July 2015 the warmest month ever

Written By: - Date published: 5:16 pm, August 21st, 2015 - 65 comments
Categories: capitalism, climate change, energy, Environment, global warming - Tags: , ,

It might not have felt like it if you live in Central Otago or Southland, but the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has just declared July the warmest month ever when looking at both land and ocean together, in its 136 year history.

The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for July 2015 was the highest for July in the 136-year period of record, at 0.81°C (1.46°F) above the 20th century average of 15.8°C (60.4°F), surpassing the previous record set in 1998 by 0.08°C (0.14°F). As July is climatologically the warmest month of the year globally, this monthly global temperature of 16.61°C (61.86°F) was also the highest among all 1627 months in the record that began in January 1880. The July temperature is currently increasing at an average rate of 0.65°C (1.17°F) per century.

Temp percentiles

We’re entering the time when only radical or revolutionary restructuring of our economic affairs is going to save our children from a horrendous and unlivable future. Add in the depletion of cheaply accessible fossil fuels, an increasingly vicious oligarchic class, and increasing financialisation of…well, everything (and everyone), and we have a recipe for large scale fragility and failure.

So far though, our political class seem content with proposing carefully acceptable and limited variations on Business As Usual. Electric cars, emissions trading schemes and export led growth, anyone? Yet another case of ‘pretend and extend’ from the rentier class establishment.

65 comments on “July 2015 the warmest month ever ”

  1. Glenn 1

    “I don’t care I will be dead by then” is a comment that I have heard a number of times from relatives and friends (even my mother) when I bring the subject up. Then there are the “but we had hot days when I was a kid” brigade.

    I am a pessimist and think my grandkids and their kids will suffer greatly in the future because of shortsighted politicians and the ‘ me me ‘society they have produced.
    Bloody hell I hope I’m wrong.

    • Colonial Viper 1.1

      We used to have a society which could think generations ahead, people who would plant an olive tree today not for themselves, but for their children and their grandchildren.

      It seems that society has become more self centred, infantile and immature over time.

    • weka 1.2

      “I am a pessimist and think my grandkids and their kids will suffer greatly in the future because of shortsighted politicians and the ‘ me me ‘society they have produced.
      Bloody hell I hope I’m wrong.”

      You’re not wrong with the prognosis, but it’s not just the politicians at fault here. We the people are also culpable and we the people can change. Why aren’t we doing that?

    • maui 2.1

      The scaremonger McPherson at it again.

    • weka 2.2

      still part of the problem Robert?

    • Lanthanide 2.3

      Hah, the whole “September-October is the end of the financial world” scaremongering again.

      He has a very odd idea about ‘financial collapse’ occurring and resulting in 0 planes in the skies in a matter of days. The situation in Greece is pretty bad, right? And yet the majority of people still go to work, still go to eat out at restaurants, still go to school etc.

      • Colonial Viper 2.3.1

        And yet the majority of people still go to work, still go to eat out at restaurants, still go to school etc.

        Yes people will continue to live their lives as best as they can. Those in the top 50% might even still be able to eat out now and then at a restaurant.

        Those in the bottom quartile of society are pretty fucked though. However, most people don’t pay much attention to them.

  2. Corokia 4

    Business as usual- Tourism -duh. So dumb. That is touted as the fall back plan for our economy now that dairy is failing. Like hundreds of thousands of people are going to fly here and then drive around looking at the scenery for the next few decades.
    On so many levels we are living in the Age of Stupid (and Selfish)

  3. Foreign waka 5

    Cars these days are very different from the stinkers of the old days and the western countries have exported their polluters to poorer countries using them as a rubbish heap. Besides all that the glaringly obvious is that the exchange of moisture is facilitated by trees. This in turn cools the globe.
    The amount of forest that is cut down every day is astronomical. Even “green” NZ has planned conversion of large forestry to cow pads.
    The consequences of this activity is known for decades and coupled with the population growth makes for grim reading.
    In the past 200 years the population has grown by more than 5 billion people and at the same time deforestation happened at a rate of 6 billion hectares. It is “recently” that we added carbon through vehicles which, given that there is no repository left to absorb this, exhilarates the heating of the atmosphere.
    I know many young people who say that they don’t want to have any kids as they feel the future is bleak and this should not be a surprise.

