Initiatives
CKM aims to make a valuable contribution to the local and national community in all matters related to climate change. It is currently discussing four initiatives in this regard.
Firstly: Green Ribbon Day. New Zealanders will be invited to make all Mondays a national ‘drop in the bucket day.’ On this day they take a climate saving initiative of their own choice, by making the day meat and/or dairy free, or using a bike or public transport instead of their car, insisting on paper rather than plastic packaging etc. For the first twelve months of adopting the scheme the initiative will be limited to one day a week, for the second twelve months, it will be for two days per week and so on, until in seven years time every day of the week will see the initiatives being taken. Secondly: to persuade at least one local service station to provide fast recharge facilities for electric cars. In the USA it is anticipated that electric cars will outnumber fossil fuel driven cars by 2030. Within five years Marlborough should see substantial numbers of these cars on the road but it is a chicken and egg situation. It is no incentive to driving an electric car if you cannot interrupt a journey to recharge your batteries. It is no incentive to installing recharge facilities if there are no electric cars on the road. Charging Stations |
Thirdly: to lobby for a modest trial of a pedestrian precinct in the centre of Blenheim. If Queenstown and other towns and cities around the world can use this technique to bring life and vibrancy to their centres, so too can Blenheim. Most others who have tried this initiative start with a very modest trial. Then, as it proves more popular and success becomes obvious, gradually expand on it.
Fourthly: A much longer term and challenging initiative. The global and universal commons urgently require effective governance. Appropriate international NGOs and the NZ government will be persuaded to launch the initiative at the UN that all nations should grant governance over international waters to a new United Nations agency. This agency, not to be subject to any national veto, to have full sovereign powers over its area of responsibility and to have the power to raise taxes sufficient to meet its responsibilities. These will involve expenditure on its own regulatory body, its own judicial system and the ability to hire ‘mercenary’ forces from members of the UN General Assembly for the purpose of enforcement |