as humans live from other living things, we know that whatever humans may exist in two hundred years will be humans that have been able to keep their area of the planet alive.

We live in an era in which a number of things are occurring that have never happened to the species before. We live in a time of human-caused, mass, global, die-off of species. This is the third and largest mass die-off of species since life began on earth, the previous (and second) die-off being when the dinosaurs went down millions of years ago. Humans have also caused the ozone holes and the climate warming. But, we also now have planetary communication and through the internet we also have planetary communication available on an individual level. This is the first time that the human species as a whole can communicate. This is also the first time that humans are in control of evolution on this whole planet and the possible further manifestation of themselves. Humans are in control and the choices that they make in the next few generations will determine the course for the future of the species as well as the earth.

The Cultural Conditioning

Culture is hypnosis. A hypnotic suggestion can be given in deep trance or in light trance, a state of conscious attention such as watching television. In light trance the suggestion is repetitive over time. We have all had a world view suggested to us by our cultural conditioning. For example, we intellectually know that, except for native people, the rest of us in the American hemisphere and many other places on the planet are colonials. But, we don’t subconsciously hold this understanding because of culturalization. Since birth we have heard of "warlike" Indians. But intellectually we know that any country that is invaded will put up a vigorous response. Intellectually we know that, according to the historian Eduardo Galeano, up to 70 million native people were eliminated from the Americas by sword and pestilence yet we subconsciously view the holocaust of the Jews and Armenians as the only significant massacres.

In this manner our world view is created. The gold fish does not see the water. As our culture instructs us that wealth is security and is the purpose of life, we use up the earth more rapidly toward our demise. On a psychological level we identify with our material possessions and subconsciously assume our existence without these elements would be non-identity. Our needs toward greater ego-security also point toward our demise.

The Species Initiation

Now that the planet-wide human species, is by default, in control of the life of the earth we can understand what would be needed for the species to succeed to full maturity. The first order is to stay alive. To do that we must maintain that which feeds and shelters us. We must keep the earth alive and ecologically restore it even in the areas of dense human population today. Our reality view is, in fact, global now by default. Ozone holes, nuclear radiation, sea level rise, planet heating and the rubbing out of the living flesh of the earth are global phenomena.

Like the Six Nations Iroquois who frame each tribal decision to its effects on the seventh generation, we must create a reality frame as the life of the earth. Given our subconscious conditioning that is difficult, but in this case our intellect can lead us. If we can frame our cultural reality view as based upon the care of the earth and teach that to the children, then many other cultural values will flow from that.

A present day citizen of the earth, if they were a mature and responsible adult, would say that honorable actions would perpetuate the living earth for its sake as well as for the progeny of the human species. That commitment at the level of the whole species would signify the initiation of the species to maturity.

The Hero At The Portals of Initiation

The center does not hold.. Oil and the resources of the earth such as soil and forests are exhausting as the mass swells. Can the hero make it through the disintegration? Can small land based, self-sufficient communities make it through, some of them? Can they carry the universal value of life through with their culture? Can they create a culture that will spread in the future, that focuses on the highest development of each human as a person rather than the highest rung up the ladder of empire? This is what is being asked of the hero for initiation into human species maturity - nothing less than courage, the adherence to the culture of life over long periods of time and transformation.

All the elements that we need exist. We have examples of alternative buildings, created from local materials, with solar advantages that can heat and cool themselves with no outside energy inputs. We have a world-wide movement to Permaculture which can help us restore ecologies while producing more human food per acre than the industrial system. We have a wide and increasing selection of human development methods which can aid in the development of each individual to their highest potential - outside the materialist paradigm. We have planetary communication through the internet whose maintenance could require few resources.

When the hero can succeed at the matter of keeping the human species and the planet alive and see that as just a "housekeeping" duty, then we can get on with the truly challenging task of creating a positive and joyous human culture to which the hero is entitled.

*************

William H. Kötke is the author of Garden Planet: The Present Phase Change of the Human Species. See at: www.gardenplanetbook.com and THE FINAL EMPIRE an underground classic book available for free download at: http://www.Rainbowbody.net/Finalempire .

