The GreenplanetFM Podcast with Tim Lynch

This week I have Stephen Grant-Jones in the studio to talk about the relaunch of the www.GreenplanetFM.com website & the merging with www.Ourplanet.org into a dynamic, far-reaching local to global web presence.   GreenplanetFM is upping it game, it’s jumping its codes to a whole new platform by extending its outreach to as many people as we can who we share breath with. In doing this, it is merging with Tim’s flagship website Ourplanet.org - which first went up on the world wide web as one of the pioneers of html coding and art work - 20 years ago in 1996. When first put up it collected a number of awards for both content and aesthetics as well as gleaning hundreds of hits a week every year, whilst sitting ‘in suspense’ waiting to be truly activated - well, this time to accelerate our expansion is now!   Stephen Grant-Jones started building websites many years ago after being inspired by an interview he heard by David Bowie and was the person who took the GreenplanetFM audios and turned them into podcasts

(Due to Public Concern, this is a Repeat) Are New Zealand citizens really wanting mass medication in their water supply? For years health experts have been unable to agree on whether fluoride in the drinking water may be toxic to the developing human brain. Extremely high levels of fluoride are known to cause neurotoxicity in adults, and negative impacts on memory and learning have been reported in rodent studies, but little is known about the substance’s impact on children’s neurodevelopment.

Despite many studies, the Government now appears to be planning to implement mandatory fluoridation to the whole of New Zealand. Currently, only around 50% of households are on fluoridated water, with only 23 out of 67 local councils still fluoridating, many voicing their growing concerns about fluoridation risks and dangers. In response to more and more councillors and mayors deciding against fluoridation the Government is now taking the decision away from local councils and communities and putting the power into the

Whangarei in the north of NZ is stirring and it’s around ‘community participation’ as a result of a small dedicated team based on collaborative leadership. Food resilience is one of the important focusses of Transition Towns (TT) as it affects everyone, the poor, middle income and even the rich. We all need high quality food in our body to obtain optimum results. By re­localising their food system, which even here in NZ has been taken over by large corporate players and international supply chains, we have to have plan B. Fortunately over the last 8 years, Jeff has been in Whangarei holding the space whilst many if not most TT’s have dissipated and/or fallen away. But, in Whangarei people come in and out depending on the issues and they are continually finding situations that galvanise people and engage community and get them involved. Which he warmly finds is contagious. Once you gain the awareness of people who want to find out what they can do, it then becomes all what they can do at a community level. Esp

The 2016 New Zealand Organic Market Report. Organic produce sales have increased 11% per annum across the country, as New Zealanders are becoming more mindful as to what they are putting in their mouths and swallowing. This interview covers the era (and error) of the 1st World War where newly concocted chemicals were introduced in armaments etc, that were seen to also have an effect in seemingly speeding up growth in plants. This onslaught continued into synthetic chemicals and the challenges we have today with industrialised factory farming becoming intoxicated from pesticides and herbicides. That then turned into industrial agriculture - a particular ‘culture’ (not really farming) and now we are coming to the end of this industrial age plus its ‘so-called’ mythology. Pesticide and (herbicide) use is everywhere in our civil society, our road and parks management, in conservation and agriculture, and it begs the question:– Are we going to continue to poison our environment, our soil, our food, (that mean

WHAT IS THE EARTH CHARTER? The Earth Charter is an ethical framework for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society during this 21st century. It seeks to inspire in all people a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the whole human family, the greater community of life, and future generations. It is a vision of hope and a call to action. The Earth Charter is an international declaration of fundamental values and principles considered useful by its supporters for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society in the 21st century. Created by a global consultation process, and endorsed by organizations representing millions of people, the Charter "seeks to inspire in all peoples a sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the human family, the greater community of life, and future generations." It calls upon humanity to help create a global partnership at a critical juncture in history. The Earth Charter

Time Banks, Green Dollars, Savings Pools    The interview initially starts with latest topics of Universal basic income, Bitcoin and crypto currencies and that people are awakening to the fact that central bankers don’t have a clue as to solve this ongoing and deteriorating crisis. In NZ the situation today looks pretty good to the casual observer - listen to MSM and government sources and we are in a stable and robust moderately growing economy - everything is quite good, some of our major trading partners are experiencing some head winds but … ‘she’ll be right.’   If you rule out the dairy shock of the last 14 months and take out the Auckland property bubble but don’t worry about those little wobbles, we as a country are doing just fine! What this means that we in NZ are going to be following most of the rest of the world into 'debt deflation' which over the coming years is going to take hold with a greater severity. We have been a lucky country and managed to come through the recent (GFC) Global Financial

