Premier House’s possum woes

It’s been reported that Premier House in Wellington has pesky possums. Cause: the bush on their boundary. Solution: the taxpayer is paying for exterminators to come in to deal with the problem.

There seems to be no mention of 1080 being used in the bush on Premier House’s boundary to treat the source of the problem.

Greater Wellington Regional Council has no issue with using 1080 as close as 50m to other homes with bush on their boundary, suspected home to possums. Some (maybe even many) of these homes don’t have pesky possums in their parlour but are faced with a poison that is more than pesky on their doorstep.

Winston Peters: in your election promises, you promised an alternative to 1080 to control the pesky possums. If 1080 isn’t an option in the bush close to Premier House, it shouldn’t be an option close to others’ homes . . .

Vicki Cordier, Wainuiomata

Less spin please

What a pompous statement by Peter Biggs from Wreda about his role in ‘‘adding value to the Wellington region and making it more prosperous, confident and distinctive’’ (Oct 5).

The less spin and gloss we have from such public bodies the better. As a Wellington ratepayer, I seek a greater critique of the performance versus cost of such agencies.

Journalists and media experts, including in the mayor’s office, should dig deeper and provide readers and ratepayers with a more robust and transparent analysis of the pros and cons of such people and bodies.

Time for me and others to set up a Ratepayers’ Protection Group to provide more independent and critical analysis of such local ‘‘leaders’’, agencies and their spokespeople?

Braydon Stone, Wellington

Make fuel $20 a litre

Listening to Simon Bridges suggest a lowering of fuel prices shows he – and his ignorant party – has no concern for CO2 emissions and global warming that are affecting the purity and quality of our fragile, dwindling atmosphere.

In fact, fuel should be at least $20 a litre so that no toxic gas is so easily emitted by trucks, gin palace boats and cargo vessels, outboards, generators, trains – and about 500 million fossilfuelled cars on our one lonely, thin-skinned planet.

The latest report from Wellington’s Victoria University says that a global rise in temperature of 1.5 degrees is looming in 30 years.

New Zealand is a bit player for pollution but our cows are prime farters and greenhouse gas depleters.

New Zealanders need government fuel policing that kicks their denialism in the guts.

Maybe best just to limit all fuel users to 100 litres per year. And add another $20 a litre to any surplus amount used.

New Zealand might have lots of green grass but not much green government policy.

Rob Buchanan, Kerikeri

Stark choice

It’s encouraging that we’re starting to see so many electric vehicles and talk about issues around plastics.

But this is all purely cosmetic – the issues at hand are far greater and more pressing.

We can ‘‘save’’ the habitable planet and with it ourselves, or we can preserve capitalism until there’s nothing left to save. And the time for choosing is running very short.

Capitalism is driven by profit and profits are maximised by treating the environment as a free resource. We can’t legislate away the fundamental nature of capitalism. It will adapt to any new laws implemented and find another way to trash the environment.

Capitalism is structurally incapable of addressing the existential threat of climate change and ecological meltdown as there is far more profit in ransacking the environment than in saving it. Either we get rid of this blind, catastrophic system or ultimately it will get rid of us.

Fundamental systemic change is required. Anything else is just window dressing. We need a radically different model which democratically plans the use of resources to meet human need, including most especially a habitable planet.

Is this a case of mass extinction of our species caused by a sense of diffused responsibility? We can’t really argue we’re unaware of this issue any more.

Ollie Langridge, Island Bay