Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:22a.m.
By Rick Zwaan
Looking out across the beautiful bush clad hills that is the Coromandel ranges which surround my dad’s earth home, I am astounded to hear about legislation that would allow the native bush to be opened up to exploitation. Reading the local Hauraki Herald it is immediately apparent that most residents don’t “want it in my back yard”. Like them, I am privileged to have been able to grow up exploring the countless tracks that run through the regenerating bush. I’ve met people from Indonesia who tell stories about the rainforests being destroyed in the name of big business palm oil. They no longer can enjoy their ancient forests.
It seems the only line the supporters of mining can say is ‘it will benefit the economy’. But will it really? The numbers being thrown around at the moment simply don't stack up. The $194 billion figure in particular is the total mineral wealth of New Zealand. That means that we would have to strip mine the whole country to get it. Oh and that number only has one source. The ‘schedule 4’ land that is being talked about at the moment is estimated to be worth $18 billion, a lot less than the big numbers often mentioned. This is about the same as 3 years of current mining activity. Now these numbers are total mineral wealth, but, New Zealand would only get about 1 percent of that, if we were able to somehow magically remove all the minerals, that would only add $180 million to our economy. Which when spread over the time period that it would take to extract isn’t that much compared to the $21 billion tourism industry that it would severely affect. Anyway, the price of gold is set to plummet when India, with its huge gold reserves finally appears on the global markets, so these numbers are rather arbitrary.
So what is the point in mining anyway? NZ journalist Rod Oram pointed out that we need minerals to build new technology that would help reduce carbon emissions. It’s true that it would be hypocritical of environmentalists to say no outright to mining everywhere as we all use the elements they extract. I’m writing this on a laptop which is made from minerals that have to be extracted from somewhere. But, what is the point in mining gold? We have already established that it won’t benefit our economy in the long term. Sure gold is used in electronic circuitry boards and is needed if we wish to develop new electronic technology. But, there are already huge amounts of gold sitting in reserves around the world not being used. Basically, we would be destroying conservation land to dig up small amounts of gold which would then be put back underground into some overseas bank vault. Is it really worth the impact on the environment?
In terms of coal, we would be extracting low grade dirty coal which when burnt will emit huge amounts of carbon emissions, adding to the climate catastrophe and taxpayers would have to fork out for them under the ETS. Sure it may supply some of our energy demands, but as with any fossil fuels it won’t last forever. New Zealand would be better off investing its time and money into research and development of new renewable energy technology such as tidal. We have an opportunity to be world leaders in renewable energy.
The passing of this legislation will hurt our tourism industry and impact on our conservation land. It’s time we show that we do care. I would encourage you all to take part in the debate online and by making a submission on the draft legislation.