Written By: - Date published: 11:09 am, February 19th, 2012 - 137 comments
There have been several interesting pieces on the politics of climate change recently, including some reflections (and a new book) from Michael Mann (the scientist behind the “hockey stick”), and leaked documents from the denier industry.
Written By: - Date published: 7:47 am, February 16th, 2012 - 77 comments
The Crafar Farms decision is sensible and a correct interpretation of the law. Foreign buyers must add something that a local buyer can’t, other than a higher purchase price. Otherwise, our farmers will continue to be out-bid for our land by foreign government-backed companies that can afford a lower rate of return, and NZ will gain nothing. So, why is National rushing to change the law?
Written By: - Date published: 12:13 pm, February 15th, 2012 - 42 comments
Gerry Brownlee has weakly attempted to fob off the decline in benefit:cost ratio of highway projects under National. ‘Sure’ he says ‘we’ve been funding projects that barely break even while high BCR spending like early childhood education gets cut, but things will turn around’. Um, no. Look at the projects National has on the horizon, […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, February 13th, 2012 - 68 comments
Capitalism is good. Globalisation is good. It’s political orthodoxy. But is it matched by economic reality? Perhaps not. Recent pieces by Bernard Hickey and Gordon Campbell give us plenty to think about…
Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, February 8th, 2012 - 2 comments
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here
Steven Joyce writes in the Herald that the answer to our economic woes is to open up resources to entrepreneurs, and to hell with the social cost or environmental impact.
Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, February 8th, 2012 - 19 comments
The UN High Level Panel on Global Sustainability has delivered a report about creating a future that’s sustainable economically, socially and environmentally. Our government and political parties should be looking at it and measuring themselves against it.
Written By: - Date published: 7:33 am, February 4th, 2012 - 36 comments
Almost missed among all the blacked out paragraphs of the Transport Briefing to the Incoming Minister are 2 interesting graphs. While not explicitly mentioning peak oil, the graph of the National Land Transport Fund shows a massive shortfall in revenue in a ‘high oil price, low growth’ scenario. The other shows how low-quality National’s highway spending is.
Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, February 3rd, 2012 - 48 comments
No Right Turn has a look at two of the incoming minister briefings impacting on climate change. They are incoherent and it is clear that neither ministry talks to the other. If it wasn’t affecting a important long term issue, it’d be as funny as a Yes Minister episode. But since it does, it just highlights the growing incoherence of this incompetent government and their increasing politicization of the civil service.
Written By: - Date published: 10:09 am, January 28th, 2012 - 703 comments
Fran O’Sullivan is an enemy of the people. Her article in this morning’s Herald will forever brand her as a traitor to this country. She will be shunned and reviled by people who understand what a disgusting sell-out she has become. There is no coming back from this. The Crafar decision is a victory for […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, January 26th, 2012 - 26 comments
Christchurch has been back in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. What’s going on behind the public narrative of a tough and resilient populace soldiering on in the face of all these obstacles?
Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, January 25th, 2012 - 12 comments
There have been some interesting investigations going on into the funding of denier lobby groups. The reluctance of them to disclose their sources of income is becoming an issue. What can be seen is that they have very publicity shy funding sources. Most likely it is those who stand to lose money if effective measures are taken to reduce the impact of climate changes. So they want transparency in science and hypocrisy on their own funding of their own ‘independent’ mouthpieces.
Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, January 20th, 2012 - 160 comments
As peak oil slowly grinds down our economy – meeting any hint of growth with sky-high petrol prices and making $2 a litre the ‘new normal’, we are actually, gradually,starting to react. Not at a governmental level, where action is most urgently needed, but in the decisions made by ordinary Kiwis every day.
Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, January 13th, 2012 - 88 comments
Ecological economist Brian Davey explains how while we need to fix the problems of peak oil and climate change, we’re not going to get anywhere until we deal with the psychopathic elite of bankers who have control of the world economy.
Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, December 31st, 2011 - 29 comments
Gareth at Hot Topic makes some predictions about 2012. Looks about right. It is going to be interesting to see what happens on the ENSO this year. Do our farmers head into drought or get another good year of relief from the extremes?
Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, December 24th, 2011 - 59 comments
Heartfelt greetings and commiserations to all in the shaky city. Use this post for general discussion of the ongoing quakes in Christchurch.
