Tariana Turia will open the third Ecoshow

Tariana Turia will open the third Ecoshow, Ecoshow 2007 in the Taupo Great Lake Centre on the evening of 11thOctober.

Speakers at the 6 pm opening will be:

Prue Taylor speaking on Climate Change and Sustainability

Peter Healy and Noelene Landrigan have a breathtakingly big picture approach to sustainability which made a huge impact on a recent Climate Change conference in Wellington. They provide an empowering place to stand , a heart and spirit response to the challenge of our times.

The Ecoshow is an event that provides an affordable opportunity for the man or woman in the street to access high quality cutting edge information and contacts normally available only to public servants and business people.

It is a way to learn how to make healthy decisions that reduce costs whilst also reducing ecological and carbon footprints.

The exhibition includes many exciting sustainable products, demonstrations and community contributions including an international organic food court and cart rides around the Taupo Domain behind a Clydesdale horse.

Richard Heinberg will launch Transition Towns New Zealand

The Ecoshow Taupo will host Richard Heinberg, internationally renowned author and whistle blower on the state of oil supplies for the world.

Richard has gone way beyond speaking out about peak oil, an issue that, like climate destabilisation, has been heavily denied until recently. He has supported the UK Transition Towns initiative. There are now more than 180 towns registered as transition towns in Britain.

Transition towns are towns that are undergoing an active community based process which maps out the steps to create resilience in the face of global climate destabilisation and peak oil (a situation which will occur very soon, perhaps in less than two years, when oil production will start to decrease and prices will go through the roof).

What most people do not realise is that more energy goes into food production than into transport. Food prices will escalate along with oil prices.

Last week researchers at a United Nations forum in Iceland said that to keep pace with increasing population more food will have to be produced world wide in the next fifty years than during the past 10,000 years combined. This is clearly not going to happen.

Richard Heinberg will be talking about the Transition Towns initiative and the concrete steps we can take to respond to this impending crisis.

In addition Richard Heinberg will participate in four hours of workshops to set the groundwork for Transition Towns New Zealand.

The purpose of the launch is to establish a network to inspire, inform, support, cross-pollinate and train communities as they consider, adopt and implement a Transition Initiative. The network will likely facilitate the building and sharing of a range of materials, training courses, events, tools & techniques, resources and a general support capability to help these communities.

Transition Towns communities across the UK use their own collective genius to embark on an imaginative and practical range of connected initiatives, leading to a way of life that is more resilient, more fulfilling and more equitable, and that has dramatically lower levels of carbon emissions.

Richard will be leading a workshop hosted by the North Shore City Council for local government and invited professionals on Wednesday 10th October in Auckland to raise (or extend) awareness of Peak Oil and to kick-start development of regional policy and planning responses. This will be a part of LTCCP.

He will be speaking at the Ecoshow on each day and participating in workshops on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 to launch the Transition Towns New Zealand Initiative.

Local Government staff, community leaders and interested people from different parts of NZ will be participating to develop an understanding of this initiative under the guidance of Richard. It will be a progression on his Wednesday Auckland workshop.

This is a unique opportunity to initiate a collective response to the impending oil crisis that will drive up food prices (and most other prices), drive vehicles off our roads and severely disrupt our economy.

Dr Keith Woodford, Professor of Farm Management and Agribusiness at Lincoln University, will be speaking on Friday and Saturday about A2 milk and the need to transition the New Zealand dairy herd over a period of a few years so as to eliminate the production of A1 milk. This will have the effect of giving New Zealanders improved health and the dairy industry a short term market advantage.

Dr Woodford has recently written a book collating over one hundred scientific papers on research into comparative health issues between A1 and A2 protein in milk.

For example Massai people who consume large quantities of A2 milk have no diabetes and insignificant heart disease. Icelanders have similar milk with similar results. 30% of NZ milk is A2.

Dr Woodford has also published on bio-fuels and a whole range of dairy farming matters.

