INDEPENDENT NEWS

Tauranga Council candidate wants to bring back the Moa.

Published: Thu 8 Mar 2018 09:44 AM
Tauranga Council By-election candidate David Tank wants to bring back the Moa.
Mr Tank, 51, has written to the Prime Minister to ask for our Governments support for an innovation prize of $10 million to be offered to anyone who can produce a viable breeding population of Dinornis Robustus, better known as the South Island Giant Moa.
He also wants to offer similar bounties for the return of the Huia and the Hokioi (the Haasts Eagle).
Mr Tank has requested that the Prime Minister call Elon Musk of Tesla and Space X fame for his support for these and an ongoing series of innovation prizes to be called "The Moa Prize." "Why? Because Elon is a visionary and he knows a good idea when he hears it. He was happy to take on board my suggestion that we shoot an electric car into deep space and I have no doubt that he will see the benefit of this "big idea" and would wish to support it." Mr Tank says.
"However, to give him and the world confidence in the seriousness and legitimacy of this endeavour I am asking that my Government and my country stand with me in offering it."
"It is my intention that we establish the "Moa Prize", to be based in Tauranga, as a crowd sourced and funded innovation generator that will provide the missing link in our 21st century innovation architecture."
"Too many idea's never become reality because those who have them do not have the resources or connections to make them happen. The Moa Prize will provide that link for any and all anywhere on the planet." he says.
"These idea's must be optimistic idea's and ones of genius and each must aim to help heal our planet and bring peace to all its peoples. They should also make us smile."
Mr Tank is seeking $US180 million for the first five prizes.
These are:
De extinction:
1. Produce a viable breeding population of the Dinornis robustus The South Island Giant Moa. $US10 million
2. Produce a viable breeding population of the Heteralocha acutirostris The Huia. $US10 million.
3. Produce a viable breeding population of the Harpagornis moorei The Hokioi or Haast Eagle. $US10 Million. The Great Leap Forward:
4. A solar powered Kitset Home that pays for itself by selling electricity. $US50 million
5. A solar powered Conversion Kit that can also turn our current homes into power stations. $US100 million
To qualify for entry entrants will need to partner with NZ scientists and industry. "Subsequent to this my intention is to establish an on line presence that will invite all to submit an idea of benefit to both New Zealand and to all the people of the world. Anyone will be able to comment and to "upvote" and to pledge money should that particular idea become an official Moa Prize."
"Any idea's not selected for "A Moa Prize" will also be open to public view and potential investment offers while the intellectual property rights of its originator will be safe guarded." Mr Tank says. "It will also make our city a global hub for innovation dedicated to saving our world." He says.
So why the Moa?
"Because I believe the greatest danger to our chances of dealing with the challenges of our time is the sense of hopelessness that most of us feel when we consider the damage we are doing to ourselves and our planet." he says.
"Not so long ago we held as an article of faith that our ceaseless inventiveness and industry was a force for good and that there was nothing we could not accomplish if we set our minds and collective will to it. We held that "progress" as we called it was a good thing and would only make things better."
"But our modern lives have rendered us cynical and often bitter and now such an article of faith is viewed as naive. I contend that we are the poorer for this loss as without such faith our capacity to exert a collective will and to influence and shape our future in positive ways is diminished."
"It is great ideas that unite us in action but if we cannot share an optimism in those ideas we cannot carry the majority to agreement and make them a reality. It is optimism that will inspire the faith we need in ourselves if we are to fix the problems that beset us and our world."
"I believe we should seek to inspire a renewal in that collective optimism and demonstrate our capacity to do great things by doing a great thing, something that can serve as a tangible symbol of our hope for a healed world and our ability to deliver it."
"As you may be aware there have recently been great strides in our understanding of the science and technology needed to establish "de extinction" as a viable proposition. Recent reports have indicated that such an eventuality is no longer considered decades from reality but rather only a matter of a few years."
"Should the will be there to pursue it."
"It is also a matter of record that the available genetic material makes the Huia a prime candidate for such a restoration as, if to a lesser but still considerable degree, is the Moa."
"These and the Hokioi are birds that excite the imagination of people not just in New Zealand but all over the world. They are the stuff of legend, their loss emblematic of the harm we have caused our natural world and to learn of their extinction fills all with sadness."
"But if we bring them back they will instead become living symbols of our hope and intention to heal the wounds our rise to dominance on this planet has caused our living world. Their recreation will inspire all and by doing so aid us in pursuing the measures we need to take if we are indeed to make managing climate change the "nuclear free moment" of our generations."
"So let's do this, let's bring back the Moa and by doing so inspire a renewed hope in humanity's future." Mr Tank says he has a long and impressive history in innovation and influence in NZ, Australia and on the global stage. His idea's have generated billions of dollars, both here and overseas, thousands of headlines and effected the political course of two countries.
A political activist and member of the NZ Labour Party, he helped to establish the Green Party in 1990 and has previously worked as a Journalist, Editor, Political Advisor, Kiwifruit worker, barman and as many other things.
"You might well appreciate I'm not your usual cat!" he says.
Mr Tank grew up in Matua, leaving in 1984 to study Journalism and left NZ for Australia in 1993. He returned to Tauranga in 2012.
Here are a few well known events or products in which he either originated the concept or had a hand in its creation or execution:
1. Bungee Jumping 1983.
2. The Lord of the Rings NZ 2000.
3. The Imac G4 (Apple Computing) 2002.
4. Australian Federal Election (ALP) 2007.
5. "The Best Job in the World" Tourism Campaign 2009.
6. The New Zealand General Election 2017.
7. "The Red Car for the Red Planet." Space X 2018.

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