The Standard

Environment

Categories under Environment

Labour’s Auckland Transport announcement

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, August 6th, 2017 - 102 comments

Labour has announced its Auckland Transport policy.

National’s Auckland Transport announcement

Written By: - Date published: 8:33 am, August 6th, 2017 - 15 comments

In an attempt to take the thunder away from Labour’s Auckland Transport announcement National’s offer was leaked this week to the Herald.  But it is uninspiring, and shows a continued commitment to roading as providing a solution.

Climate Change actions for the middle classes

Written By: - Date published: 1:05 pm, July 28th, 2017 - 33 comments

It’s time to put our money and resources where our hearts and minds and values are.

Blind to the facts on Auckland rail

Written By: - Date published: 7:03 am, July 28th, 2017 - 59 comments

Ben Ross at The Spinoff “The government’s continued support of the road freight industry in preference to expanding the role of rail, in the face of the data in this report, makes a complete mockery of its claim to prudent economic management. It makes, instead, a pretty good case for incompetence, or cronyism, or both.”

ETS – That’s our coffin they’re talking about

Written By: - Date published: 12:29 pm, July 27th, 2017 - 4 comments

Professor Euan Mason of the University of Canterbury’s School of Forestry in response to the proposed changes: “This is the nail in the coffin of our ETS.”

Lies. Damned Lies. And Diesel.

Written By: - Date published: 2:12 pm, July 26th, 2017 - 48 comments

Britain follows France in banning the sale of new diesel and petrol vehicles from 2040. Good news?

How much is Mike Hosking paid by TVNZ?

Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, July 25th, 2017 - 107 comments

Mike Hosking does not want there to be a debate on how much he earns from TVNZ and thinks that there would be an adverse irrational response from the public if the information was released. This is the best reason yet why disclosure should occur.

Transport in Auckland and National’s deliberate incompetence

Written By: - Date published: 6:58 am, July 25th, 2017 - 36 comments

National appear to be completely uninterested in spending Aucklander’s transport taxes on Auckland. Instead they want to put in roads that have no economic measurable benefits for Auckland except to increase the road congesting trucks on our roads. Why do National hate Auckland?

 

Rain doesn’t cause most floods, humans do

Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, July 23rd, 2017 - 50 comments

What to do with all the water falling from the sky? Some choices are smarter than others.

State of emergency for planet earth

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, July 22nd, 2017 - 52 comments

Climate scientists: Our conclusion that the world has overshot appropriate targets is sufficiently grim to compel us to point out that pathways to rapid emission reductions are feasible.

State of emergency on the South Island’s east coast

Written By: - Date published: 9:43 pm, July 21st, 2017 - 23 comments

Evacuations are now happening throughout Otago and Canterbury, with more rain expected over night and into Saturday.

NZ’s climate change guinea pigs

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 pm, July 21st, 2017 - 56 comments

The first round of climate change pass-the-parcel is about to knock some players out of the property investment game. The rest of NZ should be paying attention.

The Catholic Church is urging its parishoners to vote

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, July 21st, 2017 - 29 comments

The catholic bishops of Aotearoa have released a pamphlet urging parishoners to vote. And apart from conservative positions on euthenasia and drug liberalisation the policies they support have a decidedly progressive bent.

Regenerative agriculture

Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, July 18th, 2017 - 14 comments

Regenerative farmers in NZ are already leading the way on land and water restoration, and how to grow food in a changing climate.

David Seymour is the smeghead of the year

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, July 18th, 2017 - 73 comments

David Seymour has managed to make the most stupid statement by a politician this year, and it is only just over half way through.

Election 2017: the battle lines are drawn

Written By: - Date published: 8:57 am, July 17th, 2017 - 77 comments

The 2017 election campaign has been set alight by the Greens adopting brave policies that Jeremy Corbyn would be proud of and NZ First adopting policies that would meet with Donald Trump’s approval.

