Destructive lust for power

Ripe for further hydro? An aerial view of Clyde, the Clyde dam, Lake Dunstan and Cromwell Gorge. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.

A recent question asked of many Otago wind farm opponents is, would they prefer giant hydro on the Clutha to wind farms?

The question is sometimes intended rhetorically as a taunt: what alternatives do we have? Dams on the Clutha have historical notoriety, and the industrial wind farm option is insinuated, rightly or wrongly, as a palliative to more giant hydro such as created Lake Dunstan.

The answer is no; none of the present giant and irreversible Renewable Energy initiatives proposed for the South Island are preferable or indeed necessary.

Irrespective of what schemes for new generation are proposed, New Zealand's energy crisis will be perpetual so long as no serious efforts are being made to recognise and understand the stem of the whole problem, which is our inability to control our own consumption.

Unless we address escalating consumption, the present allocation of energy to different sectors of society, and our gridlock dependency on large-scale generation solutions, in the year 2108, while teenagers are zipping across Dunedin's once-nested beaches on the latest electric trail bikes, we will still be debating where to put new solar farms, which bays to put tidal turbines in, what ridges to flatten for wind farms and whether to dam again.

There is no solution to New Zealand's energy needs that relies on the irreversible devastation of natural landscapes, sea and rivers.

This is because the problem is inherent in our culture, rather than in mere constraints on development related to putting these resources to use.

Successive New Zealand Governments suggest development schedules with a projected future of the next two to three decades, ignoring the consequences of these schedules a century later; yet the legacy of 19th-century colonial imperialism is a cornerstone of our environmental history now.

As a nation, we pretend that we understand ourselves, disregarding the blind spots in historical self-awareness examined by 20th-century philosophers of history as diverse as Hans-Georg Gadamer and Karl Popper.

What Meridian, TrustPower, Contact and others are proposing as essential development will in numerous instances look like rushed, irreversible destruction to future generations, who will regret our recklessness just as we regret the clear-felling of the giant kauri forests or the slaughter of whale populations for oil.

Protecting future generations from these blind spots means carefully thought-out integration of renewable energy, with the intention of minimising irreversible impact.

Where this is not presently possible, with companies insisting on economies of scale as the only way to justify new generation economically, New Zealand must make it happen.

We need small wind farms, more distributed and municipal generation, and no Mokihinui or Clutha dam.

If giant wind farms are built at all, they should be constructed out to sea.