Written By: - Date published: 6:21 am, July 27th, 2009 - 44 comments
As expected, the Key Government has decided not to listen to the scientists on climate change. Rather than the 40% reduction in emissions by 2020 that the scientists are saying the the minimum developed nations need to achieve to start greenhouse gas levels heading back to safe levels, they’ll be setting a weaker target instead, […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:49 pm, July 24th, 2009 - 21 comments
Just saw this…pretty good. Didn’t realise Darby was another Signer Oner. Nice to see a bit of humour injected into something as grim as a toiling planet.
Written By: - Date published: 5:39 am, July 22nd, 2009 - 48 comments
Greenpeace and others are campaigning for the Government to agree to a target of 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2020. Where did they get that number from? From the science. The scientific consensus is that if we let carbon dioxide rise stay above 350 parts per million in the atmosphere we will […]
Written By: - Date published: 3:58 pm, July 21st, 2009 - 2 comments
Short notice, but just got this in from the Drinking Liberally Wellington crew: This week Drinking Liberally is hosting Geoff Keey from Greenpeace. Geoff has been attending the recent climate change negotiations in Bonn and will reflect upon them, and Greenpeace’s “Sign On” campaign. The Sign On campaign is to advocate for for a commitment […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:07 pm, July 14th, 2009 - 6 comments
Who’d have thought? An oil company coming out on the side of New Zealand’s biggest environmental organisation over emission reduction targets. Gull says let the science dictate how much New Zealand cuts its greenhouse gases by, and that the cost of inaction will far outweigh the cost of urgent cuts. Curious times call for curious […]
Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, July 10th, 2009 - Comments Off on Greenpeace to Obama: Show some leadership
From Greenpeace USA: Greenpeace climbers hung a banner on Mount Rushmore challenging President Obama to show real leadership on global warming. The banner read “America honors leaders not politicians: Stop Global Warming.” The demonstration comes as President Obama meets other G8 leaders in L’Aquila, Italy to discuss the global warming crisis in the lead-up to […]
Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, July 8th, 2009 - 101 comments
Inaugural Lectures are very traditional University events; held these days to permit outstanding researchers to present an overview of their work to the wider academic community and public. Last night Prof. Tim Naish delivered a clear and decisive verdict about human induced climate change; the evidence is unassailable. Held in the very formal surrounds of […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:05 pm, July 6th, 2009 - 11 comments
Great new video from 350.org.nz calling on the Government to back a 40% reduction in emissions by 2020. Current National Party policy is 50 by 2050. Public meetings on the Government’s emissions target start today. Check out frogblog for more information about how you can have your say.
Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, July 6th, 2009 - 22 comments
The US has finally managed to pass a bill through the house of representatives dealing with climate change (sort of). It is laden with pork-barrel initiatives because the congress members realised that they could treat carbon credits as a type of free-money boondoggle. It still has to pass the senate and get approval from Obama, […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, July 5th, 2009 - 12 comments
There are a few odd times that I wish I was living in Wellington instead of Auckland (not often).This is one of them. There is a lecture by one of the leading researchers looking at the geology of the West Antarctica ice sheet (WAIS) and the critical medium-term effects of climate change. Tim Naish says […]
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 6:59 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: 8:53 am, March 29th, 2009 - Comments Off on What’s a Poor Pragmatic Key to do?
Just when the Kiwi corporate kleptocracy was kicking into high gear to ensure that the taxpayer is properly stuck with the paying the whole of New Zealand’s Kyoto carbon bill according to the time honoured ‘privatise the profit, socialize the loss’ principle, the Labour /Green Opposition may well crank up the thermostat on the Govt […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:18 am, March 26th, 2009 - 10 comments
Toad’s post on coastal shipping deserves re-posting: Coastal shipping is the most energy efficient means of moving freight. A ship consumes 75 – 80 percent less fuel than a truck per tonne hauled. It’s just got to be the way to go. The United States finally seems to be seeing this. A Bill before the […]
Written By: - Date published: 1:46 pm, March 24th, 2009 - 27 comments
We’ve been outed! By none other than Thelma (or was it Louise?) A promotional video for climate action, voiced by Susan Sarandon for Greenpeace in the US, holds New Zealand up as a beacon of hope on a sickly earth praising the former Labour Government’s plan to ban energy inefficient bulbs by 2009. Unfortunately for […]
Written By: - Date published: 2:31 pm, March 20th, 2009 - 61 comments
The preliminary results of a drill by the ANDRILL (Antarctic Geological Drilling) were published in the print edition of Nature this week. It has shown a history of the previous retreat and collapses of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The WAIS melt with its vast stores of solid water, and even more in the […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, March 20th, 2009 - 34 comments
The Government is taking nearly half a billion dollars out of public transport, cycling, walking, road maintance, and traffic policing to pay for more state highways. Transport Minister Steven Joyce’s reasoning for this – ‘86% of people go to work by car’. Doesn’t he get that people have to go by car because there aren’t […]
Written By: - Date published: 4:17 pm, March 18th, 2009 - 20 comments
This morning I spotted a poignant example of the inequalities inherent in tackling climate change. The Maldives have announced they’ll go carbon neutral by 2020. Newly elected President Mohamed Nasheed says his small archipelago nation will hereby spurn fossil fuels – opting instead for wind and solar power – and buy EU carbon credits to […]
Written By: - Date published: 10:36 pm, March 16th, 2009 - 47 comments
Fancy a restful island holiday? If the Cateret Island was your chosen destination you might want to travel sooner rather than later according to CNN: There is one holiday destination that should shake the faith of even the most vehement climate change skeptic: the Carteret Islands, part of Papua New Guinea, located northeast of Bougainville… […]
Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, March 5th, 2009 - 79 comments
The latest New Scientist brings together the work of thousands of scientists to describe what would happen to the world if the global temperature rises by 4 degrees, which is the mid-range for the projected increases due to climate change. Many of you will simply continue to reject the notion of climate change and its […]
Written By: - Date published: 12:16 pm, February 27th, 2009 - 1 comment
Written By: - Date published: 6:10 am, January 30th, 2009 - 1 comment
I attended the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji back in 2006. The shadow of Bainimarama’s approaching coup hung over the forum but it wasn’t enough to quell the heat as we sat in our ridiculously ill-suited suits through endless, pointless meetings. Nothing was achieved and everyone clapped each other on the back for a job […]
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