Incrementalists ‘Brick It’

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, July 16th, 2017 - 11 comments

Meet Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and original negotiator behind the Paris Agreement. She’s co-signed an article, published in Nature and signed by over 60 scientists as well as business leaders and other ‘pillars of the global community’ that headlines – “Three years to safeguard our climate”

The Greens rock their AGM

Written By: - Date published: 6:49 am, July 16th, 2017 - 18 comments

Greening the economy not for the sake of the economy but for the wellbeing of the people, the Green Party want us to be an exemplar to the world and lead the way.

The Green Infrastructure Fund

Written By: - Date published: 2:48 pm, July 15th, 2017 - 20 comments

The Greens commit to making NZ carbon-neutral by 2050.

James Shaw Speech to the Green’s conference – Greening the Government

Written By: - Date published: 2:21 pm, July 15th, 2017 - 25 comments

The text of James Shaw’s speech to the Greens Conference focussing on the Green’s policy response to Climate Change.

Waimea a good dam?

Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, July 14th, 2017 - 54 comments

The proposed Waimea Dam in Nelson is attracting opposition from the Green Party but support from the Labour Party.  Is there such a thing as a good dam project?

NRT: National’s new Muldoonism

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, July 13th, 2017 - 7 comments

I/S at No Right Turn: “at its core, the National Party is an anti-environment party, dedicated to destroying our natural heritage and impoverishing future generations for the profit of their cronies”.

National’s plans for mining and development of conservation land

Written By: - Date published: 6:30 am, July 12th, 2017 - 52 comments

Forest and Bird: ““The Government is seeking to give themselves the powers to push through controversial and damaging projects that would otherwise fail because they breach environmental limits.”

The Rainbow Warrior was sunk 32 years ago today

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, July 10th, 2017 - 19 comments

Thirty two years ago today the French Government committed an act of Terrorism on New Zealand soil on a peaceful organisation dedicated to protecting our environment.

Green Party announcement: charging on water bottling and a moratorium on new plants

Written By: - Date published: 3:26 pm, July 9th, 2017 - 117 comments

As part of their water policy the Greens intend to charge bottling companies for water take, and to put a moratorium on new bottling plants until NZ decides what is the best way to protect our water. They also want to improve regulations across the board to make drinking water safe.

The Government is misrepresenting the effect of the Ruataniwha Dam decision

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, July 9th, 2017 - 21 comments

The Government has responded to the Supreme Court decision which puts a halt on the Ruataniwha Dam by claiming wrongly that the protected land was of low quality and by stating that a law change, possibly retrospective, will occur.

No Right Turn: Climate change: Ending oil

Written By: - Date published: 6:51 am, July 9th, 2017 - 53 comments

I/S at No Right Turn writes: “Fossil fuels are the primary cause of climate change. A significant chunk of those fossil fuels are burned in cars, so if we want to beat climate change, we need to stop doing that. And today, the French government signalled that it would do just that, announcing that it would ban the sale of petrol and diesel-fuelled cars by 2040″

What happened to the Newshub article about Nick Smith and the Pike River film?

Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, July 8th, 2017 - 41 comments

A Newshub article where Nick Smith contradicts the Police and Solid Energy about the existence of video showing a body in Pike River has disappeared …

Skepticism cynicism lies and hypocrisy

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, July 8th, 2017 - 17 comments

There’s a very good / depressing long read in The Guardian on the dangerous “weaponising” of cynicism by climate change deniers. One of the most interesting sections was a discussion of the way that voters are more forgiving of lies than hypocrisy.

Greens to fast-track airport rail for America’s Cup

Written By: - Date published: 2:36 pm, July 5th, 2017 - 79 comments

Plundering of water

Written By: - Date published: 6:34 am, July 5th, 2017 - 71 comments

The company behind the attempted water extraction operation in Ashburton is now trying to build the largest production bottling plant in the southern hemisphere in Waikato.