AND WHAT IF WE DO NOTHING...
On Friday morning I presented the ShoppingFix (http://www.shoppingfix.org.nz) concept to the Wellington Region Environment Agency - a group of Council, Govt, and industry people who work with environmental issues on a day to day basis. What a great bunch of people! Genuinely grafting (and I really mean grafting - especially with some issues) for a better region for all of us. I think they liked ShoppingFix. No, I know they did. Although a few of them had experienced the joy of me prattling on to them before, so maybe those few just nodded and smiled in hope that I'd be placated and sit down.

So, at "public" level I can confirm that "doing nothing" is simply not happening. You probably knew that. After the meeting I took the afternoon off. The meeting was in Carterton. Near the Tararuas. As I'd driven over there by myself (tut tut) I took the opportunity to go bush for the weekend (not only to justify taking the car over...).

While walking part way between Mt Holdsworth and Jumbo I took a breather. I sat there not able to see much more than 100m (the only cloud present all weekend in this part of the country it seems), so rather than "alta-vista", issues closer to hand came to mind. "Why is your tooth the only thing a peanut 'skin' is capable of sticking to?" "This track in the middle of the Tararuas is probably more trodden than some neighborhood streets", "I'm above the bushline. If the planet warms, will the bushline rise, will this part of the track be traversing bush in 200 years? Will it even be here?"

Hmmm. A bit of a worry really. Not the teeth. That was remedied when my smiley "hello" to a passing tramper was greeted with violent recoil - dangerous places, ridgelines... I digress. As ShoppingFix is about positive action and good news, the best angle to take on the warming/bushline question is to make a change. The "rampant energy use", "latest and bestest", "convenience", "throw-away" culture that we now enjoy is helping cause global warming (for a good process overview see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/04/climate_change/html/greenhouse.stm). Who knows what that means for the Tararuas, but if we grasp opportunities like that soon to be offered by ShoppingFix (http://www.shoppingfix.org.nz), we can use our collective strength as consumers to help force a fundamental change in the way business is done.

I want my grandkids to be able to go tramping! There we go. Make a change! As simple as that!

Ciao for now...