GREEN LIGHT GO-GO

THE GREEN GLOW OF ECOLOGY

Green jewels signify fertility in some cultures, and it seems that this goes back 10,000 years or more when humans moved from hunting and gathering to farming and harvesting. Green beads, displaying the colour of vegetation, were worn to promote fertility in nature and in humankind. Did they want to give birth to 'the boy with green hair' (I saw it in 1948) or just healthy babies?

Here in Aotearoa New Zealand (which tries to portray itself as a green and pleasant land, with verdant grass and carbon-inhaling trees) we have greenstone, a type of jade, which could help promote our image and our campaign against 'global warming' (adverse climate change).

GO GREEN, we sing out in our region, not only because the Manawatû rugby team wears that colour, and not always to promote a particular political party. Green is the ecological way to go.

Just before I came on air (or whatever) I saw the start of David Letterman's Late Show, and he exhibited a moving picture of Al Gore's house, with a huge flashing sign exhorting us to put a stop to global warming. Dave spoke of irony and 'an inconvenient truth'. Well, maybe Al's electricity comes from a sustainable source. The lights are yellow, but they may still be 'green'.

I live on a high and windy hill (where two lovers kiss) and up here a magnificent obsession (Rock Hudson 1954) has taken hold of the electricity companies, and they are being given the green light by the environmental authorites (resource consent): they are gleefully erecting a plethora of windmills for producing the power to turn our darkness into light. Some ungrateful people are saying these dark satanic mills spoil the view and ruin the landscape. But the wind turbine way to power is catching on, and you can even buy a smaller version for your own back yard.

Who remembers Laurel Colless at Palmerston North Girls High School, and at Massey University? Ever wondered where she is now?

Today is my daughter's birthday (26th of August), and I want to draw your attention to the wonderful work she is doing to greenify Washington (DC = 600, but not 666) and make it the environmentally clean capital of the world (I hope she has Beijing next on her list). Working out of Virginia Tech (you have heard about that technological university, though you might have forgotten why, having suppressed the traumatic memory) she hunts and gathers funding from the oil-guilty rich.

Retrofitting is the name of the game (fitting buildings out with the insulation and power-saving features they should have had in the first place); it is not a retrograde business, and certainly not 'retro'.

Here is a recent account of her progress: The Washington Times, 16th of July 2008. It mentions that she grew up in New Zealand as the daughter of a university professor.

Well, that father is immensely proud of his daughter, and she could not have chosen a better career than this to please him.

Have a peep at the page in the family album to see her in the oval office at the White House, playing cricket with the President: Collesseum.