Interview with WEcan

I had a few questions for Richard Morley, spokesperson for WEcan. I'm basically sympathetic to WEcan, but I wanted to see where they stood on a few things. Here's the questions and responses (if anyone chooses to contact any council candidates with questions about their policies, could they please send the responses to me?

"Where Ecan can't - WEcan". Why don't you think Ecan can?

Many of the current councilors have been in their positions for at least 2 terms. They have had a fair chance to get things right but the stats speak for themselves. They are failing. Water quality is deteriorating. Water quantities are being over allocated. Mega landfills are being built in place of smart Zero Waste technologies and now... as a way to address the supposed shortage of energy in NZ, we are about to debate the merits of Nuclear energy.

What's wrong with investigating nuclear power?

2 answers here.
Firstly just generating more and more power is not going to solve NZ's energy problems. It is an extremely short-term and un-sustainable approach. We must, must, must learn to do more with less. Again the facts speak for themselves;

• NZ has some of the cheapest energy in the world...and that is not a
  good thing.
• NZ'ers are some of the biggest consumers of energy...and that too is not a good thing.

Why are so many houses still not insulated? Why are not all homes and businesses heating their water through solar water heating (approx. 40% of household energy usage)?

Secondly Nuclear is not the energy of the future...it is the energy of the last millennium so much so that European countries are actually decommissioning their plants. No-one, especially not NZ'ers want nuclear. It is entirely unsustainable...if only for the incredible waste it creates.

What are the limits to growth, and how do they apply to Christchurch?

Very simply the planets resources. The human race is reaching, and in many cases has surpassed the limits of nature...our life support system. The health of oceans, rivers, air and bio-diversity are all in decline. The availability of the earths buried resources are also rapidly in decline...of most note must be crude oil. Even the largest petroleum companies are saying 40 years is all that's left.

New Zealand, and Christchurch, must aim, long-term, to becoming more self-sufficient. This great 'Global Economy' will just not exist, at least the way we currently know it, once petroleum becomes scarce.