Another failure at Lima
While I have come to expect nothing from the annual climate change talks, this years’ failure is particularly galling because of the active role that NZ played in it.
science
global warming
Climate change is too important to lie about
First instinct, lie. When caught, trivialise and try to deny the science. When pushed, argue that we have to wait for others. When cornered, plead that it’s all about the economy, and promise to act later. Groser is as bad as Key.
Heads in the Sand protest this Sunday
The Coal Action Network is planning a series of protests this Sunday to highlight how this Government has its head planted firmly in the sand when it comes to addressing climate change.
Groser and National have a plan to save the world from global warming
Tim Groser and National have a plan to solve global warming so cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel.
John Key and the Fart Tax
Momentum is building for action on climate change – but Key reckons it’s all just too hard for little old NZ. If only the Nats hadn’t killed of funding for research into the reduction of agricultural emissions…
Why does the right control the English speaking world?
Jason Wilson in the Guardian has asked a very relevant question. Why is the right currently dominant in the English speaking Western World and what does the left have to do to change this?
Nats’ climate negligence
Yesterday was a big day for climate news, highlighting yet again the irresponsible negligence of this National government.
One News promoted climate crank
After a strong reaction, TVNZ has taken down video and an article featuring a climate change denialist crank.
About climate change …
The IPCC has released a further report refining previous research and announcing with practical certainty that climate change is happening because of the production of greenhouse gasses. It proposes that we stop burning fossil fuels, and change the electricity generation system so that by 2050 the vast bulk of the world’s power is produced by renewable means. The diagnosis is clear as are the remedies. And meanwhile Tim Groser thinks the Greens are to blame for the recent drop in the milk price …
Responding to our greatest threat
Answering climate change myths
I ran across this youtube video “Thirteen misconceptions about global warming” handling the basic myths used by our climate change dummies. Perhaps they should watch it before I and others have to waste too much of our time rubbishing their inane ideas.
Idiots, Cowards and Bastards.
When they write about it at all, the media tends to produce a lot of smash on the issue of global warming, and I’ve had enough of the crap. I apologise for both the length of this post and the number of data chewing links (pdfs and video). I’m hoping to write a number of posts looking at global warming from a variety of perspectives, and hopefully, it’ll be possible to keep others somewhat briefer than this one.
Debate tonight: Climate Voter
Climate Voter is streaming a debate between the major parties tonight at 7pm.
Dear Greenpeace – difficult cases make bad law
Greenpeace has been told by the Electoral Commission that its Climate Voter Website requires third party authorisation and that a cap on the amount that can be spent applies. There is an exception in the law if the site is a “news media” site which is paradoxically the same defence Cameron Slater is running in his case against Matt Blomfield justifying his refusal to disclose who his informant is. The sense of irony is strong here …
A John Key. With assembly instructions.
How to make your very own New Zealand Prime Minister. Even better looking than this vessel.
xkcd: 4.5 degrees
Without prompt, aggressive limits on CO2 emissions, the Earth will likely warm by an average of 4-5°c by the century’s end.
How big a change is that?
Climate change – ETS or Carbon tax?
The media is trying to suggest that Labour is opposing the Green’s proposed Carbon Tax policy. This is a gross over dramatisation of the situation. Labour has in the past supported a Carbon Tax, has a policy formation process which prevents policy creation on the hoof, and prefers an ETS even though it is slightly more complex on the basis that it is slightly more effective in allocating costs and benefits across the board.
The Green’s climate change policy
The Greens have released their climate change policy and are proposing that the ETS is scrapped and a carbon tax imposed in its place. This is a proposal that in the past Labour has supported. The ETS was only agreed to because New Zealand First would not agree to a carbon tax. Second time lucky?
National thinks the best approach to climate change is adaption
National is starting to talk about adaption to climate change rather than addressing greenhouse gas output. And greenhouse gas output is projected to increase in New Zealand by 50% over the next decade.
Act thinks the IPCC is scaremongering
The latest IPCC report has been released and not only are scientific views on the existence of climate change hardening, but the effects are becoming more pronounced. Meanwhile ACT has described action to try and save the planet as “moral exhibitionism” and has said that not improving the ETS is a bottom line for any future coalition with National. If you need any reason to work to get rid of this Government this has to be it.
Climate change, peak oil and deconstructing motorways
Three interrelated articles dealing with how far from Scientific Reality Republican Politicians are, how peak oil may just be around the corner and how deconstructing motorways can improve inner city areas.
NRT: Climate change: War, disease, and famine
The biggest single threat to civilisation from human initiated CO2 forced climate change is going to be in food production and distribution. In a leaked version of the IPCC’s AR5 second volume ” the report predicts that climate change will reduce median crop yields by 2 per cent per decade for the rest of the century – at a time of rapidly growing demand for food.”
Positive Things
Change becomes embedded when it emanates from and across many quarters and traditions.
Role of Government
Governments are holding on to their traditional roles and functions, but the world has changed. We need something else.
State of Nations
This post isn’t a ‘contrast and compare’ piece on the policy announcements of National, the Greens and Labour. Enough to say that National are pursuing privatisation while both Labour and Green are at least trying to do good things.
Shame about the reality of the bigger picture then.
xkcd: Global Warming
UBI (2) Why should we push for a UBI? (Universal basic income).
Why a UBI?
Firstly. To overturn some paradigms:
That a great many people should lead poor and constricted lives, so a very few can be rich.
That ordinary people are disposable economic production units.
New Zealand is doing nothing about climate change
The latest report on New Zealand’s performance under the Kyoto Protocol is out and the news is disturbing. Net emissions compared to our 1990 CO2 equivalent emissions are predicted to treble by 2030 at a time where they should be trending to below the 1990 level. And Government policies are shown to be making little difference. Meanwhile a report by Prof Euan Mason advocates that Agriculture should be in the scheme and that with a proper price for ETS credits significant reforestation with attendant benefits could occur. And meanwhile RWNJs continue to show their belligerent lack of understanding of the science of climate change …
The Carbon or the Swag?
So many choices! What’s a body to do?
Breaking News: Aratere to be used in the event of a major oil spill
As Greenpeace make a bid in the High Court to challenge the EPA’s decision to grant Anadarko permission to deep sea drill, we can reveal the content of secret documents detailing the contingency plan in the event of a major oil spill. The documents outline how the stricken inter island ferry Aratere will be deployed in the cleanup effort, should a catastrophic event occur.
Streamed AR5 science workshop
Thomas Stocker of the IPCC’s science group is in New Zealand for a few days. Local science groups have taken the opportunity to put together a stakeholder workshop to allow Stocker and NZ lead authors to present the key findings of the recently published AR5 WG1 report. The public workshop is being held tomorrow, Friday 11th, from 9am to 1pm in Wellington and will be web-cast live.
IPCC AR5: Thank the oceans
The levels of agreement in IPCC AR5 preliminary report on oceans are no longer ambiguous. Enough data has (finally) been collected.
Ocean warming dominates the increase in energy stored in the climate system, accounting for more than 90% of the energy accumulated between 1971 and 2010 (high confidence). It is virtually certain that the upper ocean (0−700 m) warmed from 1971 to 2010, and it likely warmed between the 1870s and 1971.
UBI. (Universal Basic Income).
The concept of UBI has a long history in New Zealand.
Of course, we already have a UBI for those over 65. Which has been extremely successful at eliminating poverty amongst the elderly, at a very moderate cost by international standards.
Obama acts – at last
The Tea Party / Republican Party in Congress are a bunch of anti-science crazies who will never agree to any action to tackle climate change. But Obama doesn’t need them. And it looks like he has finally decided to act.