Crux – Analysis: As we start to reluctantly drift back to reality from the Xmas break it is traditional to set some goals, aspirations and even dreams for the coming 12 months. For our special part of NZ it will be a critical year.

Our separation from the woes of the world is becoming ever more fragile as global markets, social media, cheap air travel and migration all blur the lines that used to define where we lived. It’s a cliché – but we are all citizens of the world now.

No longer can we say that Queenstown, Wanaka or Cromwell represent meaningful boundaries or borders – the problems of America, Europe, Auckland and Wellington are our problems too.

A breakthrough study by @KingsCollegeLon is the first to find that airports are a major source of ultra-fine particles that are harmful to health. https://t.co/g41wsid18v

— Protect Wanaka (@ProtectWanaka) January 5, 2020

As if to underline that point, the smoke and ash from Australia’s tragic bushfires has settled on our houses, cars and gardens, adding to the impact of global political unrest that laps at the shores of our lives and our businesses.

There is one last line of defence though. Not to isolate ourselves from the world’s problems but to define ourselves by being different.

At a time when every main street, every airport and every retail outlet in the world is becoming ever more the same – dare we be different?

Read this in full here.

'We knew noise would be an issue when they bought a house near the airport a decade ago. But they were unaware of a silent menace — ultrafine particles from jet engine exhaust — that they now say can put their children at risk, just by breathing' https://t.co/oM5jlEYSYx

— Protect Wanaka (@ProtectWanaka) January 5, 2020