Written By: - Date published: 6:01 am, October 6th, 2009 - 19 comments
When the Tui oil-field was opened last year, the operators (AWE New Zealand, 87.5% foreign-owned, ironically) were given permission to burn off 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas retrieved incidentally to the oil over the life of the oil-field. That’s actually a hell of a lot of gas, about 6% of what New Zealand […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, October 2nd, 2009 - 24 comments
Following on from yesterdays guest post on World Vegetarian Day, today is World Farm Animal Day. At the end of last year, I was a little bit involved in a documentary created by Animal Liberation Aotearoa called “Who are you having for dinner? The reality of meat production in New Zealand“. On a trip up […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, October 1st, 2009 - 85 comments
I’m a vegetarian and today, October 1st, is the worldwide day to celebrate the benefits of not eating meat and the healthy contribution to a better society vegetarianism makes. The personal is political. My choice to eschew meat for 30 years has exposed me to abuse from chefs, sexually coded remarks from ‘red blooded’ men, […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:06 pm, September 30th, 2009 - 24 comments
The recent news that NZ’s largest dairy farmer allowed calves to dehydrate and starve to death is appalling, but there are much larger issues here than this just being one rogue farm. The fact is, MAF animal welfare is a joke. They have only five animal welfare inspectors covering the entire country, so it’s really […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:06 am, September 30th, 2009 - 12 comments
This increasingly ramshackle government continues to astound. They’ve basically done nothing in a year when the country has been dealing with the worst economic crisis in decades. When they have tried to tackle big issues, the result has been incompetent policy produced entirely for political reasons – framed as moderate while paying off big business. Take Treasury’s view of […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:20 pm, September 29th, 2009 - 36 comments
I saw one of the Crafar brothers on the TV last night. Crying fake tears over calves that a whistle-blower had revealed were being left to starve on one of their farms. The Crafars are prime examples of what’s wrong with the capitalist class and, because capitalism is essentially a system that rewards sociopathy and […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:07 pm, September 29th, 2009 - 11 comments
First they increase the number of endangered Hooker Sea Lions that can be killed as bycatch, then they voted down legislation to protect Hector’s and Maui Dolphins by extending the ban on set nets and now National are increasing the Hoki quota despite the minister for fisheries himself stating he is: still unsure about the […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:59 pm, September 28th, 2009 - Comments Off on Image-ination: postcards to the planet
Have you heard of the 10:10 campaign in the UK? It aims to inspire individuals, businesses and organisations to commit to cutting their own emissions by 10% in 2010. A range of artists are donating work to be auctioned in support of the campaign, with some really great images. View climate change from a different […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:07 pm, September 28th, 2009 - 21 comments
The Standard, 12 June 1940 WELLINGTON Prime Ministerial candidate for the Nationalists, Mr John Key, today laid out his party’s policy regarding New Zealand’s participation in the current War. “Let me state clearly and unequivocally that, despite our past position, my Party now believes wholeheartedly that the War must be fought. It is undeniably a […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:54 pm, September 24th, 2009 - 35 comments
In his speech as Labour climate change spokesperson, Charles Chauvel confirmed the new information on the ETS that Jeanette Fitzsimons revealed today. It was a pretty good speech, especially the conclusion: “Labour will have no option but to repeal these changes when next in power. We could have had a broad-based, bipartisan, sustainable ETS but National […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:29 pm, September 24th, 2009 - 19 comments
Last night, non-government parties finally got a peak at the new emissions trading bill. Nick Smith still didn’t have it finished, it was in draft form, and by all accounts it’s a mess. As Jeanette Fitzsimons reports, however, the draft ETS did reveal something important. See, on Tuesday Smith tabled in Parliament a bizarre table […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, September 23rd, 2009 - 10 comments
On Monday, New Yorkers discovered their free rightwing rag, the New York Post, had suddenly come over all green. The front-page was typical NYP: a headline screaming “we’re screwed”. The difference was that, in a reversal of the norm, the paper was fake but the facts were real. The Yes-Men had produced a 32-page newspaper on […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, September 22nd, 2009 - 34 comments
It seems political scientists could learn a thing or two from anthropologists after all. “Neanderthals were not the gentle, almost-human creatures portrayed in the media over the last 50 years…“ No surprises there mate.