  4. AmaKiwi 6

    To date we in NZ are not feeling the impacts the way others are. Decade long droughts and famines. Monster storms twice as destructive as anything experienced before. We read about the enormity of the potential problems but they have not hit us yet.

    When they do, our attitudes will change.

    Coming face to face with one’s own death has a way of focusing the mind.

  5. JonL 7

    Well, we’re on course for a bumper El Nino this year as well……….

    check this out

    http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/elnino2015/1997vs2015-animated.gif

  6. weston 8

    landcorp apparently is still flat out converting forrest to dairy on the central plateau area and what forbodings which may be being made in the light of a massive global overproduction of milk are muted by hopefull predictions itll come right .actually its highly likely the goverment wants to sell these farms and anything they say otherwise is probably bullshit

  7. johnm 9

    2015 may well be the year that Climate Change is dawning on the general public due to the floods, droughts, wildfires and wildlife dieing off. The MSM at last are doing articles on the subject.

    ” What does a Monster El Nino look like? In two words — climate change. And by the end of August climate change’s Monster El Nino may have spawned two strong tropical cyclones and hurled their powerful remnant systems into the Arctic. The 2015 Monster The Equatorial Pacific is cracking wide open. Heat, at near new records for August, is oozing out. ”

    ” Unlike typical El Ninos, the high heat anomalies are not isolated to a band along the Equator. They extend upward across a vast pool that encompasses practically all of the Northeastern and North-Central Pacific. All of the Bering Sea and a chunk of the Arctic Ocean as well. It’s as if the typical El Nino heat has developed a great chimney that runs over thousands of miles from Equator to Arctic. One that encompasses millions of square miles of much warmer than normal ocean surface. An entire zone that, for the ocean, is a blistering 1-5 degrees Celsius hotter than ‘normal.’

    The Warming World’s Intense El Ninos’ Dance With Polar Amplification

    Scientists have long warned us about this. Warned us that increasing global temperatures through ongoing fossil fuel burning could greatly amplify the intensity and the frequency of strong El Nino events. A recent paper published in Nature has continued this line of research finding that, under human-forced global warming, the frequency of strong El Ninos is doubled. And, right on queue, the 2014-2016 El Nino is shaping up to be one of the nastiest, if not the nastiest such event we’ve yet experienced.

    But it’s not just a question of the intensity of heat boiling out of the Equatorial Pacific. It’s also a question of how a strong El Nino behaves in a world that has been forced to warm by 1 degree Celsius. According to Dr. Jennifer Francis, a significant portion of that extra heat has tended to focus in the Arctic. And this extra Arctic heat has, among other things, gone to work weakening the Jet Stream. In some regions, as we see today over the entire Northeastern Pacific, the tendency has been for powerful high amplitude ridges to form. The ridges often extend all the way into the Arctic — developing pathways for yet more heat to hit the high polar zones.

    Like El Nino, the ridge over the Northeastern Pacific is involved in an ocean-atmosphere dance. It’s a dance that includes widespread and abnormally warm water (see hot blob strengthens). And it’s a dance that includes the powerful impact of a Monster El Nino stalking the equatorial zones. ”

    http://robertscribbler.com/

    ” The awful truth about climate change no one wants to admit ”

    ” There has always been an odd tenor to discussions among climate scientists, policy wonks, and politicians, a passive-aggressive quality, and I think it can be traced to the fact that everyone involved has to dance around the obvious truth, at risk of losing their status and influence.

    The obvious truth about global warming is this: barring miracles, humanity is in for some awful shit. ‘

    http://www.vox.com/2015/5/15/8612113/truth-climate-change

    • RedLogix 9.1

      Yes I’ve seen this effect in action. I’ve several good friends who are career professional scientists, one of whom could be rightly described as prominent in his specialty with directly links to climate change.

      What is obvious to me is the difference between what they will publish or say in public – and what they tell me in private.

