Written By: - Date published: 10:50 am, June 30th, 2009 - 11 comments
In 2007, in election mode, John Key was talking up National’s commitment to the environment and the Enviroschools programme: Without a trace of irony, the video ends with ‘join the conversation’. It’s clear now that you can converse all you want with Key. He won’t listen. They’ve cancelled Enviroschools. Undermining education and the environment with […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:30 pm, June 18th, 2009 - 1 comment
This is the latest YouTube clip from 350.org, the international movement planning a worldwide day of protest on October 24 to demand our political leaders negotiate a fair and effective global climate treaty. There are a few events listed in New Zealand but it doesn’t look like anything major has been planned at this stage. […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, June 13th, 2009 - 10 comments
I know political animals are watching Mt Albert today, but something to read in the meantime on the psychology of buying ‘green’. We hear it in a myriad of places and phrases, from sustainability to the need to buy what’s best for the environment. But how much is that really a motivator, and how much […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:01 am, June 9th, 2009 - 10 comments
Six Degrees Could Change the World This is a documentary detailing the possible effects as temperatures rise throughout the world degree by degree. We are shown deserts spreading out across West/Central America (Stretching from Texas up into Canada) as rains fail to reach there. New York becoming inundated as seas rise and storm surges increase […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, June 7th, 2009 - 63 comments
Is its business leaders. There’s Keys, the Fyfes, the Weldons. Who all spend so much money to look good on the covers of magazines. Who expect us to love them. They want to be hailed as messiahs or Atlases carrying the rest of us. These are the muppets who banged their heads together for a […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:40 pm, June 3rd, 2009 - 3 comments
Here’s an exert from Nick Smith’s speech to the 2009 New Zealand Planning Institute Conference: I acknowledge, that while the bulk of submissions have been supportive of the Bill, there is considerable debate over the provisions that remove the non-complying activity class, that restrict blanket urban tree protection, that limit plan appeal rights and which […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, June 1st, 2009 - 41 comments
A few weeks back, in the best traditions of tabloid TV, Q+A took time to mention Lockwood’s ride, the macho muscle car Ford Falcon Cobra – a car that screams red-blooded heterosexuality. It got me wondering. I heard Helen Clark used to drive a Mitsi when she was PM. Boring. But what sort of cars would […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:33 pm, May 26th, 2009 - 86 comments
Collins has given us a little teaser of what’s in her car-crushing law. As any fool could have predicted the fascist in her couldn’t stop just at crushing the cars of repeat traffic offenders who don’t pay their fines. A new penalty for illegal street racing would allow vehicles to be seized and destroyed. Vehicles […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:41 pm, May 23rd, 2009 - 1 comment
A cold weekend afternoon. Perfect timing for a distracting article on Twitter, Adderall, lifehacking, mindful jogging, power browsing, Obama’s BlackBerry, and the benefits of overstimulation. Sam Anderson presents thoughts in defence of distraction. Over the last several years, the problem of attention has migrated right into the center of our cultural attention. We hunt it […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:10 pm, May 20th, 2009 - 33 comments
The Fast Forward Fund was axed by the NACT government in Feburary. This was a fund that was to be invested and the proceeds and capital drawn down over 10-15 years to invest in agriculture. The funds would be distributed with equal contributions from agricultural businesses. Farming provides well over a third of our overseas […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, May 15th, 2009 - 30 comments
Using Labour’s Google Map of National’s Waterview route and Google Street View, I had a look at the type of houses that National wants to bulldoze and the ones it has decided to save by having a tunnel under them. State houses and lower-income houses to be knocked down. Upper income houses, to be saved […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:21 pm, May 14th, 2009 - 2 comments
From the Herald’s Your Views on Waterview: HammerHead (Wellington City): No they should replace it with a cycleway. This would prevent criminals coming from South Auckland, as most don’t have bikes. This would also reduce the crime rate in the area. Have you ever tried to carry a 50″ plasma on a bike?
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, May 14th, 2009 - 68 comments
Over at Red Alert, the Labour MPs’ blog, Trevor Mallard points out that nominations for the Mt Albert by-election don’t close until next week. If John Key, as Mallard puts it, “has the balls” he can tell Melissa Lee to stand down and the National selection can be held again. Poor old Ravi Musuku might […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:32 am, May 14th, 2009 - 15 comments
National has released its Waterview plan. Basically a trench rather than a tunnel, and a few hundred more homes knocked down. They reckon it will cost $1.4 billion. What’s missing from the costing? Financing costs were included in the cost of the tunnel to inflate it to $2.77 billion but are excluded from the trench option. […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, May 13th, 2009 - 8 comments
A mate put me onto the “story of stuff” the other day. It’s an excellent Green-Left critique of our economic system pitched toward kids. After all, they’re the ones who are going to have to deal with the mess. The youtube version is below or you can view the high res version here (recommended). The […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:31 am, May 13th, 2009 - 41 comments
Yesterday the long wait for a decision on the Waterview Connection somewhat ended. The full picture will become more obvious today, once NZTA release their prefered alignment for the route, and how much of it – if any – will be trenched or tunneled. For now, we know that the full tunnel option is off […]
Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, May 13th, 2009 - 32 comments
Here’s a trick you can all play at home. You’ll need several different plans for a major motorway project produced by NZTA and a compliant Treasury ready and willing to alter figures to make your preferred option look better than it is. Now, you want to save a little money by going for the cheapest […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 pm, May 11th, 2009 - 20 comments
In east Antarctica, the sea ice sheets have been larger recently. Predictably this has been seized on by the scientifically simple-minded climate change deniers (CCD’s) as evidence that climate change models are incorrect. This is despite it being predicted very closely by the same climate models well before it happened. I remember it being pointed […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:58 am, May 6th, 2009 - 48 comments
Owen McShane’s lobby group the Centre for Resource Management Studies has a set of questions up about the Waterview Tunnel option of SH20. Essentially they argue for ramming an above ground motorway through the Waterview houses and green belt for the benefit of the motorists, and that the pesky locals should be ignored. One of […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:46 pm, May 4th, 2009 - 18 comments
I had the pleasure of meeting lauded climate activist and author Bill McKibben this morning. McKibben is in New Zealand as part of a tour encouraging action on climate change, in the lead up to the big UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December. He’s a good guy tall, frank and realistic about the distinct […]
Written By: - Date published: 5:00 am, May 4th, 2009 - 17 comments
Here’s the cover of Ian Wishart’s latest piece of scientifically illiterate climate change denialism, Air Con: And here’s the poster for World Fair Trade Day 2008: It seems an unlikely coincidence. [Hat tip: forgetaboutthelastone in the comments.]
Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, May 3rd, 2009 - 51 comments
Robinsod is no longer here to do the book reviews of Wishart‘s latest insights into the world of the paranoid. As he said before pronouncing his severe disappointment with Wishart in his last book.. I had high hopes for Absolute Power, I really did. If Faulkner taught us anything with The Sound and the Fury […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:59 pm, May 1st, 2009 - 21 comments
Tony Friedlander of the trucking lobby and architect of the famous ‘truck strike’ (remember that? man that was weird when you think about it) was on the TV last week arguing that we should get rid of road user charges and replace them with a diesel tax the same as petrol tax. In typical Friedlander […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, April 28th, 2009 - 6 comments
Inspired by a forwarded e-mail about Obama’s speech to the NAS with this line in it Imagine Key committing to invest 3% of GDP in R&D Obama 27th April 2009 at the National Academy of Science I am here today to set this goal: we will devote more than three percent of our GDP to […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:15 am, April 20th, 2009 - 19 comments
This fascinating article (with many links) describes some of the radical technologies America is considering to address the urgent problem of global warming. … global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth’s air … One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:01 pm, April 13th, 2009 - 13 comments
Remember the oil spike? Over the course of the last 4-5 years, oil kept on breaking records, culminating in a massive spike to reach $150 last June. Why did that happen? Some people want to dismiss it as just a speculative bubble but they forget that speculators come to a market that has a fundamental […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, April 8th, 2009 - 2 comments
The future is starting to look decidedly sci fi. As the UN climate talks in Bonn draw to a close, developed countries have refused to forward an overall mid-term emissions reduction target ( the cuts they’re willing to make collectively by 2020). Despite science telling us this needs to be in the range of 40 […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, April 7th, 2009 - 42 comments
John Key’s government is at the climate change talks in Bonn avoiding doing their part in combating more climate change in the future (along with Russia and the Ukraine). Meanwhile the British Antarctic Survey is reporting that the Wilkins ice shelf is likely to disappear shortly. A large part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf on […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:42 pm, April 5th, 2009 - 10 comments
How big is your water footprint? Find out here.
Written By: - Date published: 6:59 pm, April 1st, 2009 - 43 comments
Take heed, for the Superpower has spoken. At Round One of this year’s international climate change negotiations (in Bonn, Germany) the US has stolen the spotlight with a rousing opening address. President Barack Obama’s envoy Todd Stern stressed the need for action and warned countries like New Zealand that they’re set to become losers in […]
Written By: - Date published: 9:55 am, March 29th, 2009 - 32 comments
Well well well. According to the Herald: “New Zealanders are being asked whether the Government should allow nuclear-powered ships back into our waters … workers for a market research company have disclosed they have been polling voters about nuclear power”. Bravo to the staff involved for blowing the whistle. The usual suspects, National, ACT and […]
Recent Comments