Why is this government touting the TPPA, a complex and convoluted path to achieve a $2.7 billion by 2030?  In 2015, over $4.5 billion was earned by our four big Australian banks alone which was a 30% increase in returns over a 7 year period. Our country's sovereignty and democracy is about to be lost for such little gain from the TPPA, particularly compared to corporate profit levels. Since the TPP’s signing on the 4th February the government is steaming ahead with ratification, first reviewing the TPP agreement and the National Interest Analysis (NIA) through the present Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (FADT) Select Committee process. Over 3000 New Zealanders have provided the government with their views and evidence, at hearings in Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland, with more through the remainder of April in Wellington. The report from the FADT committee is due before the Parliament in May. If approved the Minister Todd MacClay will introduce enabling legislation to the House which will amend our Ne

Permaculture is a designed science system that is the most innovative planetary method available - of pulling all the disparate forces of nature together in a harmonious movement to live within the seasonal flow of the web of life. Geoff is continually invited to go to many countries from very developed, to others that are environmentally distressed and now, situations of conflict where he finds himself putting both conflict and environmental circumstances back together - in a sustainable form. Even looking towards establishing eco city developments and eco villages as examples, as the permaculture design system covers all climates, all landscapes and virtually all contingencies. Permaculture to him is essentially a journey of discovery through a career of assisting people towards embedding sustainable knowingness – which has been taught as a subject since 1979 - to over 15,000 students and NZ too has a number of superb students now fully trained as experienced teachers, many working globally as leaders in th

We have empathy. We walk in the shoes of others and care how we affect the world around us. We have open minds. We value creativity and collaboration when solving problems. We trust our people. We back people to achieve the remarkable. We are future focused. Through our actions and behaviour we aim to leave the world in a better place. The above is what Justin feels is a crucial part of how our future is created – that in a business sense the values are brought to the fore to just remind all the players within the business and around the business, of what we are there for and how we support each other and how we work together to enable better outcomes. Justin see values as a pivotal issue as he sees our societal values are changing at a deep level and he feels it is quite problematic and is something that has to be addressed so the business is leading the way as they spend a lot of time at work.

Dr Mike Joy, NZ’s most high profile & prolific ecological voice for the waterways and ecology. How his valued insights has him consulting for LandCorp the NZ Government’s holdings that involve 127 properties, close to 1 million acres of land, and 1.6 million animals that need to be environmentally stewarded. Mike says that the big challenge for NZ farms, especially dairy is through the increasing application of both nitrogen and phosphorus. That in assisting in quadrupling farm production in the last 25 years - that has benefitted the rural sector and the country as a whole, the downside is immense. As these leach out of the soil and into waterways where they feed nuisance plant and algae growth throughout our river and lakes. Also, that we are facing a critical problem with cadmium that is found in the phosphates that are mined overseas and imported into NZ.

We need a whole lot of frontline activists working to challenge this failing neoliberal system that we reside under, where the corporations are taking control, and democracy is likely to die, and where the government fails to listen to the people! It is possible for brave individuals to make a difference. In this interview Icelandic protest leader Hordur Torfason speaks of what makes an activist, by relating his own experience. First he talks about his gay rights activism, and then onto the Iceland Revolution, of which he was the major initiator. Importantly, he allowed other people to do their own thing, and did not insist that everyone worked with him. This allowed other leaders to express themselves and come to the fore and the movement grew.

We live on a planet of majestic proportions, teaming with life within a biosphere of mega-trillions of beings. From the microscopic and invisible to the macro-captivating mega fauna, from viruses and bacteria to the great blue whales and kauri and redwoods. To the council of all beings - all breathing in concert and growing and surviving within the seasonal cycles of a fecund yet increasingly stressed mother planet. However - what of the future, where are we going as a human species? What is the destiny of our planet in these rapidly changing of times? And who best can speak to these challenges, other than the races and cultures who have held onto the old ways - the indigenous, the first nations - the ones who keep the soles of their feet firmly planted on the surface of the great mother, Gaia, Papatuanuku, our profound sustainer. Listen to an inspiring introduction to what this weekend will share. This engaging discussion with representatives of this forthcoming event is persuasive and captivating. Knowing t

Kevin Toomey a Catholic and Daud Azimullah a Moslem of the Auckland Inter Faith Council talk about the benefits and challenges of bringing the ‘interfaith community’ together including all the various strands of the humanity into one unified global family that lives in peace and prosperity. Their aim is to promote interfaith cooperation around shared religious values to strengthen the public’s commitment to the values of civic participation, freedom of religion, diversity, and civility in public discourse and to encourage the active involvement of people of faith in every countries political life.

