Don’t dip into Te Arawa Lakes Trust waters without brushing up on the regulations (although they don’t mention test tubes)

Don’t go fishing in Lake Rotorua without checking your obligations under the Te Arawa Lakes (Fisheries) Regulations 2006.

The Crown introduced those regulations, as part of the Te Arawa Lakes Settlement Act 2006, to empower the Trustees of the Te Arawa Lakes Trust to manage the customary and recreational food gathering of included species in the Te Arawa Lakes.

Getting offside with the trust by breaching the regulations could be costly.

Penalties

A person who commits an offence described in regulation 29(a) to (f) is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000.

Mind you, without a grasp of te reo you might find that establishing what you can and can’t do is hard yacker.

Richard Dawkins (not muted, when he came here to speak) has more to say about the mixing of science and Maori myths

The visit to New Zealand earlier this year of Professor Richard Dawkins was not publicised as provocatively as the visit of women’s rights advocate Posey Parker.  The professor was allowed to speak to audiences in Auckland and Wellington without being physically threatened and the people who turned up to hear him were not thwarted by the belligerence and bullying of bellowing boors.

Dawkins, the world renowned evolutionary biologist, best-selling author and public intellectual, is the author of landmark books The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion.  He has earned millions of admirers around the world through his passion for the wonders of science and the vital importance of reason – and he has been described as the world’s most prominent atheist.

But he has his critics, too.  And he is likely to have agitated his New Zealand critics this week with an article posted on The Poetry of Reality with Richard Dawkins headed There’s only one “Way of Knowing”: Science.

He recalls that when he was last in this country, the climax to his antipodean speaking tour, he found he had walked headlong into a raging controversy.

Finding space in govt policy for indigenous astronomers while mixing in appropriate mythology (and a role for the kūmara)

News of the indigenization of New Zealand’s Space Policy (here) has reached Jerry Coyne, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, whose analysis of it has been posted on Why Evolution is True  (here).

The National Space Policy (as Point of Order noted) is led by robust objectives of:

• Growing an innovative and inclusive space sector
• Protecting and advancing our national security and economic interests
• Regulating to ensure space activities are safe and secure
• Promoting the responsible use of space internationally
• Modelling sustainable space and Earth environments

In her announcement, Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds said:

The policy identifies stewardship, innovation, responsibility, and partnership as key values for New Zealand in space. Harnessing these values will inform space-related engagements, policy creation and strategies across government

And:

This is an important milestone in our space journey as it provides an overview of New Zealand’s values and objectives to guide future space-related policies and regulation.

This is an ongoing conversation. We will continue to engage with stakeholders and industry…

CITIZEN SCIENCE: Decline and fall

Posie Parker’s recent visit to New Zealand revealed the tiny shiny tip of an iceberg, a shift that has been weirdly invisible due to one of the main tenets of the trans faith – No Debate.

As any public servant knows, it is impossible for a government or lobby group to be as seamlessly coordinated as would be needed to pull off the almost complete infection of our public institutions, and an unknown quantity of the public, with trans ideology. There are conspiracy theories on both sides because that’s what happens when you suppress evidence and debate.

But gender identity has been so successful because it is a powerfully held belief, not a network, and its most devoted followers are families who have got on the trans train.

Applying Maori knowledge (and Govt funding) to the demystification of whale strandings and the heavens

Matauranga Maori just keeps on giving, providing a regular supply of grist for the mill of scientists such as Jerry A. Coyne, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago and publisher of Why Evolution is True.

It is also a belief system which keeps on receiving from New Zealand taxpayers via state funding systems for research provided by a benevolent government – millions of dollars are being provided for programmes that would not be regarded as scientific overseas.

Thanks to the widespread disinclination to challenge the Government’s fusion of matauranga Maori with science, except for a few brave dissidents who stick their necks above the parapet, Coyne has given up on us.  He recently wrote: 

New Zealand is a lost cause insofar as science education is concerned, for the government and educational establishment is doing all it can to make local indigenous “ways of knowing” (mātauranga Māori, or MM) coequal with modern science, and taught as coequal.    

This ultimately would severely damage science education in New Zealand, and drive local science teachers (and graduate students) to other countries, Coyne warned.

Science shows there’s much amiss with Porirua harbour but Matauranga Māori is needed to get a measure of the mauri

The Porirua City Council – it seems – has no idea of how much mauri can be found in its harbour and waterways and how much more is needed before it can announce the mauri has been restored.