PUBLISHER: Arrow Point Press

WEB SITE: http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/literaryservices (All contact info at this site)

Free download of the underground classic book: THE FINAL EMPIRE at: http://www.Rainbowbody.net/Finalempire

NEW BOOK ! Garden Planet: The Present Phase Change of the Human Species. See at: www.gardenplanetbook.com

These conservation groups would all appreciate a hand please give the coordinators a ring if you are able to help:

Tomahawk/Smaills Beachcare Trust (TSBC)
beachcare@ihug.co.nz, 03 4544444
Nursery Building each Saturday at Smaills Beach

Green Hut Track Group. George Sutherland mrsuth@paradise.net.nz 03 467 5999. Silver Peaks area. Tracks gorse or other problems? Give George a call. Every Wednesday.

Track Group. Rex Malthus 03 473 7919. Maintenance of tracks in Dunedin area. First Thursday of every month.

Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust (YEPT). Dave McFarlane yept@clear.net.nz 03 473 7259. Clearing, planting and maintaining areas of coastal penguin habitat. Frequent workdays.

Colinswood Bush. Nigel McPherson n-r-mcpherson@xtra.co.nz 03 476 1109. Clearing, planting and maintaining covenant of native bush on Otago Peninsula. Interested to know of anyone able to help occasionally on week days.

Mopanui Ecological Environmental Society (MEES).Don McKechnie 03 482 2021. Clearing, planting and maintaining areas of coastal shrubs. Meet 10.30am at Long Beach, last Sunday of every month.

Save the Otago Peninsula (STOP). Lala Frazer 03 479 8391. Clearing, planting and maintaining natural environments around Otago Peninsula. Second weekend of every month.

Taieri Mouth Amenities Society. Marilyn Egerton 03 481 7171. Clearing, planting and maintaining public areas around Taieri Mouth. Monthly workdays.

Aramoana Arboretum. Bradley Curnow 03 477 2244. Clearing, planting and maintaining public areas around Aramoana. Any assistance appreciated on workdays first Saturday of each month. Meet at Community Hall at 10am.

River-Estuary Care: Waikouaiti-Karitane (RECWK). Andy Barratt asbarratt@ihug.co.nz. Maintaining a healthy river and estuary ecosystem through community participation – monitoring, revegetation, advocacy, bird-watching. All welcome on workdays and other activities.

Healthy Harbour Watchers. Andrew Innes 03 479 5842. Monitoring the health of the waters of Otago Harbour. Contact Andrew if you are interested in finding out more, or being involved.

Glenore-Manuka Trust. Alan Williams 03 417 8170. Restoration of public reserve area on the banks of Tokomairiro River (near Manuka Gorge/Milton). Regular workdays, all welcome.

Orokonui Sanctuary. Elton Smith eltonsmith@xtra.co.nz 027 333 7675. Preparation for a predator-free sanctuary for native fauna near Waitati – bird counts, invertebrate pitfall trapping, vegetation plot surveys, podocarp mapping, pest monitoring, weed control. Any help appreciated.

Global Domination Drive Puts Us in Greater Danger
Thursday, 31 May 2007, 11:26 am
Opinion: Al Gore
A Drive for Global Domination Has Put Us in Greater Danger

By Al Gore
The Guardian UK via Truthout.org
Thursday 24 May 2007

Moral authority, which is our greatest source of strength, has been recklessly put at risk by this wilful president.

The pursuit of "dominance" in foreign policy led the Bush administration to ignore the UN, to do serious damage to our most important alliances, to violate international law, and to cultivate the hatred and contempt of many in the rest of the world. The seductive appeal of exercising unconstrained unilateral power led this president to interpret his powers under the constitution in a way that brought to life the worst nightmare of the founders. Any policy based on domination of the rest of the world not only creates enemies for the US and recruits for al-Qaida, but also undermines the international cooperation that is essential to defeating terrorists who wish to harm and intimidate America. Instead of "dominance", we should be seeking pre-eminence in a world where nations respect us and seek to follow our leadership and adopt our values.

