Fossil of the Day number one already...

New Zealand Youth Delegation

Press release

Fossil of the Day spoils youth day for young Kiwis in Copenhagen

10 December 2009

New Zealand’s first Fossil of the Day award in Copenhagen came at the worst possible time for the New Zealand Youth Delegation (NZYD) after enjoying Young and Future Generations Day. They spent their time united with global youth by supporting a joint declaration calling for strong action on climate change. They also all wore bright orange t-shirts asking “How old will you be in 2050?”

“After such a positive day focused on young people and solutions to climate change it was a huge blow to hear that New Zealand received a Fossil of the Day Award,” says Zachary Dorner, a 20 year old NZYD Delegate from Wellington.

“We're surprised that John Key has reaffirmed New Zealand's position of a conditional 10-20% emissions reduction target for 2020 even though he also confirmed that other countries will have to make much deeper cuts to avoid dangerous climate change and pick up the slack.”

“Although John will be 89 and in his sunset years in 2050, he should be committing New Zealand to a 40% target for his children and grandchildren.”

Over 1000 global youth are participating in the UN summit, and they used Young and Future Generations Day to focus negotiators' minds on the importance of reaching a strong deal.

“Amongst all the madness and complexity of the UN, there's one striking contrast. The young people here seem to get down and work together in a positive manner to achieve things for the greater good.”

“On the other hand, it seems some developed countries like New Zealand are dragging their heels, trying to get the most out of the talks for themselves.”

“It'd be great to put young people in charge to see what we could come up with. After all, if the world doesn't take strong action in Copenhagen, it will fall on our generation to clean up the mess anyway.”

ENDS

See stuff for some of the coverage this picked up.

Radio NZ interview

Myself and fellow delegate Chelsea were interviewed for morning report this morning (though it was broadcast last night Copenhagen time). You can listen to it here (here if you're awesome like me and use open source software). It gives you an update of what we're up to, and in the process we teach Geoff Robinson about "electronic communication".

My cousin's even famous-er-er - therefore so am I

Kia ora whanua. I know it's been a little while since we last spoke, but I've been busy with university and Co-Convening the Young Greens you see, among other university shinanigans. However, I cannot honestly say I've been more busy than my cousin Phil.

No, that's not me on the unicycle, but yes he is a good looking guy. He's my Canadian equivilent, but is cooler than me. You see Phil Schleihauf is currently unicycling accross Canada for the charity Invisible Children which is dedicated to freeing the child soldiers who make up 90% of Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, who are fighting in the longest running war in Africa.

Now, for those of you who don't know, Canada is a small country above the United States of America. Small in population that is, but large in size - the second largest country on Earth, after Russia. So it's a massive distance Phil will be riding, a lot longer than riding the length of our fair nation of New Zealand. So freakin kudos to him.

So follow his website if that kinda of thing floats your boat, but most importantly read about the Invisible Children. I had no idea about them, and I bet most of you (as informed as you are) wouldn't have heard of them either! And, of course, if you can, give them money. But at the very least learn about their story, and tell others that even though our corporate media ignores them, we will not.

Getting stuck in with the big shots

Here's the profiles of the candidates in Pakuranga that I am running against (though of course only running for the Party Vote). My first of two debates against them is on Labour Day, though I'm sure by the end of it it will be more of a Green Day. It will have a Christian focus, but should be fun.

This one's for the workers

Another weekend's wizzed by, and now it's only two and a half weeks to go! This weekend I spent with fellow young candidates Gareth Hughes and Xavier Goldie. It included handing out fliers, trying to get the media's attention and another pub crawl. The above picture is some hard working women wearing our "I only date boys who vote Green" stickers and serving sausages to the hungry partying masses on Saturday night.

On Saturday we, with the help of another Young Green (and tireless campaigner called Alexis - he always hands out way more fliers than anyone else!) went around downtown Auckland. Our main focus was, as pictured above, handing out our leaflets aimed at young people, and especially Saturday workers (with Gareth on the left). We wanted to inform them of their right to paid time off work on election day to vote if they don't have another reasonable chance. No one knew this fact that we came across, and they were grateful to find out. More info at here if you or someone you know is in that boat. Don't let anything stop you from voting!

