Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including effects of mining and the Lake Onslow scheme.
Leave the mine behind, the moths are all right
Gerard Eckhoff (Opinion ODT 30.3.26) is right to despair at the state and prospects for New Zealand’s treasury, but wrong to blame our plucky little southern moths and lizards for that.
Santana’s gold will not help with the high energy costs closing factories, it will worsen them. And as it becomes ever more difficult to house, insure, transport and soon even to feed ourselves as the climate system flails around trying to dissipate stifling heat being forced into it by our ever thicker and fluffier greenhouse-gas duvet, Santana and its gold will be there - worsening, not bettering.
Meanwhile, long after the tiny blip in time that will be Santana, their vast crumbling toxic sludge-pond will be poisoning Eckhoff’s descendants.
He is wrong also to ignore the inestimable contribution to our treasury represented by these furry and scaly old cousins of ours, and the huge loss to it if we foolishly exterminate them merely to make somebody other than ourselves wealthy, which is the current plan.
With genomes probably at least 50% similar to our own, billions of years in the making, encoding treasure-troves of hard-won knowledge of how to survive ice-ages, droughts, floods, pandemics, parasites, predators and more, the loss of value represented by the loss of any of these species is incalculably vast.
We should be regarding them with reverence, respect and awe, rather than as meaningless, under-valued tokens of short-term economic arbitrage as Eckhoff and colleagues are advocating.
Alan McCulloch
Mornington
Compare, contrast
Re the Bernice Armstrong letter (17.3.26), she said: ‘‘Just look at the restored green pastures near Millers Flat and near Milton. These areas were once open mines.’'
Bernice was referring to alluvial gold mining operations in these areas and she is correct in stating that total ground restoration was achieved. A great effort.
Now, compare this method of mining with the Santana proposal of hard rock gold mining. They cannot and will not restore the pristine rock country of Central Otago after the creation of huge open-cast pits (e.g. the Macraes and Waihi mines) plus the tailings/rejects dams full of toxic waste will remain in our pristine environment forever.
If New Zealand wishes to promote gold mining as a viable industry - which it is - then allow only alluvial mining, which is excavating/washing in situ gold from old river beds and gravel deposits by a safe method involving no chemicals. Land restoration is paramount and totally achievable.
The Shotover River is a wonderful example of environment survival after over 150 years of alluvial gold mining.
Hard rock gold mining has no place in New Zealand. Let us continue with Alluvial Mining (with conditions) and we can employ and use our own people and mining companies.
Ralph de Clifford
Geraldine
Issues checklist
Dunedin Stadium: mothball it. Key point missing in discussions is that travelling acts quote huge costs (transporting people/equipment) to Dunedin, which is not readily resolvable. Fuel crisis now adds to that problem.
Fuel supply crisis: Media focus is on 20% of oil that travels through the Strait of Hormuz and the consequent supply/rising prices crisis. Where is the other 80% of oil?
Humanity: The reality is the human focus on money, greed and power will always prevail. Consequently humanity, compassion, and doing the right thing does not have a chance.
Ruth Tansley
Dunedin
Grand that scheme benefits finally recognised
It is excellent news for those working towards a sustainable future that the pumped hydro proposal at Lake Onslow has been accepted into the fast-track process and that several government ministers have recently recognised the benefits of this scheme (ODT 26.3.26).
Adopting Canadian criteria for nation-building projects this one ticks almost all the boxes - strengthens autonomy, resilience and security; provides national economic or other benefits; has a high likelihood of being successful; contributes to clean growth and objectives with respect to climate change, and provided there is indigenous partnership - advances the interests of indigenous peoples.
It is also noteworthy that the capital cost per unit of energy stored is amongst the lowest in the world. It will now be interesting to observe whether ministers abandon the LNG import terminal scheme which unsubsidised meets none of the above criteria.
There are other ways to navigate the next 10 years until Lake Onslow is operational, without building new fossil-fuel infrastructure.
Ian Mason
Christchurch
[Ian Mason is the former director of the CNRE Renewable Energy Programme, University of Canterbury.]
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