With the blatant failure by the government to respect the rule of law, we face a great challenge in restoring America's moral authority in the world. Our moral authority is our greatest source of strength. It is our moral authority that has been recklessly put at risk by the cheap calculations of this wilful president.

The Bush administration's objective of attempting to establish US domination over any potential adversary was what led to the hubristic, tragic miscalculation of the Iraq war - a painful misadventure marked by one disaster after another, based on one mistaken assumption after another. But the people who paid the price have been the American men and women in uniform trapped over there, and the Iraqis themselves. At the level of our relations with the rest of the world, the administration has willingly traded respect for the US in favour of fear. That was the real meaning of "shock and awe". This administration has coupled its theory of US dominance with a doctrine of pre-emptive strikes, regardless of whether the threat to be pre-empted is imminent or not.

The doctrine is presented in open-ended terms, which means that Iraq is not necessarily the last application. In fact, the very logic of the concept suggests a string of military engagements against a succession of sovereign states - Syria, Libya, North Korea, Iran - but the implication is that wherever the combination exists of an interest in weapons of mass destruction together with an ongoing role as host to, or participant in, terrorist operations, the doctrine will apply. It also means that the Iraq resolution created the precedent for pre-emptive action anywhere, whenever this or any future president decides that it is time. The risks of this doctrine stretch far beyond the disaster in Iraq. The policy affects the basic relationship between the US and the rest of the world. Article 51 of the UN charter recognises the right of any nation to defend itself, including the right to take pre-emptive action in order to deal with imminent threats.

By now, the administration may have begun to realise that national and international cohesion are indeed strategic assets. But it is a lesson long delayed and clearly not uniformly and consistently accepted by senior members of the cabinet. From the outset, the administration has operated in a manner calculated to please the portion of its base that occupies the far right, at the expense of solidarity among all Americans and between our country and our allies. The gross violations of human rights authorised by Bush at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and dozens of other locations around the world, have seriously damaged US moral authority and delegitimised US efforts to continue promoting human rights.

President Bush offered a brief and halfhearted apology to the Arab world, but he should make amends to the American people for abandoning the Geneva conventions, and to the US forces for sending troops into harm's way while ignoring the best advice of their commanders. Perhaps most importantly, he owes an explanation to all those men and women throughout our world who have held high the ideal of the US as a shining goal to inspire their own efforts to bring about justice and the rule of law.

Most Americans have tended to give the Bush-Cheney administration the benefit of the doubt when it comes to its failure to take action in advance of 9/11 to guard against an attack. Hindsight casts a harsh light on mistakes that should have been visible at the time they were made. But now, years later, with the benefit of investigations that have been made public, it is no longer clear that the administration deserves this act of political grace from the American people. It is useful and important to examine the warnings the administration ignored - not to point the finger of blame, but to better determine how our country can avoid such mistakes in the future. When leaders are not held accountable for serious mistakes, they and their successors are more likely to repeat those mistakes.

Part of the explanation for the increased difficulty in gaining cooperation in fighting terrorism is Bush's attitude of contempt for any person, institution or nation that disagrees with him. He has exposed Americans abroad and in the US to a greater danger of attack because of his arrogance and wilfulness, in particular his insistence upon stirring up a hornet's nest in Iraq. Compounding the problem, he has regularly insulted the religion, the culture and the tradition of people in countries throughout the Muslim world.

The unpleasant truth is that Bush's failed policies in both Iraq and Afghanistan have made the world a far more dangerous place. Our friends in the Middle East, including most prominently Israel, have been placed in greater danger because of the policy blunders and sheer incompetence with which the civilian Pentagon officials have conducted this war.

We as Americans should have "known then what we know now"- not only about the invasion of Iraq but also about the climate crisis; what would happen if the levees failed to protect New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina; and about many other fateful choices that have been made on the basis of flawed, and even outright false, information. We could and should have known, because the information was readily available. We should have known years ago about the potential for a global HIV/Aids pandemic. But the larger explanation for this crisis in American decision-making is that reason itself is playing a diminished, less respected, role in our national conversation.

