Letters to the Editor

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Kia ora
If you’ve called Kaipara District Council or received one of our letters, it’s likely you will have been greeted with a friendly ‘Kia ora’, or ‘Tēnā koe’.

It has been almost 40 years since tolls operator Naida Glavish of Ngāti Whātua was demoted for greeting callers with ‘Kia ora’. Now, these simple greetings and phrases are well understood and used as everyday greetings in our media, primary schools and our council. Their use in mass broadcast channels makes te reo Māori more familiar, which continues to cement its place in our everyday language. Te reo Māori is one of the official languages of New Zealand, recognised as a taonga (treasure) by the Waitangi Tribunal.

Like KDC, many organisations include karakia as part of business meetings; in our case our Mayor opens and closes our Council Meetings with a karakia.

This is a journey for some Council staff and we ask for patience from those who are fluent in te reo.

Some of us are not always proficient in what we say, but by listening and practicing, we hope to become more so. We hope you will support us as we continue to be more familiar with hearing te reo Māori and speaking it ourselves.

I still receive complaints about our use of te reo Māori, with some people calling it discriminatory, foreign and insulting. I acknowledge that view is held by a very small part of our community, however KDC is committed to embracing te reo Māori in our communication both internally and externally as I believe it brings our values to life. Our intention isn’t to make anyone feel excluded by our use of te reo Māori, we’re simply being more inclusive to a progressive Aotearoa culture.

Ngā mihi (thank you).
Louise Miller
Chief Executive, Kaipara District Council

 

Show us the science
I don’t have a computer, but I read to increase one’s knowledge. The climate science is definitely not settled. Much of climate ‘science’ is politically and ideologically dressed up.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) uses words or terms such as ‘likely’, ‘very likely’ or ‘extremely likely’ to imply statistical significance, but they are devoid of either statistical or scientific meaning.

The recently highlighted fact that even the simple question of what average solar zenith angle to use in climate computer models is not resolved, and the incorrect representation

of solar zenith angle, can lead to a surplus of solar radiation or 7 to 20 watts per metre squared (W/m2) in the global energy budget.

The IPCC have concealed problems determining absolute total solar irradiance, especially the fact that the problem still exists today.

The authors and their computer models also failed to disclose or explain that the measurements of total solar irradiance is confounded by our current inability to determine its absolute value. It’s important to know whether the mean value is 1360, 1361, or 1365 W/m2.

For example, in 2014 reports from the SOVAP (Solar Variability Picard) radiometer on board the Picard spacecraft measured the total radiance for the summer 2010 to be 1362.1 W/m2, with an uncertainty of +/- 2.4 W/m2.

The sun is the ultimate factor causing change in our climate. The sun provides the earth with a staggering amount of energy. It drives weather, ocean currents, evaporation, and energy for life on earth. The sun also prevents oceans from freezing or boiling. The sun could have made 69-92 per cent of climate warming.

Jim Leslie
Kaiwaka

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