That night we did the pub crawl. Although we were few in numbers we had a good time and got a very good response from everyone. It's a great way to campaign.

The next couple of days consisted of more leafleting and trying to bait the media (with some small results, but no big fish).

The next few days I am catching up on some work, then next weekend the Young Candidates are hitting Hamiltron! After that the last two weeks will be the final hard push. So stop watching the American elections (what a bore, a forgone conclusion) and get involved in what is by no means a done deal. The Greens have shown yet again that we are the only fully-honest Party in Parliament, so we will see how that plays out.

And remember, every vote counts.

I'm on Alt tonight!

I'll be on Greencore at 8:00pm either on Sky channel 65 or streaming live on their website. Check yah there.

I'm sorry TV3...

It would appear I was wrong in my 5 April post about the Methyl Bromide protest when I said TV3 didn't run the news story about it when they sent cameras. They did, I just couldn't find it. However, I'm still mad at the Dom Post. It was a local story to Wellington - where was the freakin' article?

By the way, I'm not one of the people in white suits - I missed out. I'm a blackish blob in the background with a gas mask on. I'm famous!

Toxic gas? So?

I attended a protest yesterday outside Aotea Wharf in Wellington. The issue? Well, it seems the Wellington Regional Council is turning a blind eye to the spraying of an odourless and highly-toxic gas out in the open at the port, which it has an 85% stake in. Methyl Bromide has been linked with all sorts of horrible illnesses, and has been shown to be dispersed widely when sprayed out in the open - which is especially a problem in windy Wellington. Furthermore, it is an ozone-depleting gas - which you think New Zealand would be much tougher on given our high rate of skin cancer caused by the hole in the ozone layer. Methyl Bromide is used to fumigate logs, and I was shocked to hear it was being regularly sprayed in downtown Wellington when other parts of the country have had a guts-full of it being sprayed in their neck of the woods.

So a group of concerned young folk - including myself - and a couple of Green celebrities - Sue Kedgley and Steffan Browning - stood outside the fence around the logs yesterday to protest, and get some media coverage of the issue. We even donned white suits and gas masks to get attention. All was going well with a TV camera, and a late Dom Post photographer. So where the hell is the report and article about this issue which is incredibly important to the health and well-being of Wellingtonians? Not even a small mention, that I could find anyway.

Well at least someone's fighting the good fight, with Sue Kedgley launching a petition that same day, calling on the spraying of Methyl Bromide to be halted immediately: until such time as they have proper facilities in place to capture the gas, before it can escape into the atmosphere and the lungs of Wellington-peeps.

My second post on my first blog

Alright, I wont keep on using that title, but it feels a bit strange jumping straight into it, so I'm using this post to explain a little more. More and more details will come up as I develop this blog and this concept, so for those of you who don't know what this blog is about, never fear, that will become more and more clear.

So to start off today, I thought I would do something which I will try and do every week (though don't hold your breath while I'm cruising up the Amazon). Anyone have anything to contribute to the debate about my poll? I will put some points out there, and then put my opinion forward after the poll closes.

The poll this week is: Do you trust internet polls? This fits into the wider issue of media hype, misuse of statistics, and the flood of polls and statistics that drown many new stories. We have regular polls on support for political parties in this country, which ends up making the election a horse race rather than a battle of ideas, reasonings and values. Furthermore polls are just single questions which can be leading, and also are often answered with people's first reaction, rather than after a well-informed discussion of the issue. Now, with the internet, there are millions of polls happening all around the world simultaneously, some on sites that no one visits, and some on internationally acclaimed news and current affairs websites. But how statistically accurate are internet polls when we can barely trust polls from the best established research firms such as Colmar Brunton? Or do they play an important role in shaping debate and bringing public mood to the attention of policy makers?

So please vote on my poll, but more importantly comment on this post about the wider issues that I have touched on, and I will post again on this issue more firmly about my opinions in a week.