We Did It! People Power - No Mining in NZ :)

Last week on July 20 the NZ government announced that there would be no mining in in Schedule 4 land or any national parks now or in the future. We did it! The various methods applied by non profit organisations using social media worked :)

The picture on the left was taken by Alex at the top of Mt Ngauruhoe (that's Mt Doom for Lord of the Rings fans ;) showing the view of Lake Taupo. From when did the Tongariro Crossing, an incredible walk through the National Park that took us several hours. We were exceptionally lucky with the weather, which is why you can see for miles!

Greenpeace wrote:

This is a huge victory for the environment, for you and for future generations. We saw the biggest protest in a generation and an avalanche of submissions. It goes to show that people power works, that when enough of us act together - we are unstoppable.

This is a hugely significant victory and shows the Government in no uncertain terms that New Zealanders want a better vision for the future. We value our environment and its importance to our economy. We don't want it sacrificed for short-term corporate profit.


When I tweeted "We did it" one of my followers Peter S Lopez suggested I blog about it, so here is a brief look from my perspective at what contributed to this success as a casual observer! I'm fairly sure that there was a lot more activity going on but this is all I can remember and highlights what stood out for me from their social media strategy!

TV News role: I remember the news on tv reporting the Government's proposal to mine in an area called Schedule 4, that had previously been protected like national parks, the Coromandel and Great Barrier island. We were staying with Will and Kirsten in Auckland at the time and it got us talking about the topic. Kirsten, Alex and I, visited the Coromandel (see next pic) and it just doesn't make sense to spoil somewhere so beautiful and such a tourist destination. Although we talked about it, no action was taken by any of us and I forgot about it until ...

Facebook: I started to see status updates about the topic from green groups and kiwi friends like Michael Q Todd (even though he's in Japan!) with links to sign petitions or competitions to design T-shirts slogans against the mining! I went to website signed the petition, it posted a message to my facebook status and I then used the other social media sharing button for ...

Twitter: I tweeted about the petition and others re-tweeted it. The conversation was going on and was useful for letting people know about upcoming deadlines for the petition. Initially the NZ government had set a deadline of end April/early May? Then it got extended and this gave even more people an oppotunity to participate. I saw that demonstration marches were organised in places like Auckland and Wellington. Alex and I, were unable to make any because we were on the South island. Still they seemed to be well attended and got media attention!

Email: As I'd given my email address for the petition, I then received updates by email from Greenpeace NZ and finally that was how I found out that we did it! People power succeeded.

I sometimes hear from people either in face to face conversations, or on social media, who think that they don't have the power to change the way things are. I disagree. I think we all have the power to make choices that support change or not.

I chose to pay attention to what was happening in this beautiful country I am visiting.

I noticed some messages online (less offline because I don't watch tv or listen to radio that often).

I followed them up - this usually only involved a simple click of my mouse on a link!

I added my name to a petition and a comment.

I shared the message on facebook and twitter - again as easy as clicking on a button and adding a brief personal message - sometimes there was even a draft one I could use (Greenpeace are great at providing these :) That's it!!

Anyone can do this if I can and many did. Thank you to everyone who helped put a stop to mining in NZ schedule 4 and national park areas. There are talks of others sorts of mining - Greenpeace describe it as dangerous deep-water oil drilling, and new coal and lignite mines. So there is already another petition under way to stop that! Click here to sign.

Hope this was interesting and helpful, please feel free to leave a comment and have your say.

Best wishes,

Peace

Emily