      That vox article you link to is the reason why they remain so passive. Read it, absorb it. Yes it contains some graphs and numbers. But scientists have spent their whole lives surrounded by a majority of people who struggle with basic fractions much less the concept of integration over time. They know they can present endless data in numberless papers and they will be ignored.

      The problem was never a scientific one; it was always one of popular imagination and political will. And by instinct the scientists have known this was not a domain they had much influence in.

      We need a great story teller.

  8. swordfish 10

    I can’t believe Britain’s temps were “near average” in July (white on map).

    It reached a deeply unpleasant 35 degrees while we were there in July. And frequently hit late 20s/early 30s.

    • weka 10.1

      Maybe the averaging out over the whole landmass drops the temp in the chart.

    • Swordfish, the UK temp is being affected by the Greenland ice melt, which is pushing cold water into the northern Atlantic, which in turn is sending the warm water from the east coast of the USA further south, so the UK gets colder, while Spain and North Africa gets hotter. It is something like minus 1 to minus 3C from the norm in the ocean around GB at the moment, as opposed to the parts of the Pacific that are +3C

    • Poission 10.3

      can’t believe Britain’s temps were “near average” in July

      The uk was bounded by hot extremes at the start of the month,and closed with july record colds at a number of stations at the end.

      The uk weather (like nz) is dominated by synoptic weather events and the annular mode. In july the NAM or north atlantic oscillation went negative increasing the probabilty of northerly flows (colder polar air)

      http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/ao.sprd2.gif

  9. Paul 11

    Apocalypse Soon: 9 Terrifying Signs of Environmental Doom and Gloom

    Rising sea levels, earthquake threats and more reasons the world as we know it might be ending

    Read more
    http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/apocalyse-soon-9-terrifying-signs-of-environmental-doom-and-gloom-20150818#ixzz3jTXXOzHb

  10. amy 12

    Your headline screams ‘warmest month ever’. What the data actually says is warmest in 136 years. Totally different meaning. In other words, the longevity and dispersion of data is totally meaningless.

    There has been climate change since the beginning of time and will be to the end of time.

    • Yes Amy – There has been climate change since the beginning of time and will be to the end of time.
      It just that this human friendly (up to) 50,000 (?) year period is over.

    • Lanthanide 12.2

      Warmest month in recorded human history. There you go.

    • Draco T Bastard 12.3

      The difference in different climates is if we can live in them or not. For the last few millennia it’s been quite comfortable for us but we’re presently changing it so that we and most of the rest of life on Earth won’t be able to survive.

      You seem quite comfortable with that.

    • Colonial Viper 12.4

      Your headline screams ‘warmest month ever’. What the data actually says is warmest in 136 years. Totally different meaning. In other words, the longevity and dispersion of data is totally meaningless.

      You are full of bullshit Amy.

      The stats are clear: this is the warmest month for the globe known to modern scientific man. Not just here and there; but for the entire planet.

      If you think that milestone is not significant, you need to pull your head out of the sand and start paying attention.

  11. Nessalt 13

    Warmest month on record. Not ever

    • amy 13.1

      Not even that. Greenland, which is a huge land mass, had extensive farming until about 500 years ago. Then the climate adversely changed and the land became essentially uninhabitable.

      On the other side of the planet in xinjiang, where I was born and grew up, there is also much evidence of adverse climate change around 500-700 years ago which effectively undermined agriculture. And Xinjiang, along with Mongolia, forms the bulk of the china land mass. Huge.

      And before the extremist trolls kick in, yes I totally agree we need to address harmful pollution. I just abhor extremist nonsense based on little real evidence.

      • Colonial Viper 13.1.1

        Hi Amy,

        Look at the global temperature variation map I included in this post.

        Please explain what your reason is that you do not count that as “real evidence.” July was the warmest month in the last 1627 months. Why does that not count as significant to you?

        What are you afraid of acknowledging? Do you not accept that continuing rapid climate change will imperil the lives of billions as well as the (faulty) economic system we have created?