Written By: - Date published: 7:05 am, December 22nd, 2011 - 59 comments
“Once in office, you’ve got to do something. That is why having a plan matters.” – Simon Power, 2011, valedictory speech to parliament
Written By: - Date published: 7:32 pm, December 21st, 2011 - 14 comments
Scott at Imperator Fish has kindly given us permission to syndicate posts from his blog – the original of this post is here
Did you realise Jim Hopkins abolished Climate Change last Friday? It was awfully good of him and his craaaaaaaazy red-rimmed glasses.
Written By: - Date published: 8:20 am, December 21st, 2011 - 91 comments
How long until National usurps Christchurch Council? Brownlee’s doing the groundwork – creating a crisis, making the councillors to blame (for not automatically agreeing to whatever Parker wants), claiming public support. Reckon he’ll wait until rebuilding is just about to start. Then council gets blamed for the delays and he gets credit for the rebuilding.
Written By: - Date published: 11:23 am, December 19th, 2011 - 41 comments
It’s Nelson / Tasman’s turn to get hammered by nature. Commiserations to all those affected. As a country (and a world) we should brace for more extreme weather ahead.
Written By: - Date published: 10:33 am, December 19th, 2011 - 25 comments
Trillions have been plowed into bailing out banks, investors, and whole countries during the economic crisis. The cost easily exceeds total investment in tackling climate change. Is it, as George Monbiot argues, that elites just look out for themselves, or are humans just incapable of perceiving the danger of large, slowly-building problems?
Written By: - Date published: 6:42 pm, December 15th, 2011 - 22 comments
There was a very good science piece on Nine-to-Noon this morning, covering some of Kathryn Ryan’s trip to Antarctica. It got me thinking: we need a lot more science in our media – we’d get a better country out of it.
Written By: - Date published: 11:20 pm, December 13th, 2011 - 89 comments
Canada is to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, making it one of 2 nations in the world to be formally outside it. What will National do when the inevitably large fines roll in for us under their eviscerated ETS?
Written By: - Date published: 12:03 pm, December 13th, 2011 - 18 comments
140 more jobs have been lost in Christchurch. Employment in the region had already fallen by 26,800 in the year to September. DoL research says that 18% of surviving businesses cut staff due the earthquakes, 40% lost revenue, 50% survived with government support, and 28% a finding they are losing more staff. The economy is […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, December 9th, 2011 - 89 comments
To add insult to the injury of another wasted year on climate change, the government has taken the opportunity of the Durban conference not to make progress, but to disgrace us yet again.
Written By: - Date published: 7:28 am, December 8th, 2011 - 51 comments
Is the John Key Party actively trying to trash New Zealand’s fragile “100% Pure” brand?
Written By: - Date published: 7:09 am, December 6th, 2011 - 35 comments
Steven Joyce isn’t a big believer in democracy. He has overruled Treasury, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry for the Environment to make sure that the government keeps control of Auckland’s transport funds, and Auckland Transport is unaccountable to Aucklanders.
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, December 3rd, 2011 - 103 comments
Quite apart from the broken promise, isn’t it the job of a “Conservation” Minister to, you know, conserve? Instead of leading the mining charge?
Written By: - Date published: 8:26 am, November 30th, 2011 - 79 comments
In the Budget, we were told to expect 4.2% growth in 2012, which would make getting back into surplus and creating jobs possible. The Pre-election Update reduced it to 3%. Now, the OECD says ‘2.5%, providing Europe doesn’t go to crap .. oh, and Europe’s going to crap’. We’ve got to accept that economic growth won’t fall on us like manna from heaven anymore and work out how to build an actual brighter future.
Written By: - Date published: 4:02 pm, November 24th, 2011 - 14 comments
Another of those pictures that is worth a thousand words.
Written By: - Date published: 9:32 am, November 20th, 2011 - 59 comments
I have no sympathy for politicians complaining about their ‘private’ political conversations being made public. What politicians say on politics is inherently of public interest. Don’t say different things in private then in public, and you won’t get caught out. It’s a matter of integrity. We can now reveal what John Key really thinks about climate change.
Written By: - Date published: 3:23 pm, November 19th, 2011 - 8 comments
It’s a year since the explosion at Pike River killed 29 men. Just people like you and me doing their job. It seems some semblance of justice may be delivered to those who let this disaster happen. But the lasting legacy must be a change of culture and regulations to put people’s lives before companies’ profits. So no more suffer the fate of the Pike River 29.
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