Conservation Comment: Big savings from solar panels

I am staying in Melbourne with my son's family at present.

I have been here for two months and will return in July. It is very different to Whanganui. The weather has been wonderful - usually about 25C, sunny and dry, perfect for walking the family's golden retriever.

There are many houses in this area with between 10 and 25 solar panels on the roofs. The date of the housing is around 1970, when the government were offering considerable incentives to those erecting solar panels on houses. Just in this house, the bill for electricity for a family of five went from about $500 to $28. They have gas (also cheap here) for hot water and heating.

Since about 53 per cent of New Zealand's energy already comes from hydro; to achieve close to 100 per cent should not be too hard. New Zealand already has four or five windmill farms. And many houses with solar panels, I know - I have installed three of them! I have also seen an article that claims that there is enough energy per annum in sunlight to last NZ 10,000 years.

I have been receiving many items on the environment here, mainly from the United States. I am going to include a few of them ...

Wolves Wolves have been reintroduced to Yellowstone Park. To much astonishment it has been found that they have restored the park to its previous lush appearance, with clean sparkling rivers! How? Well, the wolves changed the behaviour of the deer, who kept away from areas where they could easily be trapped. These areas quintupled the height of trees in six years. This created niches for other species, such as hawk, badger, bears, foxes, rabbits, and muskrats to thrive. It also changed the behaviour of rivers, the regenerated forests stabilised banks with less erosion, The river ran faster, with pools, homes for beavers. This process has been called a "Trophic Cascade". It starts at the top of the food chain, with wolves, and cascades down to the bottom - with mice and rabbits. Fascinating. Where else have we perverted nature? On New Zealand farmland?

Bison Bison have been returned to many areas in the United States, where before they roamed in their thousands. Now, on May 20, 2016, they were declared to be the National Mammal of the US. Stamps will no doubt follow.

Islands There have been floods on some Pacific Islands with the high tide. People are having to store their goods in the roof, and prepare to move out. This is now every high tide, not just the occasional freak tide.

They have even taken to floating coffins to survive.

So what has happened in the world since my father retired? Family farms and businesses have been driven out of existence for huge commercial enterprises.

The planet is stressed, many species have been driven to extinction. What next?

-Sara Dickon is a committee member of National Council of Women of NZ (NCWNZ) and the United Nations Association of (UNANZ).