*************

Al Gore is a former US vice-president; this is an edited extract from his new book, The Assault on Reason, published this week by Bloomsbury.

DUNEDIN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION DEVELOPING SUSTAINABILITY (DEEDS)

Aim: to promote sustainable living in urban catchments through developing the Kaikorai Stream model

Methods:
1)Investigate and record how and why people interact with the Kaikorai Stream
Catchment area.
2)Establish baseline environmental data for the Catchment: biota presence, climate
records; water flow quantity and quality and human inputs; air quality.
3)Investigate environmental problems and frame solutions.
4)Implement solutions to improve environmental parameters.
5)Monitor environmental parameters over time to assess impacts of human behaviour changes.

Actions:
1)Conduct surveys of all residents and businesses of the Catchment area regarding
A)awareness of the stream and it\\\'s natural values and human interactions and impacts upon it
B)personal interactions and impacts upon the stream

2)Compile known baseline data regarding environmental parameters of the Catchment.

3)Conduct research into other environmental parameters and update old data. Including:
A) terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates
B)aquatic vertebrates
C)terrestrial vertebrates
D)aquatic and terrestrial plants
E)waterflow quantity and causes of episodic peaks and troughs
F)waterflow quality and household and commercial inputs
G)air quality and human inputs

4)Frame ongoing monitoring programmes for environmental parameters.

5)Conduct educational programmes based around problem issues. Including:
A) sustainable systems of domestic weed control and food production
B)management of domestic and commercial pollutants
C)protection of aquatic and riparian fauna
D)measurement of ecological parameters
E)human relationships with the stream and it\\\'s catchment

6)Conduct environmental restoration programmes designed to reverse identified. Problems including:
A)wetland ecosystem construction
B)riparian planting
C)diversion of stormwater pipes away from the stream
D)control of pest animals and domestic animals which pose
threats to native wildlife
E) control of pest plants

Potential Participants: Possible Activities:

EMAP teachers and their schools

Baseline scientific monitoring
Ecological parameter research
Devise educational programmes
Run wise practices education

Dunedin Environment Centre Trust Environmental restoration
Programmes:
Surveying of public
Devise educational programmes
Demonstrate wise practices for Students and gen.

Public Teach \\\"Pact with the environment\\\"

Kai Tahu Teach tikanga
Devise educational programmes
Devise restoration programmes

Te Kura Kaupapa Demonstrate indigenous wise Practice
Teach tikanga

Otago Regional Council Baseline scientific monitoring
Ecological parameter research
Support educational programmes
Support restoration programmes

Dunedin City Council Support restoration programmes
Support educational programmes
Support wise practice programmes

Department Of Conservation Support baseline monitoring
Support restoration programmes

Kaikorai Primary School; Participate in educational and
Balmacewen Intermediate School restoration programmes
St. Peter Chanel School
Other schools within the catchment


University Of Otago : Dept. of Zoology Participate in baseline ecological research

Dept. of Geography
Participate in surveying of public

Otago Polytechnic : Science Department Participate in baseline monitoring

Horticulture Department
Participate in wise practice demonstration

Ministry Of Education Support wise practice demonstration
Support indigenous wise practice demonstration
Support educational programmes

Ministry of Health Support indigenous wise practice demonstration

Ministry for the Environment Support baseline monitoring
Support wise practice demonstration
Support educational programmes
Support restoration programmes


Projected Activities:

June 9 : Wetland opening day and planting event.

June /July : school students learn Maori local history and begin incorporating it into their records, story collections and proposed designs for the possible sculpture and interpetative panels for the Common.

June-August: further plantings to fill in the Common.

July-September: school pupils study causes of pollution and learn about waterway tikanga and other possible remedies.

August-September: drafting of proposals for further facilities (eg. panels, sculptures, picnic tables?)and for further plantings developed and fundraising begins September-November: workshops for general public and school pupils examining remedies for pollution and for threats to wildlife.

October-November: surveys of aquatic biota and birdlife
November-December: proposals for improvement of water quality drafted for public consultation.