Craig Stevens: NZ is surrounded by ocean energy. Just what would it take to tap it?

Same as it ever was” is a phrase that continues to resonate in 2026.

The oil shocks of the 1970s, triggered by conflict in the Middle East, sent global energy prices soaring and exposed the vulnerability of modern economies to fuel supply. They also sparked a global surge of interest in alternative energy.

One particularly intriguing idea at the time came from Stephen Salter, a University of Edinburgh researcher who recognised the enormous amount of energy that is constantly cycled within oceans.

Clive Bibby: Change needs to be based on a sustainable strategy - not driven by ideology

For those who have spent a lifetime working in the livestock industry, listening to farming leaders bemoan the current state of the sheep industry is not something we want to hear.

It isn’t that their claims of treachery by various governments aren’t justified - just that it appears to be too little too late and nobody in a position of authority in government circles appears willing to do anything about it. We have been down this road many times before and it is becoming tiresome waiting for a response from those who have the ability to make things happen that will avoid a repeat of disasters waiting to happen.

Ron Smith: Education and Propaganda

A functioning democracy requires institutions that provide for its citizens an unfettered opportunity to participate in the decisions that affect their lives.  It also requires a free and unbiased media, especially in regard to that part of it that is in public ownership and under official control.  I have commented on the manifest deficiencies of the New Zealand media in this respect on earlier occasions.  See, for example, my ‘Public Service and Public Propaganda’ of August 2011, which focussed on National Radio and the persistent radical bias of the bulk of its presenters and guests. 

But there is a third leg to the democratic ‘stool’ and that is an education system that seriously prepares its future voters to play a part in determining the sort of society in which they will live, rather than be merely election fodder. 

Ron Smith: Sustainability and the role of the university

It appears from my local paper that, along with Unitech, the University of Waikato has formally committed itself to the United Nations Higher Education Sustainability Initiative, which was part of the much-reported June, Rio + 20, process.  This is to be regretted.  The decision appears to have been taken without much consultation, or any reflection on what the implications might be for teaching and learning and for the role of the university in society.  It is more than a mere vacuous declaration of virtue.  It is yet another assault on the whole notion of the university as a centre for critical thought, and as a source of contestable advice on public issues.