Nine To Noon for Monday 22 March 2021

 

09:05 Wellington woman will spend savings on hip surgery after DHB declines

A self-employed Wellington woman whose arthritis is so bad she cannot walk more than 5 steps, will spend $30 thousand of her retirement savings to have surgery done privately because she has been declined on the public list. Andrea Clinton, who is in her mid 50s, had a pre-operation assessment at CCDHB last September and was told she would get her hip replacement within six months. Now she's been told she does not meet the threshold and has to go back to the beginning again, and that her surgery would likely be within three months. Ms Clinton takes morphine, codeine, panadol, anti-inflammatories and uses a crutch. The self employed hairdresser says she cannot continue and has decided to have the surgery done privately this week, at a cost of $30 thousand.

09:25 Could global warming slow photosynthesis?

A new study warns photosynthesis could slow with global warning, with forests and plants switching from absorbing carbon to releasing it. Professor Louis Schipper is a soil scientist and Professor at University of Waikato. His research in collaboration with Northern Arizona University, looks at the tipping point for when heat slows plants down and finds it could be a soon as 2040. At that tipping point,  photosynthesis would decline, and respiration increase,  triggering a disturbance of the delicate balance of carbon sequestration.

09:45 South America correspondent Daniel Schweimler

Brazil is now the second worst Covid-19 affected country in the world after the US. Brazil  (after the US). In Brazil there have been 292,000 deaths and nearly 12 million people have been infected.  Over the weekend Rio de Janeiro closed its famous beaches, including the Copacabana and Ipanema, to try to prevent the spread with hospitals now at 95% capacity. Meanwhile the vaccination programme in much of Latin America has been sporadic, except in Chile, which has vaccinated nearly half its population. 

10:05  The Great Firewall of China - how to control the Internet

What could the internet look like in the future, and how closely might it resemble what users in China experience?Kathryn speaks to James Griffiths, a Hong Kong-based journalist who has taken an in-depth look at the internet controls introduced by China that allow it to suppress information and prevent any sort of collective action of the kind it does not want. In his book, The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet, he tracks the history of the Chinese internet, peppering it with the experiences of many dissidents and dissenters who found themselves foul of the state's censors. He also looks at how Silicon Valley companies have aided China in its control, and points out Western tech companies are often stridently restrictive as well -  but largely when it's in their own best interests.

10:35 Book Review: The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson

Harry Broad reviews The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson. Published by Simon and Schuster.

10:45 The Reading

Responsibility, part six. Written by Nigel Cox and read by Tim Gordon.

11:05 Political commentators Mills & Morten

Louder calls for a Trans Tasman travel bubble amid increasingly frosting Australasian political relations and Stephen, Brigitte and Kathryn look at a lower than expected GDP quarter figure.

Stephen Mills is the executive director of UMR Research , which is the polling firm used by Labour.  He is former political adviser to two Labour governments.

Brigitte Morten is a senior consultant with public and commercial law firm Franks & Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government. 

 

11:30 What to do with an autumnal glut of tomatoes 

If you're a successful vegetable gardener, autumn can mean you've got too many tomatoes on your hands. Also this season tomatoes have been selling for as little as five cents a kilo - because of an oversupply of stock as Covid 19 affects exports. Claire Mummery is an expert in growing food - based on Waiheke Island she's a coach on organic gardening and sustainable living through the Grow Inspired Academy. She shares two recipes: green tomato chutney, and harvest tomato paste.  

11:45 Auckland’s new pretend pā… and our cities' invisible histories

  Bill McKay joins Kathryn to talk about the forgotten history of central Auckland and how it deserves more than a token nod in the new redesign of Aotea Square.

Bill McKay is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland