Leaving and arriving on a jet plane welcomed
As a student at the University of Otago, I want to express strong support for the recent announcement of increased flights between Dunedin and Auckland. The addition of 2100 more seats annually is not just a convenience, it’s a vital step toward better connecting our region with the rest of the country.
Business South Mike Collins’ comments in the article are spot-on: this move goes beyond simply adding flights. It’s an investment in the economic and social vitality of Dunedin and the wider Otago region. For students, especially those from the North Island, more frequent and affordable travel options mean greater access to family, internships, and job opportunities.
However, that highlights my only potential nerve around these flights; affordability. A flight around peak traffic is currently around $500, which is a fortnight’s rent for students who, like all of us, are struggling to make ends meet.
If this affordability challenge is met, this is a win for students, a win for the local economy, and a win for Dunedin.
P.S. Don’t forget to offset your carbon by contributing to Air New Zealand’s Voluntary Emissions Contribution.
Why bother?
I understand that the Dunedin City Council climate bureaucracy costs ratepayers about $10 million a year.
For what? Whatever they do can have no effect whatsoever on global CO₂. Dunedin is 0.002 % of global human emissions, while China, which is making no effort to reduce emissions, is 33% and growing, with India trying to catch up. 57% of global emissions are from countries not actively pursuing reductions. The UK is going to cease net zero at its next elections and many EU countries will follow — because their economies are being destroyed by the ever increasing cost of electricity.
If actions to reduce emission are totally ineffective, then why do them. It is all very well to talk about doing our share, but when most of the world is not, then any action becomes pointless and self-defeating.
Ratepayers would be well rewarded if the DCC got rid of its climate department and stopped its pointless climate action completely.
Principals hailed
Thank you for your sensible advice to caregivers choosing a Dunedin high school in this morning’s editorial (4.6.25).
However I was rather dismayed that Bayfield High was the only city school not mentioned.
Roll numbers are fickle but relatively recent Bayfield roll surges were consequent to the appointment of Denis Slowly as principal in 2000 and then again with Judith Forbes in 2012.
Why do we do it when the world doesn’t care?
I note in today’s ODT (6.6.25) an article on the dilemma the Dunedin City Council is facing over the Carbon Credit Scheme.
Over the last few years I have observed that amenity planting, shelter belts, and low vegetation such as shrubs, grass, do not qualify, all of which has greatly increased in volume in my lifetime.
We see the damage forestry has caused, when on unstable ground, slips causing land and structural damage as the trees block roads and take out bridges and infrastructure, resulting in massive repercussions.
No-one yet has convinced me of the necessity of turning our country into the world’s carbon sink.
In particular it appears the rest of the world could not care less.
I think we should treat the issue of carbon credits and the constant carping on in support of them, with a great deal of scepticism.
Cafe will be missed
I would like to say thank you to the staff at the Croque-O-Dile Cafe.
I often go to the cafe on Thursday afternoons with my friends, who like me have challenges. We always felt welcomed and would have fun.
There are three staff who work there who always remember our orders without having to tell them.
Now the cafe is closed, we will miss the food and playing games, but most of all the staff.
One way or another
Re Chris Bishop’s rant and Don McGlashan’s reply.
At what point does a rant morph into a robust and courageous calling out, or vice-versa?
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
