Dieuwe de Boer: Mt Egmont "Collective Redress" A National Shame

All the winning that's going on in the United States is a stark reminder how far we still have to go. As Trump announced to restore the English name of Mount McKinley in Alaska, our own politicians pushed forward with the historical vandalism that has marked New Zealand in the past decades. It was during the Obama regime in 2015 that McKinley's name was erased from that mountain. That erasure was temporary, and now it is being restored. McKinley's name had been on that mountain for much less time than any English names on landmarks in New Zealand. After the Alaska Purchase, a gold prospector dubbed the highest peak in the nation as "Mount McKinley" after the incoming Republican President in 1897 due to his support for the gold standard. It stuck and became official in 1917.

Professor Jerry Coyne: New Zealand volcano deemed to have the status of personhood

New Zealand is the first country in the world to give natural geographic features the status of personhood, with all the rights of a human being. It was first done to Te Urewera, a remote area of the North Island, then to the North Island’s Whanganui River. Now CNN and BreakingViews (headlines below) report that personhood has been tranted to a third feature, the volcano Mount Taranaki, also on the North Island, and located here: