Written By: - Date published: 5:48 am, September 15th, 2009 - 36 comments
What a lot of people don’t seem to understand is that an emissions trading scheme has two points: 1) encourage reductions in emissions 2) allocate the cost of emitting. The ETS does not, ultimately, create the price on carbon for New Zealand. That is created by our international committment, along with other countries, to limit our […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:15 pm, September 14th, 2009 - 78 comments
Nick Smith has just announced a deal with the Maori Party to replace the existing Emissions Trading Scheme with a do-nothing joke. The new ETS will allocate polluting rights (carbon credits) free to polluters for the first years and then at a low capped price thereafter. Agriculture, source of 50% of our greenhouse pollution, will not be […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, September 13th, 2009 - 87 comments
There was an interesting preview paper published back in January by by Peter Doran and Maggie Kendall Zimmerman. It sheds light on how the scientists who work in the field view the probability of climate change happening. It is pretty clear from the results that those closest to the data and who know the factors […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:55 pm, September 10th, 2009 - 40 comments
No Right Turn and Frogblog both have pieces up on Labour’s decision to vote in support of the Government’s moves to gut the RMA last night. It’s disappointing to say the least. I’d be interested to hear from some Labour MPs why they voted this way, either in the comments section of this post or […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, September 9th, 2009 - 5 comments
That prolific climate campaign – Sign On – has been casting its mark across the Capital, with a new motif popping up on some unlikely arms and paws. The blue cast, which appears to have replaced Keisha and Lucy as the face of the campaign, has its origins in John’s unfortunate January faceplant. Presumably intended […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:12 am, September 8th, 2009 - 7 comments
Yesterday Infratil got their NZ Bus hand-puppets to announce that they will be going on strike. On Wednesday, if the bus-drivers refuse to donate their time freely to increase Infratil returns to investors, the company will remove bus-services from the commuters of Auckland. If the reasonable attempts of the bus drivers to increase their wages […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:36 pm, September 7th, 2009 - 22 comments
As usual Rod Oram presents an insightful argument: New Zealand’s climate change credibility is hanging by a thread. If the government indulges in bad politics on the Emissions Trading Scheme, the thread would snap. We would suffer instant, serious and long-term damage to our economy, environment and reputation. …Would National be so reckless? Logically it […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, September 7th, 2009 - 27 comments
Auckland bus drivers have been in negotiations with NZ Bus (which is owned by Infratil) for a 70 cent an hour pay rise. Currently, they’re on between $14.05 and $16.75 an hour for 13-hour shifts. Many workers are on split shifts, which means up to four hours a day of unpaid time between shifts. Negotiations […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, September 7th, 2009 - 62 comments
Marty G’s last post just reminded me of this – visualise who goes under as the oceans rise with Flood Maps. And yeah, before you start, 14m is a big big rise. Just let it serve as a warning to all you Aucklanders to swap out those incandescent bulbs.
Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, September 7th, 2009 - 43 comments
The world’s oceans reached a record high temperature in July of 16.37 degrees, 0.59 degrees above the 20th century average. That might not sound a lot, and it wouldn’t be if we were talking about the variation in day to day temperature where you live, but we’re talking the whole world’s oceans. It takes an enormous amount […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:10 am, September 6th, 2009 - 18 comments
Climate change is racist. Not literally of course, but in the sense that how people are affected by climate change is going to be largely determined by race. Those who are going to suffer the most are not “white”. From The Herald summary of a recent study: The Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) released today […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, September 5th, 2009 - 54 comments
Diffusion of responsibility means that the bigger the group the less chance that anyone in the group will take action. In a typical experiment people are left to wait in a room, which is rigged so that smoke starts coming in under a door. A person who is alone will usually leave the room and […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, September 4th, 2009 - 14 comments
The scientists say we need to reduce our greenhouse emissions by 40% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 if we want to even have a 50:50 chance of not starting runaway climate change (where temperature rises trigger the release of frozen methane and other effects that will rapidly heat the world to disastrous levels). So, […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, September 3rd, 2009 - 14 comments
The Greens are leading a petition campaign, asking Parliament to: reject any move to mine our national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, marine reserves, protected islands, the Coromandel’s beautiful land and waters, and all other treasured places protected by Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act 1991; furthermore, we ask that the House of Representative put in […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:57 am, September 3rd, 2009 - 50 comments
Meet Robert Wadlow. When he died in 1940, he was the tallest ever recorded person, standing 8 feet, 11 and a half inches tall (2.72m) . That record still stands. The tallest living person, Bao Xishun, is a comparatively puny 7 feet, 9 inches (2.36m). As we all know, the typical person is getting taller. […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, September 2nd, 2009 - 44 comments
I find myself in the curious position of sympathising with a company reneging on an environmental promise. Foodstuffs announced yesterday that the charge on plastic bag was to be optional, and that they would not charge people for plastic bags if they object. Get Real, a New Zealand organisation campaigning for the elimination of disposable […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, September 2nd, 2009 - 64 comments
Remember FART (Farmers Against Ridiculous Taxes)? Shane Arden driving Myrtle the Tractor up the steps of Parliament? Bill English with his poster carrying the sexist attack on Helen Clark: “the mad cow shouldn’t have signed”? (actually, it was Jenny Shipley who signed us on to Kyoto) All that wailing and gnashing of teeth, all […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, September 1st, 2009 - 31 comments
I’ve had a further read of the select committee report on the Emissions Trading Scheme, and found a huge problem – National, United Future, and ACT want to get rid of the cap on emissions. The normal emissions trading scheme is called cap and trade. A cap on the total number of carbon credits is […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, September 1st, 2009 - 62 comments
ACT as part of its coalition agreement, and probably as a result of their funders conditions, forced a review of the Emissions Trading Scheme last year. The review has concluded that the science is valid and chosen to go with the IPCC 4th report as a basis. This is of course extremely conservative and doesn’t […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, September 1st, 2009 - 51 comments
ACT Party Press Release 1/4/2010: ACT has now identified the number one threat to personal freedom, to unbounded economic growth and to vast wealth for all who deserve it. It is “science”. “Science” creates nothing but trouble. “Science” causes climate change. The essence of the matter is that New Zealanders are being asked to cut […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, September 1st, 2009 - 2 comments
I was browsing through our image archives and came across this, which I think is from a protest before the election: Well, they got it wrong about Kiwirail but they got it the main bit right – under National, NZ is for sale to overseas multinationals. Who else do you think is going to be […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:17 pm, August 31st, 2009 - 13 comments
Looks like the Maori Party has decided to stand by their principles and oppose weakening the Emissions Trading Scheme. Their stinging minority report rules out supporting any weakening of the already too weak ETS and calls for a far greater commitment to the environment from government: The Maori Party continues to oppose the introduction of an […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:44 pm, August 31st, 2009 - 25 comments
The report of the special select committee on the Emissions Trading Scheme has been released. I’ve only had a chance to read the recommendations and the minority reports (the whole thing is 130 pages). The committee (with the exception of ACT) says that the climate change is a real and serious environmental and economic threat […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, August 30th, 2009 - 16 comments
Richard Black, environment correspondent for the BBC News website asks an interesting question – Has climate change hijacked the wider environmental agenda? If so, why? And does it matter? He a number of leading environmental thinkers for a BBC Radio Four documentary, Climate Hijack. He says: None of the people I interviewed for the programme argue […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, August 28th, 2009 - 25 comments
National is attempting to re-write the Emissions Trading Scheme. The new version it has come up with through the special select committee would be weaker than the already weak version Labour passed. But they’ve got a numbers problem. ACT won’t ever vote for doing anything about climate change, the Greens, the Progressives and Labour won’t vote for the […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:36 pm, August 27th, 2009 - 20 comments
I was shocked but not surprised to hear that National are considering opening our National Parks up for mining. At the same time, I can’t help but feel an unfortunate sense of deja vu. Labour’s Conservation spokesperson David Parker is quoted by 3News today as saying: We were certainly not told this before the election […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:26 pm, August 27th, 2009 - 55 comments
This must be Minister of Tourism John Key’s idea of a sick joke. Letting Gerry Brownlee run rampant and declare NZ National Parks are now open for mining will not only destroy our natural heritage, but seriously harm our tourist industry. What a legacy to leave for the first PM to take on Tourism portfolio. […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, August 27th, 2009 - 53 comments
The government’s 3-year transport spending plan is out. Where’s all the cash going? Surprise, surpise it’s state highways. We’re going to spend $1.5 billion a year on state highways and just $300 million on public transport. Meanwhile, oil’s above $US70 a barrel and staying there, petrol is pushing $1.70 a litre – the highest it’s […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, August 27th, 2009 - 15 comments
There’s a limited amount of carbon emissions we can make as a world in the coming decades if we are to avoid runaway climate change. So, how to fairly share the remaining ‘safe’ emissions that can be made over the next 50 years? The solution is called contract and converge. Click on the image below […]
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