        • amy 13.1.1.1

          Hi cv and thank for polite reply.
          No that is no way a significant time frame. It’s a little like looking at a square mm of my carpet without looking at the rest of the carpet and then trying to extrapolate from that square mm what the rest of the carpet looks like.

          I accept climate change is occurring but that human influence is of localised impact only.

          And no the economic system is not broke. My country (of nationality) is corrupt and evil compared to the west. Yet even there in my life time (I an 40) we have gone from horse and cart to high speed train.

          Our striving for the freedoms of the west has given us in a generation a standard of living (not quality if life though) that was unimaginable in my childhood. The west needs to get back to TRUE free enterprise along with a socialist support system. Nz are good people but spend too much time finding g excuses for inaction. Yet they are in general better educated and better supported by health policies, welfare policies and freedoms that you do not take advantage of.

          • Colonial Viper 13.1.1.1.1

            You are blind to the future, and you appear to be blind to the costs of progress.

            You also appear blind to the impending disaster mankind has created for itself.

            Man’s clever plans are not more powerful than the will of the heavens.

            My country (of nationality) is corrupt and evil compared to the west.

            Nonsense. The USA started a foreign war which killed over a million Iraqi civilians. When was the last time China did that to a foreign country?

            Both the USA and the UK kidnapped foreign citizens and had them tortured and disappeared. Western European nations co-operated. When was the last time China did that to a foreign national?

            Germany is economically crushing 12M Greeks and sending that whole nation into impoverishment. When was the last time China did that to a foreign country?

            It is clear to me that you do not understand the West at all.

            No that is no way a significant time frame.

            Says you.

            What are your qualifications or expertise in this matter?

            How do you justify that a peak period out of 1627 other periods is of no importance?

            Your thinking is nonsense. It also lacks curiosity and openness.

          • weka 13.1.1.1.2

            “No that is no way a significant time frame. It’s a little like looking at a square mm of my carpet without looking at the rest of the carpet and then trying to extrapolate from that square mm what the rest of the carpet looks like.”

            You do realise that climate science isn’t just about measuring temperatures for the past century and a half right? That it does look at evidence from very long time frames.

            Climate changes all the time, so the examples you give aren’t really supporting your argument.

            I’m also curious why you think that your carpet analogy stands up against thousands of scientists?

      • RedLogix 13.1.2

        Greenland, which is a huge land mass, had extensive farming until about 500 years ago.

        So you are telling us that the Greenland Ice Sheet which today are still almost 3km thick at their highest – all grew from nothing within the last 500 years? I don’t think so.

        Or what you may be talking about is of course the Norse settlement of Greenland at three relatively small coastal locations inside fiords offering micro-climates just capable of supporting agriculture.

        Their interesting and complex history was written about in some detail by Jared Diamon in his wonderful book Collapse. How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail. The whole book can be read here: http://cpor.org/ce/Diamond(2005)Collapse-HowSocietiesChooseFailureSuccess.pdf

        The reasons for the Norse departure from Greeenland are complex and only partially related to climate. The key thing to recognise is that the microclimates they were exploiting were always very marginal and it only took a very minor and quite natural change back to cooler conditions to undermine the fragile ecosystem they depended on.

        But the notion you are peddling that somehow Greenland was an ice-free “huge land-mass extensively farmed” just 500 years ago is of course a self-evident nonsense.

        • Lanthanide 13.1.2.1

          (S)he may have been also muddling up Iceland, which was more agriculturally productive in the past than it is now. A lot of their very fertile topsoil has eroded away due to bad farming practices.

  12. Nessalt 14

    Why, instead of looking at economically curtailing policies, are we not looking at ways to maximise the gains from a changing climate. warm periods are periods of prosperity historically, since long before temperature records were kept. they encouraged the spread and diversification of flora and fauna far more than static or cooling temperatures. Should we not be looking to adapt to reap the benefits that will allow us to feed a burgeoning world population rather than pronouncing doom and gloom and condemning the world to live as troglodytes?

    • Colonial Viper 14.1

      The economy is a subset of the environment.

      As the environment destabilises and fails, so will the economy.

