Environment

Climate models fail to accurately predict Arctic ice – deniers fail to notice

Written By: lprent
Date published: - 80 comments

Like many people I’m always bemused by the lack of logic that the climate change deniers (CCD’s) have in their extremely selective picking of things to get wound up about – especially about climate models. But when an actual  self-evident flaw shows up in the models, well they simply seem to miss it entirely. Like it is now evident that the climate models used to predict Arctic melting vastly underrate the speed at which it is happening. The consequences are going to be unpleasant for the north.

Know when to fold ’em

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 26 comments

National’s asset sales programme is in crisis. Key has three options on asset sales – plow ahead, cut a deal with iwi, or call it quits. The smart thing to do, for the good of the country and for National’s own good, remains to drop the policy altogether. But they won’t. Instead, they’ll play the race card. But that old joker isn’t the trump it once was.

Petrol hits record

Written By: James Henderson
Date published: - 210 comments

Z has set a new record for petrol prices with 91 up to $2.23. The others are expected to follow. We are in a new oil shock due to peak oil. The once unimaginable $2 a litre is now the low price. Ironically, the high dollar that is killing our exporters is protecting us from much higher petrol prices. So why is our government investing $12 billion on deepening our oil addiction?

Sell assets to avoid debt; take on debt to build motorways – huh?

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 76 comments

So, let me get this straight. Debt is bad. So bad, in fact, that the Government is willing to sell assets that produce higher returns than its cost of borrowing to free up money and avoid taking on more debt. But this same Government is now planning to borrow to fill a $5 billion hole in its transport budget caused by its unneeded motorway projects.

Nats’ motorways going on the credit card

Written By: James Henderson
Date published: - 44 comments

Transport spending has always been paid for out of road taxes. But National’s roads to nowhere cost too much. They’ve added huge top ups from general tax but it’s still not enough to meet the rising costs of the motorways. They’ve cut every other area of transport spending to the bone. Still not enough. Now, National’s going to start borrowing for their motorways.

$12 billion on roads no-one will use

Written By: James Henderson
Date published: - 58 comments

Research from the Green Party shows that the $12 billion ‘Roads of National Significance’, the bulk of the next decade’s transport budget, would be on routes that carry just 4% of the country’s traffic. So, the other 96% of us are paying nearly $3,000 a head for roads that bugger all people will use. Traffic on many of the routes is actually falling.

Kiwirail disgrace

Written By: Zetetic
Date published: - 36 comments

Buying back Kiwirail was a chance for building a cost-, oil-, and carbon-efficient transport network. Instead, its been a tale of false economies: cheap trains from China, cheap sleepers from Peru, cheap labour from contracting out. In the end, it all costs more for worse results.

Bet tunnels didn’t cost this much at Messines

Written By: James Henderson
Date published: - 43 comments

How does it cost $75m to dig a 220m long tunnel? The Government is planning to tear up the 5-year old bypass road and put it underground to give space for the National War Memorial for $75m. You’re never going to win opposing a war memorial – even though the Nats cancelled it in 2009, which is why the cost is so high doing it at the last minute before the centenary of Gallipoli – but $350,000 a metre for a tunnel?

Farrar & the mystery of induced traffic

Written By: James Henderson
Date published: - 8 comments

David Farrar notes that 4 of the 10 worst congestion points in New Zealand are in Wellington. He concludes “Transmission Gully will help with some of that, but not all”. Quite the opposite, old boy. Transmission Gully will not create any new capacity at any of these congestion points. In fact, NZTA says it will create more traffic heading into 3 of them.

Curiosity – 5:30pm

Written By: Anthony R0bins
Date published: - 106 comments

At around 5:30pm this evening Curiosity will either touch down safely on Mars, or make (another) expensive smudge on the surface. Various links below – tune in. Good luck Curiosity…

The illusion of consultation

Written By: Anthony R0bins
Date published: - 22 comments

For some reason the Nats are in a hurry to complete their privatisation programme within two years.  Anyone in any doubt as to how the process of consultation with Maori will play out might be informed by some recent history.

$3 Billion

Written By: Bunji
Date published: - 21 comments

The government have $3 billion for the Christchurch rebuild burning a hole in their pockets. But at the same time they’re claiming governmental poverty is why we need to sell our productive assets… And there’s 30,000 people nearby wanting proper houses to live in.

Gerrymania

Written By: James Henderson
Date published: - 80 comments

What is it with this government and convention centres? The international convention market is dying. The Nats are already doing a bargain with the cancer in the heart of Auckland called SkyCity to build one there that won’t be worth its cost to build. Now, they want to build another convention centre in Christchurch to compete for that dying market. It’s just one thing that’s wrong with Gerrymania.

