Auckland’s Northern Pathway
Last week’s announcement of major changes to the New Zealand Upgrade program in my view was welcome.
Environment
Greenpeace on the cow shaped hole in the Climate Commission report
Greenpeace says there is still a cow-shaped hole in both the Climate Change Commission’s advice and the Government’s approach to climate action, following the release of the Commission’s finalised climate plan.
The Climate Commission Report
As they said they would, the Government has today released the full advice from the Climate Commission, taking into account all the submissions and all the big fat evidence.
NZ Nuclear-Free Day
June 8 is the anniversary of Aotearoa’s 1987 nuclear-free legislation. NZOnScreen is running a retrospective of our proud history, the Nuclear-free Collection. It is well worth a watch. I particularly liked the movie “Nuclear Reaction,” with Big Norm seeing off the French, Big Dave seeing off the Americans, and Kiwi Keith also clear about where we stood. The nuclear risk is worse now than it has ever been.
Riverton rocks: support the pilot for social and economic rejuvenation and resilience in rural NZ
The South Coast Environment Centre is creating a local food network that connects growers and customers directly, creates food resiliency, and keeps money in the local economy. Today is the last day of their Pledgeme, and they need a bit more support to push them over the top.
Cycling Politics is Winnable Politics
This Sunday Aucklanders have an opportunity to protest the catastrophic failure of NZTA to generate a cycleway from the North Shore to the CBD, and to promote a practical proposal to “liberate a lane” on the Harbour Bridge which would do the job in the meantime.
New Zealand’s Perverse Economy
At a forecast farm gate milk price of between NZ$7.25 and NZ$8.75 per kilo of milk solid, Fonterra is going to fill up its milk tankers, drive back to their suppliers with cash and pump it straight back into the farmhouse like we haven’t seen in a decade.
Cycling Politics Is Damn Serious Business
Don’t knock local politics until you’ve had to stand up and defend a cycleway in public.
What local food can look like (and why)
The South Coast Environment Centre is creating a local food network that connects growers and customers directly, creates food resiliency, and keeps money in the local economy. This is an exemplar of climate, economic and community sustainability.
Regenerative agriculture and climate solutions
Research is now showing the advantages of regenerative agriculture. Are we wise enough to make best use of them?
The problem with coal
New Zealand is about to enter a transition phase in energy that’s going to affect absolutely everyone.
Climate change. It’s still happening.
This is tough information to take in. I feel better when I try to take action to support the Climate Justice Movement which has known for decades that capitalism must be transformed and replaced for decent survival. Individual-collective action is possible. Keep going. – @climateben
Biden is serious about climate change
One of the many regretful aspects of the Trump presidency was the United States open hostility to doing anything about climate change. It looks like Joe Biden will do his best to make up for lost time.
Too much too far?
As we lead up to Budget 2021, there’s much more shape to the whole direction of this government.
Its official – Transmission Gully is a fiasco
A damning report into National’s PPP contract for construction of Transmission Gully has concluded that the maximum price the government would pay was set too low, project bidders soon worked this out and that proposals were “value managed down” or made cheaper on designs and timelines that created risks that would eventually manifest themselves after procurement once construction commenced.
Climate Commission Hope Versus NLTP Reality
The very hardest climate challenge New Zealand has is in transport, but the latest National Land Transport Plan is pretty much like the wind being resisted by the Climate Commission air conditioning unit. Time to face our reality not our words.
A new lever on the standard model?
For me the most notable thing about the last week hasn’t been the repetitive and ill-informed braying from the opposition about covid-19. It has been about the announcement that Fermilab in the US has partially confirmed that there may be a wobble in the behaviour of muons. Definitely showing promise of a lever into the 1970s standard model of physics. Explaining this is likely to open new technologies and more subtle ways of working with our universe.
Sustainability and learning from forest gardening
The Guytons’ 25 year old food forest in Riverton is a showcase of sustainability practice and knowledge.
Well done John Edgar
I’d thought I’d take a moment to celebrate the life of John Edgar, who passed away a few days ago.
Greta Thunberg is now 18
Greta Thunberg is now aged 18. And her activism is still strong.
That’s No Moon – It’s A Space Station
Did anyone notice Russia and China signing up to a treaty to form a common base on the moon?
No Right Turn: Climate Change: Heading for uninhabitability
it looks like just 1.5 degrees will be enough to cook most of the tropics:
Water Rights War Brewing
Minister Parker is firing an 18 inch gun round that he’s ready to take on all with his call-in of the Otago water rights plan change.
Sugar is evil
With the recent High Court trial brought by three academics highlighting the undeserved attacks on their reputations by entities associated with the food industry now having concluded it is time for the Government to think about banning sugary drinks from schools. And a sugar tax.
No Right Turn: Give the Rangitata back
If we want to protect our environment and ourselves, we need to scale this back. And the easiest way to do that is give the river back: remove or massively scale back those consents, and let the rivers flow.
Greenpeace: Another win for the movement against deep sea oil exploration
The announcement comes with little fanfare, but marks another huge moment for people power, for iwi, hapū, environmental groups, and the hundreds of thousands of people who for the last decade have maintained one of the most relentless campaigns of the modern era to put an end to deep sea oil exploration in New Zealand.
Texas’s power crisis
Over in the US of A in the great state of Texas and in surrounding states locals are experiencing unusually cold weather and are suffering from the effects. But instead of blaming their not fit for purpose electrical systems they are blaming the Green New Deal, even though it has not been implemented.
The unlucky New Zealand
The first New Zealand study to look at the effects of food hardship on pre-schoolers’ nutrition has found that nearly half of families struggle to access healthy food in their child’s first year of life.
Will Technology Solve Climate Change?
What if we actually planned to reduce energy usage significantly while revamping the economy to promote happiness and well-being? Then it would be far easier to replace our remaining energy usage with renewable sources. – Richard Heinberg
No Right Turn: Climate Change: Legal actions
Lawyers for Climate Action is threatening to take Auckland Council to court if they reneg on their climate action promises in the upcoming consultation on the Regional Land Transport Plan.
Escape Velocity
In this series so far I’ve examined three of the four terms in the Kaya Identity, population, economic intensity, and energy intensity. It […]
Layers of Culpability
The huge tyre fire near Amberley in North Canterbury last Friday is in an area with a high water table, extreme fire risk in summer, two kilometres from a town of 2000 residents, and on the edge of one of NZ’s premier wine regions.
Having a say on how NZ transitions to a post-carbon society
Now is the time for people power. The government is about to ask us what we think about New Zealand’s plan on climate action.
UPDATED with links to the report and media analysis.
Both sides reporting in the time of Trump
You would think that after the Trump years the media would be turning away from the reporting of “both sides” of an issue and in many cases they are. But there is a recent example of a hold out urging that extremist views should be given media attention.
PM Ardern and President Biden as a comparison
On his first day in office Joe Biden executed 17 executive orders making wide scale change to the Trump Administration’s policies.
Frogs swimming in the heated pot
The distracting political stupidities in places like the US and now in Russia tend to be entertaining for us southerners. But changes in climate are getting faster and more extreme. The continued instability in the northern polar vortex and the extreme weather it causes cut into our global food creating systems. The foundation of our population and societies. Froggies, the heat is still rising.