TS Book Club this Sunday
We will be discussing Small is Beautiful – Economics as if People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher.
Environment
Nick Smith is a disgrace
In a functioning democracy Nick Smith’s handling of the Resource Management Bill should result in him losing his ministerial warrant.
There are no surpluses
There are no surpluses in NZ right now, not in any real sense. There is only debt, negative externalities and deferred costs.
Climate change, weather bombs, and the infrastructure that we need
The effects of climate change are here, now, playing out in the flooded north. We should be preparing, we should be hardening critical infrastructure like Auckland’s fresh water supply. Instead of building – you know – more roads.
Community groups abandon Smith’s water forum
Will Nick Smith get the message and set in place a realistic consultation process and safe standards, or will he persist with a plan so bad that no one wants to be associated with it?
TOP climate change policy
Morgan’s TOP climate change policy is out, and it commits to “net zero carbon emissions by 2050”. There’s lots to like…
Roads not health
A new coalition protests health under-funding, while the cost of the holiday highway blows out. Our government has its priorities all screwed up.
Swimmable standards that aren’t for all of our rivers except most of them
Swimmable standards that aren’t, for all of our rivers except most of them, sometime maybe not now. Nat policy at its finest.
Labour: Greens are the first cab off the rank
Andrew Little has confirmed that the Green Party will be first party Labour looks to for a coalition deal after the election.
The Nats’ new ‘swimmable’ rivers aren’t
Under the new standards we have up to a 1 in 6 risk of serious infection at the times that we actually swim in rivers, and Smith is trying to hide this fact by fudging around with year-long averages. David Parker’s analysis yesterday was bang on.
Green Party Member’s Bill to protect freshwater
The Green Party has launched a member’s bill that will keep water from underground sources, called aquifers, safe from pollution and contamination.
You can’t afford a house because of – plants!
I’m used to hearing some pretty pathetic excuses out of the National government. But this will really take some beating.
Where to now for the left?
With the right in ascendancy throughout the Western World what does the left do to change this?
It’s past time to be bold about water
Water is both the front line and the rallying cry.
Nick Smith becomes Minister of Government Information
The Government intends to change the definitions of various indicators in an effort to solve some of the country’s most serious problems.
Forest and Bird takes it the Government in the Supreme Court
The Crown is seeking to overturn the Court of Appeal decision obtained by Forest and Bird which is preventing Conservation land in the Hawkes Bay from being used for the controversial Ruataniwha dam.
Just allow more shit – a metaphor for this government
So National’s great plan for swimmable rivers by 2040 is to allow twice as much shit in them and still call them “swimmable.”
The Greens in Te Tai Tokerau
Te Tai Tokerau looks to be a hotly contested seat in the 2017 general election, and the Greens are entering the fray there for the first time, with new candidate Godfrey Rudolph.
The Standard Book Club – Small is Beautiful, Economics as if People Mattered
The Standard’s inaugural book club looks at E. F. Schumacher’s sustainability classic.
English wants Pike River out of the headlines in election year
Any sign of progress is welcome, but let’s hope English is not deliberately stringing along the Pike River families with false hope.
Fires are the new normal
Hey Bill English, it’s not the case that “no one could have anticipated the large-scale fire on the Port Hills”. Just about every relevant organisation could and did predict it. Most of the other predictions relating to climate change will come true too.
Kia Kaha Canterbury
It seems almost inevitable that the recent fires in Canterbury and the Hawkes Bay are the result of climate change and the harbingers of things to come.
Christchurch fire coverage
Kia kaha Christchurch.
(photo credit: Michael Hodgson).
Greenpeace on braided rivers and govt-funded pollution
Clean, green farming is much better for our rivers, our land and our international reputation.
Conservation matters
The government is stealing from us again so Forest and Bird are stepping up.
Help Save the Riverton Environment Centre
Down South good things have been happening, and now they need a hand to keep their building.
29 lives lost. No justice for their families.
Solid Energy trucks have refused to cross the picket line at Pike River this morning after the families set up effigies of their dead men.
Doomsday Clock moves forward
“For the first time in the 70-year history of the Doomsday Clock, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board has moved the hands of the iconic clock 30 seconds closer to midnight.”
Stop. Driving. Climate. Change.
What can we do today that will make a difference?
Lifeboat NZ
How do we feel about NZ becoming a lifeboat for the super-rich to run out on the problems that they created?
Auckland’s shit beaches
Not meant as a general criticism. Auckland has lovely beaches. When they aren’t drowning in shit that is.
Andrew Little: Together, we will fight for justice for Pike families
I want justice for the families of the worst workplace tragedy in decades. If New Zealanders choose to change the Government this year, Pike will be a priority in my first hundred days as Prime Minister.
Predator free NZ – how are we doing?
It has been 6 months since the announcement that New Zealand would be predator free by 2050. But is sounds like nothing concrete has happened yet.
Power Up!
Some moment in time will be that moment in time when reality’s faced; when both actions and words accord with it. That moment might as well be this moment as opposed to any other.
100 Coal Fired Projects Scrapped.
…including some already in the construction phase.
Powerdown
Climate change, Peak Oil, resource depletion. Some of our options are better than others.