Key’s rock and hard place

Written By: Zetetic
Date published: - 17 comments

Does Key respect the Waitangi Tribunal’s call for a temporary halt to asset sales and its likely call for a further delay when it presents its full findings in September? If he does, he looks weak, gives the Keep Our Assets petition more time. If he doesn’t, he picks a fight with Maori, resulting in court injunctions, again delaying the sales, hurting the sale price, making him look weak.

Paying to hear what they want to hear

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 4 comments

Consultants SKM wrote a report in 2008 that said the Puhoi to Wellsford Holiday Highway wasn’t worth the money it cost. Then, once National came in and decided the Holiday Highway was a ‘Road of National Significance’ they commissioned SKM to write a new report, which praised the project. Now, they’ve handed SKM lucrative contract for the investigation work. Is this what the $200m of taxpayer money spent on RoNS consultants so far has been going on?

Overlord Brownlee’s plan

Written By: James Henderson
Date published: - 37 comments

In April, Christchurch Council revealed its plan for the CBD rebuild following an extensive period of public consultation. The chance to rebuild the CBD of our second-largest city was a once-in-generations opportunity to fit the city for our future challenges. The Council plan had its faults but one of the good aspects was it addressed smart transport. King Gerry ripped it up immediately.

Sunday Reading

Written By: Bunji
Date published: - 1 comment

My regular Sunday piece of interesting, longer, deeper stories I found during the week. It’s also a chance for you to share what you found this week too. Those stimulating links you wanted to share, but just didn’t fit in anywhere (no linkwhoring).  This week: hiding tax, growing up neo-liberal and Syria.

Brownlee makes tectonic plates look like speed demons

Written By: Zetetic
Date published: - 23 comments

After 18 months of doing nothing to fix the insurance crisis that every man and his dog has been saying is crippling the Christchurch rebuild, Overlord Brownlee has finally acted. He’s come out with …. wait for it ….. a big whinge at insurance companies. Oh bravo, Generalissimo Gerry. That’ll get the rebuild started. Well done, oh King of Christchurch. Your belated rant has saved us all.

Truck strike imminent!!!

Written By: Anthony R0bins
Date published: - 38 comments

Remember all the fuss in 2008 when the Labour government tried to make a 1% increase charges affecting truckies? What kind of catastrophic response will increases of up to 20% provoke?

Everyone hears what they want to hear

Written By: Anthony R0bins
Date published: - 7 comments

Key has been giving different messages on the water rights issue to the Maori Party and to the wider public. No one knows what, if anything, his “promises” mean. Why isn’t the Maori Party (which has been burned before) seeking urgent clarification?

Welded to National

Written By: Anthony R0bins
Date published: - 41 comments

The meeting between Key and the Maori Party leaders last night reached it’s predictable conclusion.  From his point of view Key has played this brilliantly.

$444m for road consultants, $128m out of poor kids’ mouths

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 69 comments

Never let the Nats tell you that they’re making responsible cuts in tough times. When the Greens tried to amend the social welfare bill currently before Parliament to ensure no kids would “unduly suffer”, National vetoed it saying that would eliminate $128m of the savings National’s planning to make. Get that? National’s welfare reforms take $128m from poor kids.

Environment groups oppose EEZ Bill

Written By: notices and features
Date published: -

The Environmental Defence Society, Forest & Bird, WWF-New Zealand and Ecologic have released an open letter to the Hon Amy Adams, Minister for the Environment, expressing “profound concerns” with the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill.

“Opportunistic”

Written By: Anthony R0bins
Date published: - 47 comments

I don’t know which is stranger, a currency-trading capitalist denigrating people for maximising their economic opportunities, or claims dating back to The Treaty being passed off as somehow superficial.

Denialists set to make monkeys of themselves

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 103 comments

Could we be about to have our very own Scopes trial? In that famous Tennessee Court Case, the State prosecuted a teacher for teaching evolution. He walked free and it was a decisive moment in mainstreaming evolution and making the creationists the crackpots. Now, the climate change deniers are suing NIWA and their loss will be a dagger through the heart of denialism.

Asset sale delay likely

Written By: Anthony R0bins
Date published: - 62 comments

Even John Key is now admitting that the asset sale program is facing a serious legal challenge, and that delays in the sales are likely.  Any such delay would have several implications…

Nats blow $216m (so far) planning unneeded roads that won’t be built

Written By: James Henderson
Date published: - 31 comments

RNZ is reporting that National has spent $216m just on the investigation and design stage of its Roads of National Significance so far (and that’s only 5 of the 7 projects). Most of it on outside contractors Look, I get this kind of shit can be surprisingly expensive. But nearly quarter of a billion dollars just for investigation and design? With these projects involving a 260km of highways that’s nearly a million dollars per kilometre, a thousand dollars per metre, just on planning!