Rome wasn’t built in a day
‘‘If we don’t build an arena, they won’t come’’ (May 3) highlights the importance of a roofed multi-purpose stadium. Megan Woods, April 27, said ‘‘Christchurch is closer than ever to getting a stadium’’. Seven years on from the earthquakes and I suggest to Minister Woods that actually starting a project is a good way to bring forward completion.
The Colosseum in Rome, built in just six years, holding 50,000 to 80,000 spectators was multi-purpose, hosting gladiatorial contests, mock sea battles, chariot racing and dramas by Roman authors. Two-hundred-and-forty masts supported a retractable awning keeping the sun and rain off spectators.
Admittedly the year AD 80 was over 1900 years ago, there were fewer working groups, funding was sourced from the spoils of politics and heads rolled if there was a lack of performance, which reminds me – where is the $300 million promised to Christchurch city? There is that old saying about ‘‘build it and they will come’’. But will they? The All Blacks currently won’t play a test in Christchurch until there is a new stadium. The Crusaders moan about having to play in the weather.
Have either of these bodies offered anything in return for this stadium? Will the NZRU guarantee the All Blacks will play at least a set number of tests (say 12 over 10 years) once the stadium is up and running? Similarly will the Crusaders confirm all home games will be played there, or are they planning to take a home game off somewhere else as soon as the stadium is built?
Rugby and other potential users need to stand up and make some commitments to Christchurch. Without them, any business case is going to be the usual wishy-washy grab-bag of wishful maybes that will later be found to be total hogwash. In a recent Press article (12 April) the Mayor suggests residents may be charged for the water they use over a specified amount. What an insult it would be if the City Council were charging residents for water while the undemocratic regional council approved foreign firms taking billions of litres of water for free from our aquifers, bottling it and sending it off overseas. The Council has no right whatsoever to charge for something it does not and cannot produce.
It is fair to charge us for water distribution but this cost is covered in the rates we pay. Forget global warming, retreating glaciers, arctic ice melt, and rising sea levels, as we are in for an extended period of global cooling from the next Maunders Minimum solar cycle that will have serious consequences for our standards of living and lifestyles. Planning needs to start now on how to deal with the future issues resulting from much colder temperatures, such as additional power generation and distribution, maintenance of power supplies through storm conditions, reduced food production capacity, changed agriculture practices, protection of livestock through severe cold periods, inadequate insulation in homes, safe alternative heating systems, transport and travel disruption from snow and ice, to mention just a few of the potential issues. I read with interest the conjecture about the possible collapse of the Thwaites Antarctic glacier. Over the thousands of years that it has taken the glacier to form, the water vapour in the atmosphere released latent heat as it condensed and again as it froze and finally fell to add to the accumulated ice. Now that there is talk of the massive glacier melting, will the huge heat input into the melting process cool the earth down to such an extent that this will trigger another ice age? As I am in my nineties, I do not think I should worry too much. But what about my greatgrandchildren?