Written By: - Date published: 11:19 am, September 21st, 2009 - Comments Off on Wake up
The Global Climate Wake-up Call is happening today. It’s a grassroots way for people to say we want our leaders to do more about climate change before it’s too late. There are flashmob gatherings all over the country this lunch time. The list is here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/tcktcktck_map/
Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, September 21st, 2009 - 6 comments
Rod Oram, as usual, has set the standard in commentary with his piece on the National-Maori Party ETS. The full article is here but I’ll lift the core points: Oram argues a climate change policy package needs three things: Put a price on emissions to incentivise change. We chose an ETS as the most effective […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, September 20th, 2009 - 8 comments
I get sick of hearing our illustrious fourth estate refer to some piece of politicking as ‘good politics’. Who decides what’s ‘good politics’? The commentators, of course. And they define good politics as maneuvering to ones advantage, rather than getting good policies in place. Take the ETS issue. If they wanted, the commentators could say ‘National has […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, September 20th, 2009 - 8 comments
We haven’t seen much of this myth in NZ. However it shows some good examples of selective reading of news articles and papers by CCD’s in support of the “Martians drive hummers” line. Thanks to Andrei for reminding me why videos like this have to be made. You have to read the whole article or […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:49 pm, September 19th, 2009 - 4 comments
Climate change and the Emissions Trading Scheme are front and centre of political comment at the moment it seems. I thought this item from Patrick Smellie was a cut above the rest: No matter whether you’re up or downwind of it, this week’s political bargain on the Emissions Trading Scheme looks, sounds and smells like […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:16 pm, September 19th, 2009 - 20 comments
The Talleys and National Party-linked Open Country Cheese is currently trying to run its factory without its workers as it attempts to bust the union and casualise its workforce. They’ve said they’re running the factory (arguably illegally) with local farmers and strike-breakers flown in from other parts of the country. Problem is, these people aren’t […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:53 am, September 19th, 2009 - 24 comments
If you are in love with the concept that 1998 was the warmest year on record (wrong by the way), don’t watch this. This runs through exactly why you don’t know what you’re talking about. Check out this
Written By: - Date published: 6:47 am, September 19th, 2009 - 48 comments
We’re probably all now aware of the idea of peak oil. The earth is finite, and we can’t suck an infinite amount of oil out of it. But oil isn’t the only resource which is reaching its peak. Various important metals are running out even faster: Indium, gallium and hafnium are some of the least-known […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, September 18th, 2009 - 34 comments
You can read more about it here.
Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, September 18th, 2009 - 92 comments
A virulent attack on Greenpeace in a press release by Federated Farmers president, Don Nicholson, convinces me that Greenpeace are hitting the mark. In a hysterical rant, Nicholson as well as accusing Greenpeace of “lying”, accuses Greenpeace of “economic treason”, and even claimed that “Greenpeace is actually anti-farming”. Don Nicholson has to resort to clumsy […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, September 18th, 2009 - 15 comments
I’ve got no problem with the government helping out those who are genuinely in need but forcing the taxpayer fork out $400 million (or is it 1.6b?) to subsidise corporate polluters is a disgrace. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/2864572/Public-to-pay-tab-for-polluters This is corporate welfare at it’s worst. These businesses are simply bludging off the taxpayer. While you’re doing your bit […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, September 18th, 2009 - 8 comments
Labour’s Charles Chauvel has released the paper records of Labour’s attempts to agree a bi-partisan ETS with National. In total, Labour presented three draft MOUs detailing possible agreements, each moving towards what they believed to be National’s position. Additionally, there was a letter from Phil Goff to John Key a month ago that clearly laid […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, September 17th, 2009 - 25 comments
People who treat politics as a game annoy me. People who see it all in terms of power and cliques and scoring points and winning at all costs annoy me a lot. These people have lost the plot. Politics is not a game. Politics matters. It matters to society, the lives of individuals, and the […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:51 am, September 17th, 2009 - 15 comments
Two chilling articles from last week’s Guardian Weekly just finished, both about the consequences of the world’s water getting warmer faster than expected. The Greenland ice sheet is melting, “far faster than the climate models predicted and far more decisively than any political actions to combat our changing climate.” It’s worth a read – we […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, September 16th, 2009 - 27 comments
It never ceases to amaze me what short term thinkers National are. The plan (with the Maori Party) to gut the ETS highlights this issue very starkly. For the sake of short term appeasement of their backers in the polluting industries National are prepared to abandon the much more important long term considerations. Considerations like […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:53 pm, September 15th, 2009 - 52 comments
National seems to be making a bit of a habit of shafting the taxpayer. Before the election we were promised significant tax cuts, “North of $50” per week. We had John Key’s personal guarantee. Key said “New Zealanders will be able to believe our tax cuts, they will be able to trust our tax cuts…”. […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:16 am, September 15th, 2009 - 22 comments
Hot Topic has obtained a copy of a draft memorandum of understanding for a meeting on the ETS that was meant to take place today. It shows that Labour was prepared to do more to help compensate polluters for the costs they would have faced while still paying a price for polluting, thereby still incentivising reductions […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:08 am, September 15th, 2009 - 6 comments
A few important passages from the special select committee report on the Emissions Trading Scheme: In the long term, price caps stand in the way of market development and shield business from the real price of carbon to the economy…[National and United Future] recommend to the Government that if a short-term price cap is introduced, […]
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