Nine To Noon for Friday 19 February 2021

 

 

09:05 Tourism is not benign & must change: Environment commissioner

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is proposing stringent measures to make tourism more sustainable, once our borders reopen. Just over a year ago, Simon Upton released a major report warning tourism - both domestic and international - was putting the country under major pressure and eroding the very attributes that make it such a draw card. His follow up report released yesterday puts forward four proposals to redress that, including a departure tax to reflect the environmental cost of international air travel, and giving the Department of Conservation more power. He tells Kathryn tourism is not benign and a return to the status quo must not happen.

09:30 New lobby group confronts World Rugby over player welfare

A new international lobby group has been formed to push for urgent changes in rugby union rules to protect players from traumatic brain injuries. The group is made up of current and former players, coaches, doctors, club representatives, referees,  sponsors, politicians and teachers at rugby-playing schools and includes former New Zealand international Geoff Old. Progressive Rugby, as the group is known, is proposing a raft of changes to game rules, training protocols, better concussion management and the establishment of a concussion welfare fund. Meanwhile up to 150 former rugby players have reportedly joined a landmark legal case is being taken in the UK against World Rugby and some other governing bodies. Kathryn speaks with two of the key founders of Progressive Rugby- former Canadian International, Jamie Cudmore and Bill Ribbans, British orthopaedic surgeon and Professor of sports and exercise medicine.

09:45 Asia correspondent Ed White

In Myanmar, a new generation's protest movement is taking shape in surprising ways and challenging the coup and the junta's detainment of Aung San Suu Kyi. The military response to the protests looking increasingly hard-line. And, there are some positive signs that Kim Jong Un's regime might be willing to accept outside help at least for vaccine procurement for North Korea.

Ed White is a correspondent with the Financial Times.

10:05 William Tullett: pongs of the past 

The smell of freshly roasted coffee is now seen by many as an enticing aroma, but that wasn't the case in early 18th century London. It was described as smelling of "fresh urine" and old boots and the new smell was not welcomed in the English capital's streets.

Lecturer in History at Anglia Ruskin University Dr William Tullett is fascinated by how people have interpreted smell in other eras, and what that can tell us about how people lived. His first book Smell in the Eighteenth Century: A Social Science was published in 2019 by Oxford University Press and canvassed just how much the smell of England changed over 100 years or so. He's now involved with a team in a group project called Odeuropa which is trying to find out how the past smelled. The programme is using artificial intelligence to analyse hundreds of thousands images and documents to create formulas to recreate roughly 120 smells from the past, for modern noses. 

10:35 Book review - The Narrow Land by Christine Dwyer Hickey

Jane Westaway reviews The Narrow Land by Christine Dwyer Hickey, published by Allen & Unwin.

10:45 The Reading

Steve Braunias reading the fifth part of his book 'How To Watch A Bird'.

11:05 New music with Jeremy Taylor

A collaborative album from Marlon Williams with Kacy & Clayton, a lost deep soul classic from Tami Lynn, and Kurt Vile pays tribute to the late, great John Prine,

11:30 Sports commentator Sam Ackerman

The Prada Cup racing is set to start up again tomorrow because of Luna Rossa refusing to wait for a return to Level 1, Sam also looks at womens cricket and tennis with the Australian Open.

11:45 The week that was with

Comedians Te Radar and Michele A'Court are along with a few laughs.