      You are the kind of prick who looks to profit off disaster. You are the one condemning future generations to an unlivable biosphere.

      • Nessalt 14.1.1

        Jesus CV. I’m a prick because i think we should look around to work with what has, is and will continue to happen despite human interference? I agree that the rate things are changing is accelerated with our existence, but i don’t think you can belittle my suggestion just because it doesn’t fit with your fix. maybe this is why central labour don’t like you.

        Humans have proved far better at adaption than at fixing what has happened. but that would require technological investement and may maintain the economic systems we’ve adapted into. I know that hurts, but it doesn’t make anyone a prick for being a proponent off it. especially as you have no way of knowing that future generations will be condemned to an unlivable biosphere if my suggestions work.

        you behaviour is as bad as whaleoil. no one likes watching a keyboard jockey spaz when they are disagreed with

        • One Anonymous Bloke 14.1.1.1

          “My suggestion” is covered extensively by chapter seven of AR5. Can you explain where they have it wrong?

          Go on, ask your gut.

        • weka 14.1.1.2

          Nessalt, your idea is predicated on there being technology and an economy left that survives catastrophic CC. That’s not likely. Further, if we want to lessen the chances of catastrophic CC, we have to lessen industrial society. I can’t see a way of doing that under the current economic management, can you?

          The key word in what I have written is catastrophic. You are talking about adaptation. You can’t adapt to catastrophe. You might be one of the lucky ones who survives, and then you can adapt afterwards, but there won’t be a society the way you are thinking about it by then.

    • Foreign waka 14.2

      I think the issues will focus on an increase of infectious disease, like lime disease, cholera, malaria, dengue fever etc…

  13. johnm 15

    For Amy! 🙂

    Climate Change Deniers Present Graphic Description Of What Earth Must Look Like For Them To Believe

    “For us to accept that the average surface temperature of the Earth has risen to critical levels due to mankind’s production of greenhouse gases, we’ll need to see some actual, visible evidence, including a global death toll of no less than 500 million people within a single calendar year,” said spokesperson William Davis, 46, of Jackson, NJ, who added that at least 70 percent of all islands on the planet would also have to become submerged under rising seas before he and his cohort would reconsider their beliefs. “To start, we’re going to have to see supercell tornadoes of category F4 or higher ripping through Oklahoma at least three times a day, leveling entire communities and causing hundreds of fatalities—and just to be perfectly clear, we’re talking year-round, not just during the spring tornado season.”

    ““I don’t think it’s too much to ask to see a super hurricane destroying the Southeast U.S. and another one at the same time decimating the Pacific Northwest before I make up my mind about this,” said global warming skeptic Michelle Wilkinson of Medina, MN”

    http://www.theonion.com/article/climate-change-deniers-present-graphic-description-51129

  14. johnm 16

    Climate Change is happening and increasing in momentum

    Don’t worry, CV, about the likes of Nessalt, probably one of those half wit idiot national Key suckers. They’ll turn your brains to mush mate!

    Right Guys listen to this interview and you’ll be up with the ball play you Rugby playing morons. otherwise just go back to your cannabis fuelled stupor and the boozing.

    http://guymcpherson.com/2015/08/real-news-network-interview/

  15. johnm 17

    A World on Fire: July Was Hottest Month Ever Recorded

    Record set for hottest month of the year puts 2015 on track to be hottest year ever recorded… and the consequences are mounting
    by
    Jon Queally, staff writer
    20 Comments
    Firefighters work to dig a fire line on the Rocky Fire in Lake County, California July 30, 2015. This week, three scientific agencies announced that July was the hottest month on Earth since records were started in 1880. (Photo: Reuters/Max Whittaker)

    The world is burning up.

    The previously available evidence for that statement is staggering and on Thursday the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. announced that July was the hottest month the planet has ever experienced since records began and that both land and ocean temperatures are on pace to make 2015 the hottest year ever recorded.

    According to NOAA’s latest figures, the July average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.46°F (0.81°C) above the 20th century average. As July consistently marks the warmest month of the year, NOAA said this most recent one now registers as having the all-time highest monthly temperature since records began in 1880, with an average global thermometer reading of 61.86°F (16.61°C).

