Welcome to 2008

The year began with a series of brutal murders on top of a falling share market and warnings that the residential property market was on a slide. And we have lost Ed Hillary who has taken up a record amount of media space. Don't get me wrong he certainly deserves such an iconic space/place .

The event of note so far is Taupo A1GP where cars ran on a 30 percent bio fuel mix. No amount of spin will make this a good and virtuous example. It is a world on the brink of disaster from climate change and peak oil but the ring master of the democratic circus must sell papers (in this case the Dominion Post) and so still finds a market with popular culture. How much longer such media folly continues is a moot point. We have come to expect nothing less from our media which is locked into the paradigm of vested interests.

We are now in the age of human energy and furthermore, Chevron has been telling us this for the last 3 years. We have no reason to disbelieve the petroleum giant even if the media have ignored such an assertion. Political leadership has been totally lacking from even the greens. At Wellington City Council three badged Greens still drive SUVs so the Capital's local body is continuing to fail the acid test while endorsing a carbon neutral city. In the meantime motor vehicles fill the streets with one person per car and there are no cycle stands to be seen. Carbon neutral Wellington? Yeah right!