To frigate or not to frigate
The NZ Initiative, who gave us neoliberalism, says we need to buy four to keep one at sea. Just Defence says there are a lot better uses for the money. I’m with them.
Environment
disaster
The mythological climate saviour
Carbon capture and storage is bullshit, another lie from the fossil fuel industries so they can keep making money instead of reducing emissions
Smash Left populism, get Right populism
That’s Starmer’s achievement, as the local elections show. He always was a muppet puppet; his string-pullers are much more sinister.
Luxon is toast
Any time a political leader has to put their position to a vote, they become a dead pigeon. David Lange knew winning the vote didn’t end the matter.
The Mount Maunganui disaster and climate responsibility
Bryce Edwards’ piece and key mainstream media articles on how the Maunganui disaster happened are the start of a long, complex conversation about New Zealand’s precarity and the urgent need to change.
The Tunnels project and SH 1 to Wellington Airport
The plan ignores standard traffic planning practice, takes no account of predicted sea level rise and will be obsolete before the last stone is turned.
Labour Day: the working class and civil emergencies
On this Labour Day, a massive shout out to all the workers in Southland, Otago and other areas affected by the storms last week. Paid and volunteer, obvious and those in the background doing support for the frontline workers.
New Zealand starting to feel the pointy end of the climate crisis
Nelson Tasman region is still in a civil emergency and our climate denying Prime Minister is signalling an end to future flood bail outs.
Writing in the time of Genocide
I want to share a writer’s journey – of living and writing through the Genocide. Because my country provides support to Israel and the US, I feel compelled to support Palestine by doing the one thing I know best: writing.
Hurricane Milton: watching the climate train wreck in slow motion
Catastrophe and meaningful response.
Is our investment in defence value for money?
Defence cost us more than $6.7 billion in 2023/24. Why does our small, remote country have such a costly defence force? Is it fit for purpose – and in 2024, what is that purpose?
Why the Climate Strike matters (in case we are still thinking the crisis isn’t urgent)
All those climate scientists talking about temperature recently? This is what it means for us, right here, right now, and for the rest of our lives
A year on From Gabrielle: are we any further on?
Veteran climate activist Cindy Baxter writes about the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle on her home town and the challenges of resiliency planning going forward.
CANA: Shane Jones, Chris Bishop, and Simeon Brown want the power to authorise mines and motorways on behalf of their mates with the click of a pen. Here’s how to fight back.
In reality, the Government knows that New Zealanders will be even more outraged if they see the list of environment- and climate-wrecking projects that these Ministers and their donor & industry mates have cooked up.
F*ck
We can see NACTF’s current fuckery as being part of the same dynamic. The job cuts, mining and oil drilling, attacks on disabled people and beneficiaries, the threat to news media, stealing from the poor to give to the rich, the war on nature, all of these are contained within the climate/ecology crises, and arise out of the same condition
The other cost of living crisis
Our descendants will curse us
Climate extremes make NZ’s supply chains highly vulnerable – it’s time to rethink how we grow and ship food
“It’s clear domestic food supply chains have been increasingly challenged by natural disasters and the ongoing impact of climate change.”
Climate: where we are heading
The United Nations University has released a sixteen minute film featuring world leading climate scientist and carbon budget specialist Professor Kevin Anderson talking about the utter catastrophe we are heading for if we don’t take radical action on climate now.
But How Do You Pay For It?
To pay for recent flood damage Grant Robertson has to decide on what proportion of this will be paid by new debt, what proportion by reallocation of expenditure, and what proportion by special tax levies. Is an Australian style levy under consideration?
Towards National Recovery
Just over seven months from the election the Labour government has been granted as great a political momentum as that leading into the 2020 election.
Natural disasters test new leaders in New Zealand – some did better than others.
After the Auckland flood, Wayne Brown’s election will now be viewed as a cautionary tale. What can happen when someone who is inexperienced and unsuited to political office is elected to important political leadership roles. The blowback of this on the New Zealand right should not be understated, it is bad news for them.
Climate Minister James Shaw: If we do not act, it will get worse
“There will be a certain crowd who say … let’s give up on stopping climate change and its focus entirely on responding to the effects of climate change and I cannot state enough what a catastrophic mistake that would be, because every tenth of a degree of warming increases the frequency and the severity of these events.”
Take Care Auckland and Northland
Heavy rain has caused severe flooding in Auckland, leading to evacuations, power outages, and high risk warnings of sewerage on beaches.
People are being urged to stay home if safe, and stay off the roads. Please also check on neighbours and people who may be struggling especially disabled people, elderly, those on their own, and those with young children and pets.
The climate fight
What are we fighting exactly?
Holy Sh*t, Overshoot! Don’t Dither; Do
July 28 was EARTH OVERSHOOT DAY. On July 29 we went into ecological deficit. Humans have used the entire annual budget of resources that can replenished by nature
There are of course many things we can do.
This is what the climate crisis looks like in New Zealand, so far
If we keep doing what we are doing (not acting on climate), then at some point there will just be too many of these events to keep up with. But we still have time to limit the damage and transition society.
Act on climate
Everything we do matters. Stories of hope and renewal.
“Fight fossil fuels or the future dies”
The UK government is warning of an extreme heatwave coming next week and asking people to prepare. This is the beginning stage of climate collapse and it has the potential to get much worse. But it’s not too late to prevent the worst – choosing proactive pathways right now empowers us to make the changes needed.
Greenpeace: New research finds dairy industry making Canterbury water “undrinkable”
“There isn’t enough water falling from the sky or pouring down Canterbury’s rivers to actually dilute the nitrate contamination produced by thousands of tonnes of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser and over a million dairy cows across the plains,” – Mike Joy
XR protestors have stopped operations at a Southland coal mine
Go you beautiful people!
Global Britain fell with Singapore
Today February 15th is the 80th anniversary of the fall of Singapore in 1942, described by many as Britain’s worst military disaster. It was a massive strategic fail, and its effect is still powerful today, most notably with Australia’s lockstep with the US. Current British strategists don’t seem to have learnt a thing.
Let’s help Tonga
In 2010 the poor but proud Island Nation raised $705,000 to donate to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Fund. If New Zealanders were to reciprocate their generosity we would donate over $30 million. It is time for us to return the favour.
None of this is remotely sustainable
The story of New Zealand’s most polluted lake is the same story running through all of New Zealand society. We treat nature as an after thought that we can fix when things go wrong, even when we can’t. What if we told a different story?
Priorities?
Is setting priorities just a matter of resources?
Hospo resilience: pairing covid response and climate action
We’re now in the time of synchronous and overlapping crises. With Delta Level Two and ongoing restrictions affecting the hospitality sector, and eighteen months into our covid response, solutions need to be for the long haul. One of the keys to that is positive adaptation.
Ways out of the climate catastrophe
As the IPCC drops its grim, damning report on humans and climate change, and as we are surrounded by social and mainstream media narratives of disaster, we desperately need cogent and hopeful visions of where we can go next, and stories of futures where things work out.