    NOAA’s temperature analysis follows on the heels of similar findings by both NASA and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) published earlier this week which also said July was a record-breaker in terms of heat.

    “The world is warming. It is continuing to warm. That is being shown time and time again in our data,” said Jake Crouch, physical scientist at NOAA’s National Centres for Environmental Information.

    “Now that we are fairly certain that 2015 will be the warmest year on record,” Crouch continued, “It is time to start looking at what are the impacts of that? What does that mean for people on the ground?”

    At least for those who experienced perilous heat waves in places like Pakistan, India, Iran, and Egypt in recent weeks and months, they know those direct impacts of record temperatures can be deadly. Meanwhile, climate scientists have spent much of the year—with a special eye on upcoming UN climate talks in Paris—warning that the collective impacts of increased temperatures, both on land and in the oceans, are resulting in severe consequences for human civilization and the natural world.

    More troubling than any one month, experts note, is the consistent and driving trend that has seen temperatures on a steady march upward since the beginning of the century. As Andrea Thompson at Climate Central reports:

    After 2014 was declared the warmest year on record, a Climate Central analysis showed that 13 of the 15 warmest years in the books have occurred since 2000 and that the odds of that happening randomly without the boost of global warming was 1 in 27 million.

    Even during recent years when a La Niña (the cold water counterpart to El Niño) has been in place, the year turned out warmer than El Niño years of earlier decades.

    Global carbon dioxide levels have risen from a preindustrial level of about 280 parts per million to nearly 400 ppm today. In recent years, CO2 levels — the primary greenhouse gas — have spent longer and longer above the 400 ppm benchmark. They stayed above this point for about six months this year, twice the three months of last year. It is expected that within a few years, they will be permanently above 400 ppm.

    The continued rise of CO2 levels will raise the planet’s temperature by another 3°F to 9°F by the end of this century depending on when and if greenhouse gas emissions are curbed, scientists have calculated.

    That means that some, future years are likely to continue to set records, even if there will still be year to year variations.

    And according to Eric Holthaus, who writes about climate change for Slate, the mounting evidence and rising temperatures are painting an increasingly scary picture of the future:

    All this warmth on land is being driven by record-setting heat across large sections of the world’s oceans. The NOAA report notes that the warmest 10 months of ocean temperatures on record have occurred in the last 16 months. This is mostly due to a near-record strength El Niño, but the current state of the global oceans has little historical precedent. Since it takes several months for the oceanic warmth of an El Niño to fully reach the atmosphere, 2016 will likely be warmer—perhaps much warmer—than 2015. And that poses grave implications for the world’s ecosystems as well as humans.

    We’ve recently entered a new point in the Earth’s climate history. According to reconstructions using tree rings, corals, and ice cores, global temperatures are currently approaching—if not already past—the maximum temperatures commonly observed over the past 11,000 years (i.e., the time period in which humans developed agriculture), and flirting with levels not seen in more than 100,000 years.

    But this is the scary part: The current level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than at any point since humans first evolved millions of years ago. Since carbon dioxide emissions lead to warming, the fact that emissions are increasing means there’s much more warming yet to come. What’s more, carbon dioxide levels are increasing really quickly. The rate of change is faster than at any point in Earth’s entire 4.5 billion year history, likely 10 times faster than during Earth’s worst mass extinction—the “Great Dying”—in which more than 90 percent of ocean species perished. Our planet has simply never undergone the kind of stress we’re currently putting on it. That stunning rate of change is one reason why surprising studies like the recent worse-than-the-worst-case-scenario study on sea level rise don’t seem so far fetched.

    http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/08/21/world-fire-july-was-hottest-month-ever-recorded

  16. johnm 18

    ‘ State of Emergency Declared as Wildfires Create ‘Unprecedented Cataclysm’ in Washington

    Four other states also fighting massive blazes, including drought-stricken California

    Three firefighters were killed this week and President Barack Obama on Friday issued an emergency order over wildfires raging through central Washington state.