Alastair Fuad-Luke is an itinerant sustainable design facilitator, lecturer, writer and maker, currently based in the wilds of Scotland, UK. Author of The Eco-design Handbook and is chair of Tempo, a new sustainable design network that aims to inspire by doing projects.

Alastair believes design should encourage slower, more meaningful experiences of individuals, communities and businesses by understanding the opportunities presented by a new design paradigm, ‘slow design'.

He is a Board Member of New York based SlowLab, and serves on the Advisory Board of the Towards Sustainable Product Design 10th conference.

His motto is ‘Slow is beauty full!”

Alastair was brought to New Zealand by the Design Institute of New Zealand and spoke recently in Rotorua to members of the Sustainable Business Network.

Dr Aryan Tavakkoli, a respiratory physician in the Hutt Valley will be speaking on Our Diet Leading Towards a Sustainable Future - or Killing our Planet?

She developed an interest in complementary medicine at an early stage in her career as a conventional doctor, obtaining qualifications in Traditional Chinese Acupuncture from the British College of Acupuncture in 1996, and in herbal medicine from the College of Phytotherapy, UK, in 2002.

Oscar Kjellberg of Sweden will be presenting on interest free banking and small business equity finance as developed and practiced by the JAK Members Bank ($250 million in savings and loans, 40 years of experience). The underpinning premise for the creation of the JAK Bank was that debt based money and interest is both unfair and the foundation of unsustainable economic growth.

Michael Lawley will speak on autonomous energy systems for homes – micro hydro, wind power, photo-voltaic power (solar panel electricity) and many more practical things. He will have with him a range of practical demonstrations to show how things work.

Betsy Kettle will present and do workshops on urban food production. In particular a system developed in Cuba that was part of the solution that has allowed them to produce over 50% of the food consumed by Havana’s inhabitants inside and within a 5-kilometre belt around the city

Tom Pow will speak on a very different approach to dairy farming which can reduce water consumption on dairy farms up to 80% and lift production. This obviously has major implications for dairy farming in the Taupo catchment and the Rotorua lakes catchments.

Dennis Scott, trained permaculture practitioner and landscape designer for the planned Marpara Valley subdivision in Taupo will be speaking on putting vision, not division into development.

Rod Oram, finance commentator, will be speaking about sustainability, New Zealand’s next big revolution.

Grant Dunford, a man with long experience in retrofitting houses for health and energy efficiency will share his wisdom on the pathway to sustainable living.

Brian Gubb, will present on his labour of love, the construction of an earthship. Earthships are built from earth and car tires and have such a high thermal mass that their performance as houses is superb. There is hardly any variation in temperature from summer to winter.

Justin Ford-Robertson will be speaking on “What is carbon Neutral. Adapting to climate change”. Justin has questions about carbon trading and whether it will really make a difference.

Blair Anderson will be speaking on contraction and convergence as the basis for transition development for a low energy future. "Contraction & Convergence" establishes a constitutional, global-equal-rights-based framework for the arrest of greenhouse gas emissions.

The list of stunning speakers goes on. They are all on the website www.ecoshow.co.nz along with much more information.

Tuwharetoa artist Te Maari Gardiner has designed the entry to the Ecoshow.

The Exhibition

About 100 exhibitors will present sustainable solutions for building, cleaning, sewerage, transport, food, energy efficiency, renewable energy, packaging, fertiliser,

Cooking, insulating, home heating, ethical finance, clothing, building materials, heat pumps.

The community component includes a multicultural food court, kapahaka, weaving, art and presentations from 12 schools on their achievements in sustainability over the last two years.

There are numerous Taupo exhibitors.

There will be demonstrations sponsored by a number of Taupo and Rotorua engineering and other firms.

An example demonstration is a vertical wetland system for swimming pool purification capable of being used in place of chemical pool treatment.

There is much for everyone at the Ecoshow 12 – 14 October. Accompanied children are admitted free.