But it is using Western science to measure things that might contribute to the effort it is putting into restoring the mauri (or not).

It is working with Ngāti Toa on improving the health of the harbour and its contributing streams.

This work includes developing a Matauranga Māori programme “which assists in determining overall mauri of the harbour.”

The question about measurement – to assure us the mauri has been restored when the job is done – was raised by a pamphlet circulated by the council to advise landowners of the funds available for streamside plants.

THOMAS CRANMER: PM’s urge to get to Antarctica reminds us of NZ’s connections with the ice (mythical and otherwise)

TV3 today reported that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has stressed the importance of New Zealand maintaining its strong connection with Antarctica as other countries contest territory in the region.

Ardern, who is visiting Antarctica, spent yesterday visiting areas away from Scott Base, including the Terra Nova and Shackleton huts, and the Dry Valley

THOMAS CRANMER earlier this week said it is unclear why she wanted to skip Parliament to visit Antarctica – but he noted it does bring to mind last year’s research regarding Maori voyages and the little noticed response from Ngāi Tahu.

 

 For reasons known only to her closest advisors, the Prime Minister seems intent on missing this week’s sitting of Parliament in order to travel to Antarctica – a place described as “the coldest, windiest, remotest place on Earth” by Antarctica NZ general communications manager Megan Nicholl. According to Grant Robertson, the man who deputizes for Ardern during her absences abroad, “it’s the kind of visit the New Zealand Prime Minister should make”.

For the rest of us, we are left to scratch our heads and speculate. The stated reason of marking the 65th anniversary of Scott Base seems, on the face of it, a tenuous excuse to make a very climate unfriendly return flight on a C130 Hercules particularly at a time when there are so many pressing issues on the domestic political agenda.

Investing in science to tackle farm emissions is laudable but ACT reminds the Govt of how GM ban is nobbling this work

The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications three years ago reported promising news about work at AgScience under the heading NZ’s Environmentally Sustainable Ryegrass for Livestock Makes Steady Progress in the Field.

This advised that scientists from AgResearch had developed a genetically modified (GM) ryegrass known as the High Metabolisable Energy (HME) Ryegrass, which aims to strike a balance among reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, better drought tolerance, and farm productivity.

Ryegrass is used as a high-quality pasture grass for livestock, the article explained.

 Today’s market has dairy farmers becoming more conscious about the environment and are searching for ways to reduce their carbon footprint while improving their produce at the same time.

In December of 2018, AgResearch reported that HME ryegrass grew up to 50% faster than conventional ryegrass and produced 23% less methane under laboratory conditions. And last week, Dr. Greg Bryan, AgResearch Principal Scientist, announced that the HME ryegrass performed well in controlled growing conditions.

How CH4 Global is turning seaweed into fodder for farm ruminants – and hopes to cool the climate

Big  strides  are  being  made in the  development  of  a  seaweed-based   product  which,  it  is  claimed,  reduces  methane  emissions in ruminant animals  by up  to 90%.

The product, which its champions say could resolve New Zealand’s climate change threat  from  methane emissions  in  the nation’s  dairy  herd, has  been sold  for  the  first  time—-to  an  Australian customer.

It has been made by CH4 Global™, Inc., a company which says it is

”… on an urgent mission to address climate change by providing our seaweed-based Asparagopsis products to farmers worldwide so they can dramatically reduce the methane emissions of their livestock and realize significant value in the process.”

CH4 Global has its global headquarters in Henderson, Nevada, in the United States, and operations in Australia (CH4 Australia PTY Limited) and New Zealand (CH4 Aotearoa Limited).

It is rapidly developing a diverse partner network of Asparagopsis growers, while supporting farmers and fostering sustainable communities.

If GM opponents aren’t swayed by the potential of genetic science to help feed the world, might the health benefits do the trick?

Is NZ  steering  itself  back  into the  Dark  Ages  with its  negative  policy  on genetic  modification?

Thanks  to the  pressure   of the  Green movement  20  or so  years  ago, releasing a genetically modified organism  in New Zealand without approval is illegal.

In New Zealand you cannot import, develop, field test or release a genetically modified organism without approval from the Environmental Protection Authority (previously known at the  Environmental Risk Management Authority).

Yet  because  of great strides in fundamental research, biology is becoming ever more programmable, as  The  Economist  reported last week.

Two recent scientific advances show just how powerful the possibilities could be.