    Emergency workers from Australia and New Zealand have been flown in to help the crews currently fighting blazes in five states, including Washington, California, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon.
    Washington Governor Jay Inslee on Thursday called the fires “an unprecedented cataclysm.” ‘

    Seatower
    18 hours ago

    ” Welcome to the precipice of oblivion…all climate change deniers (and their paid corroborating “scientists” and so-called “experts”) need to board the train to hell or, even better, put on their firefighting gear and join the brigades of firemen battling the blazes. Mother Nature has had enough. Humankind needs to immediately change its ways or face the dire consequences. Think of all the wildlife/fauna that are dying from the fires and/or will die in winter without anything to eat. Think of all the rivers, lakes and streams filled with ash and other particulate matter suffocating the fish. Our house of cards is falling. ”

    Wereflea

    ” Imagine 20 more years of this and it will still keep getting hotter and hotter! Imagine 50 more years of this – hotter each and every year. I find it hard to imagine what the world will be like. All I know is that it will not be recognizable as the world I knew. Old folks like me have seen the majestic as something ordinary and familiar and expected at least some of ut would be preserved forever.. Vast forests and big animal fauna. Salmon coursing upriver, Cats padding silently through the world. Wolves and c’yotes howling out there beyond the campfire. Now we are nolonger sure. That National Park may have escaped the axe but not global warming.

    The young will see pictures and never realize how much we took for granted because it was already gone by the time it was their turn. A cabin in the woods! Your family was lucky. What was omce commonplace and ordinary will become extraordinary and rare at least where a few patches might still exist.

    But how can the fairy tale forest of Olympic National Park be saved when it is afire? This years fire. Only this years.

    God bless and preserve the fire fighters. May the flames not leap over them and come up behind them ”

    http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/08/21/state-emergency-declared-wildfires-create-unprecedented-cataclysm-washington

  17. johnm 19

    ” When scientists are compelled by circumstances, to recognize that the world is close to, if not already, terminally corrupt, their final resort is to become, themselves, activists, on behalf of future generations, whom our generation is murdering. Perhaps they’re voices in the wilderness. But now they are starting to shout. It’s their last hope. It’s also the last hope of future generations (if there still is, realistically, any hope at all, remaining). ”

    The Latest Science on Global Warming By Eric Zuesse
    http://www.countercurrents.org/zuesse210815.htm

    ” Humanity faces near certainty of eventual sea level rise of at least Eemian proportions, 5–9m [16-30 feet], if fossil fuel emissions continue on a business-as-usual course, e.g., IPCC scenario A1B that has CO2 700 ppm in 2100 (Fig. S21). It is unlikely that coastal cities or low-lying areas such as Bangladesh, European lowlands, and large portions of the United States eastern coast and northeast China plains (Fig. S22) could be protected against such large sea level rise. Rapid large sea level rise may begin sooner than generally assumed. … ”

    Humanity at a Crossroads. Today…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpwlWkrvdq0

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    TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 hours ago
  • Relentlessly negative
    Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    7 hours ago
  • Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    Bryce Edwards writes –  It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    7 hours ago
  • Promiscuous Empathy: Chris Trotter Replies To His Critics.
    Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played. “Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
    8 hours ago
  • Don’t run your business like a criminal enterprise
    The Detail this morning highlights the police's asset forfeiture case against convicted business criminal Ron Salter, who stands to have his business confiscated for systemic violations of health and safety law. Business are crying foul - but not for the reason you'd think. Instead of opposing the post-conviction punishment and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    8 hours ago
  • Misremembering Justinian’s Taxes.
    Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I - Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
    9 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    9 hours ago
  • Bishop scores headlines with crackdown on unwelcome tenants – but Peters scores, too, as tub-thump...
    Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    10 hours ago
  • Will it make the boat go faster?
    Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    13 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi The fact that a ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    13 hours ago
  • Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    14 hours ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' at 10:10am on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    14 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    15 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    16 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    18 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    2 days ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    2 days ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    2 days ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    5 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    6 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    6 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    12 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    14 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    14 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
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    1 day ago
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