Jeff Phillips originally from the USA studied physics as he wanted to be an astronomer, then switched over to zoology and psychology after being inspired by Dr. John C Lilly and his work with cetacean consciousness where he was invited to California to swim with the dolphins. The word ‘Civilized’ by definition means to live in cities and includes everything associated and linked to living in tightly organised, structureds, law making, stratified and hierarchical systems. Jeff goes on to describe the differences between indigenous living and civilisation especially with the extractive economy to that of the consumptive economy where mining, from iron, to diamonds, to gold and coal and to today’s big baddie ­- uranium. It was either the people for the earth or the people against the earth. The indigenous not owning the land but instead being custodians.

The Resource Management Act (RMA) passed in 1991 in New Zealand at times, controversial Act of Parliament. The RMA promotes the sustainable management of natural and physical resources such as land, air and water. New Zealand's Ministry for the Environment describes the RMA as New Zealand's principal legislation for environmental management. As the RMA and the decisions made under it by district and regional councils and in courts affect both individuals and businesses in large numbers, the RMA has variously been attacked for being ineffective in managing adverse environmental effects, or overly time-consuming and expensive and concerned with bureaucratic restrictions on legitimate economic activities. Dr Mels Barton and Sean Freeman speak about the impact of the recent changes to the RMA Should central government be able to control decisions made by local government? This seems to be the approach of our current government thus undermining local democracy, generally in favour of business interests. One could

The country is divided as it hasn’t been since the South African Springbok tour in 1981. And probably along somewhat similar lines. This time it is over a complex international treaty – the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, TPPA (often referred to as the TPP). The negotiations were kept secret for six years, and for good reasons. Analysis of the final agreement shows that the TPPA is not in our interests. Beyond the spin and myths, there are three hard truths about the impacts of the TPPA on New Zealand.

Reclaiming our country NZ - a call to family and community values of goodwill cooperation & ecological mindfulness.    David Ford, in his own language: I’m not fond of "blunt language" AND I reckon WE the Royal WE have got to collectively stand up & demand a total course correction to the Human race. If we really want to "save OURSELVES";  I reckon all we have to collectively do is to STOP PARTICIPATING ~ STOP CON~ SUMING ~ and start RE~CREATING & playing (without consuming! ) more. WE collectively have PILLAGED our MOTHER PLANET ~ therefore WE can COLLECTIVELY HEAL HER. It's pretty SIMPLE. David Ford describes himself as a simple South Island, NZ farm boy (& ex Red neck National party man) who went on a 3 year OE that has morphed into 42 years as a proud GLOBAL CITIZEN AMBASSADOR for New Zealand's core values of kindness, peace seeking, generosity & can do co-operation.

At the Paris Conference of the Parties - COP21 - almost 200 nations agreed to reduce greenhouse gases to levels yielding no more than 1.5 to 2.0 degrees of warming. Scientists are convinced that anything above the 2 degree mark locks in changes to the planetary climate beyond civilization's adaptive capacity. For some climate activists, like Gary Cranston, the accord was an exercise in empty, feel-good promise making. For example, a group of climate scientists recently submitted a letter to The Independent calling the agreement "false hope" and full of "deadly flaws." They cited the fact that the CO2 reduction commitments in the agreement don't kick in until 2020. By that time, the scientists argue, so much more CO2 will have been pumped into the atmosphere that we may already be locked into warming, pushing us above the 2 degree line.

In 2016 Christine Jones is coming to live in NZ, to assist farmers and soil scientists understand how biological agriculture can resolve pollution challenges caused by excessive use of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilisers. She says improvements to soil function will help restore waterways without any need to reduce the number of cows. At the same time, the cows will be healthier!

The book, The Catch: The awakening in NZ at both Government and industry level that we have to totally change our fishing practices to conserve local and world fishing stocks. That citizen initiated groups in NZ can make a difference if we commit to organise and make our voices heard. This is about the exploitation of NZ waters by overseas fishing corporations. The exploitation and near on slavery of crews working on these boats in NZ waters. The vacuuming up of the last remaining tuna and large fishing stocks in the Pacific ocean, that last fishery on earth. Of corruption and irresponsible attitudes at virtually every level in the worlds fishing fleets. We have to act now.