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There’s art and there’s street sculpture …

The chainsaw carvings in Victoria Avenue were an eyesore. Good riddance to them. I’m sure that sculptor Merv is a very nice bloke and I’m sorry that his feelings were hurt, but his masterpiece was my blot on the landscape.

There’s a place for chainsaw sculpture but that place isn’t a permanent spot in a tree-lined avenue. An avenue is, by definition, a street lined with trees.

Living trees.

… and then there are trees

And while we’re on the subject of trees, what about replacements for the missing trees in Victoria Avenue and myriad streets all around Wanganui? Trees help to absorb the noxious emissions that we fill our city air with. As well as being easy on the eye they help to reduce city temperature extremes by absorbing heat and by shading asphalt.

Have you wondered why the temperatures shown on the evening news are a lot lower than what you suffered under during the summer days? It’s because of the vast areas of asphalt on our roads and ever-expanding heat retaining tar-sealed car parks.

Cities are invariably significantly hotter than the carefully selected places where the weather data are recorded. How many times do we look at the TV weather figure for Wanganui and say “Yeah, right”?

In my own little street I’m confronted by patches of flourishing weeds surrounded by concrete edging. These patches of ugliness were intended as tree sites. How difficult is it to sort that out?

Won’t put much strain on the rates.

And to stir a little controversy

It would be nice if the Victoria Avenue trees could be progressively replaced with natives. Won’t hold my breath on that one. I suspect that would be a minority view and I’ll bow to public opinion if that’s the case.

But we need lots of natives to replace lost trees in many other streets of our city. Beautiful Victoria Avenue is one of the reasons that so many visitors are surprised at what a pleasant city we have. Let’s add to that pool of beauty.

Wanganui Gas have generously decided to fund the gas flares that will stop you from falling off the boardwalk after too many pinot noirs at your favourite downtown watering hole.

Who are they kidding? That gas isn’t free. Somebody’s paying.

If you’re a Wanganui Gas consumer would you care to guess who?

Then again, maybe they’ve been reading about this on my other blog:

Forget climate change. The Arabs can keep their oil. We can run everything on salt water.

Don’t believe me? You can see it for yourself right here .

Salt water burning. Not just burning, but powering an engine. There’s the picture »

All our troubles are over, right?

The inventor, John Kanzius, splits the molecules of water into oxygen and hydrogen and burns the hydrogen. Seems like a nice man too.

Hang on a minute, isn’t there a catch?

Well, now that you ask, yes.

It’s all been done before, albeit in a different way. In the breathless news reports nobody thinks to ask, “How much energy goes into the RF generator which initiates this miraculous process?”

There’s the small matter of the Laws of Thermodynamics which our fearless journos don’t seem to know about. Wouldn’t it be nice if journalists and TV presenters were educated and knowledgeable people.

Don’t get your hopes up.

Then again, I may be wrong. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Jonathon Schell, is a man of many accomplishments. With spare elegance he has encapsulated my generation’s legacy:

“Nature, once a harsh and feared master, now lies in subjection and needs protection against man’s powers.”

“Yet because man, no matter what intellectual and technical heights he may scale, remains embedded in nature, the balance has shifted against him too, and the threat that he poses to the Earth is a threat to him as well.”

Think about those cupfuls of oil. They add up.

Whether you’re a climate change evangelist or a skeptic, you can’t escape the fact that we’re fouling our grandchildren’s nest.

Seriously.

One world, one people, one chance.

What does this have to do with Wanganui?

Quote Mayor Michael Laws regarding a questionable addition to the splendid riverfront walkway:

“I also want to acknowledge the generous support for this project from Wanganui Gas who have offered to provide gas flares which will light up the area at night. They will work in with architectural designers Praxis to ensure the flares are used to best effect – it will be stunning.”

So, we’re all encouraged to install compact fluorescent lamps and leave the car in the garage but it’s OK for Wanganui Gas, with the endorsement of Council, to burn our rapidly vanishing supplies of gas for such a frivolous purpose.

It’s environmental vandalism.

More next post.