Maybe stop dropping it…

Written By: - Date published: 11:28 am, May 2nd, 2016 - 151 comments
Categories: class war, climate change, energy, Environment, global warming, International, water - Tags: , , , ,

Globally

January the hottest January on record.
February the hottest February on record.
March the hottest March on record.

If April also shows up as the hottest land and ocean surface temperature for April on record, then that will be 12 consecutive months of hottest monthly temperatures.

Meanwhile.

This year, the arctic’s maximum winter ice cover was its lowest on record and back in 2014 scientists concluded that West Antarctic Ice Shelf is now in a state of instability meaning, given the topography of the ground beneath, that it’s beginning a process of unstoppable collapse.

Meanwhile.

A quick scan of India’s monthly temperatures reveals that April temperatures have been higher than the average, height of the summer, May temperatures, by maybe 4 degrees C or more. Need the water shortages and deaths be mentioned?

We could all do something but, well…let’s just talk about the price of cheese and burn fossil – it’s easier. Or maybe settle for a Milo before getting tucked in for beddy byes? Hmm?

151 comments on “Maybe stop dropping it… ”

  1. gsays 1

    I had a rare beast in my house yesty, a cc denier!
    He claims the regular heating/cooling cycle is caused by the earths core
    Not to worry because trees are adapting to take on way more carbon.
    face palm.
    I moved the conversation on to the cricket team.

    • TC 1.1

      Some luddites have gone from denial to denying that its caused by man but wow thats a beauty that line about the core.

      • Pat 1.1.1

        strangely enough if the world were indeed full of Luddites we wouldn’t be having this conversation…..another descriptive term may be more appropriate.

    • Lanthanide 1.2

      There was an article published in the last week or so that found that plants are becoming more efficient with their use of water, due to increased CO2 availability in the atmosphere.

      That may be the nucleus of the “trees are adapting” part. No idea where they got the “core is doing it” part though.

      • lprent 1.2.1

        Probably because the slow fission nuclear reactor that we live on is hot at the core?

        Quite how they get from thinking that the type of heat insulated by the insulating cold rock at the surface gets through in quantities high enough to affect ephemeral heat stores like water and air is beyond me. Especially when that extra heat doesn’t also poison the atmosphere with excessive sulphates and other the other noxious liquids and gases commonly associated with vulcanism.

        But hey, who knows what is in the alleged mind of an idiot denier. In my experience, certainly not much understanding of basic science or any demonstratable skills at being able to think rationally.

        • Poission 1.2.1.1

          They are probably getting confused with the recent publication on geothermal heating under Greenland,

          http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/tuom-ghc040616.php

          Have not heard of any phase behavioral oscillations at short time scales,at longer periods it makes for an interesting proposition for periodic mass extinctions by dark matter,where mutual annihilation by interaction would increase the T of the earth core.

          http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/448/2/1816

          • lprent 1.2.1.1.1

            FFS: there is a hell of a lot of seismic activity between Greenland and Canada. Maybe the Greenland plate is still partially active pushing over a subduction zone. Maybe active glacial rebound.

            Either way, these are processes that take millions of years.

        • Jones 1.2.1.2

          And here I was thinking the Earth was hollow… 😉

        • Jenny 1.2.1.3

          What nuclear reactor?

          The small number of anti-neutrinos detected at Borexino, only a couple each month, helps to settle a long-standing question among geophysicists and geologists about whether our planet harbors a huge, natural nuclear reactor at its core.

          Based on the unprecedently clear geo anti-neutrino data, the answer is no, say the UMass Amherst physicists.

          http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/02/update-does-the-earth-harbors-a-huge-natural-nuclear-reactor-at-its-core.html

          Another denier argument bites the dirt, literally.

          • lprent 1.2.1.3.1

            Look the emissions of Argon. Then figure out what reactions cause that. Heat from nuclear decay isn’t a high grade nuclear reaction, but with large amounts of rock insulation it accumulated a lot of heat.

            Still a nuclear reactor.

            • Colonial Viper 1.2.1.3.1.1

              like smoke alarms are nuclear powered?

            • Lanthanide 1.2.1.3.1.2

              I don’t really think natural radioactive decay counts as being a ‘nuclear reactor’.

              Edit: Wikipedia defines a nuclear reaction as two atoms combining together. Nuclear decay happens when a single atom splits apart.

              So by that definition, nuclear decay is not a nuclear reactor.

              • lprent

                So by that definition, nuclear decay is not a nuclear reactor.

                By that definition, none of the nuclear power plants are nuclear reactors either. They are fission reactors where particles fall apart either through induced decay due to neutrons in a chain reaction or through simple decay. Both release radiation which causes heat.

                What you are describing are fusion reactions, which as the name implies, is where atoms fuse.

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reactor#Fission

                The decay chain on U238 are (excluding most of the smaller atoms) :-
                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium-238#Radioactivity_and_decay

                These don’t just happen in and under the mantle, there is at least one surviving case of a natural surface or near surface natural nuclear reactor.

                https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor

                • Lanthanide

                  Sorry, I badly paraphrased what Wikipedia said.

                  Here’s the quote:

                  In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, a nuclear reaction is semantically considered to be the process in which two nuclei, or else a nucleus of an atom and a subatomic particle (such as a proton, neutron, or high energy electron) from outside the atom, collide to produce one or more nuclides that are different from the nuclide(s) that began the process. Thus, a nuclear reaction must cause a transformation of at least one nuclide to another.

                  My paraphrase above would be limited to fusion, but clearly the actual quote from Wikipedia includes fission.

                  Fission reactions smash these particles together, with the deliberate intention that one of the resultant products will be of lower mass than the combined nuclides, with the missing mass released as heat energy.

                  So a nuclear reaction is only the combining part – it doesn’t have anything to do with the decay. A nuclear reactor is something that makes the combination occur initially – in our power plants, there is also nuclear decay which contributes to the heat generated as well.

                  In nature, the combination part doesn’t occur, except as you noted in that one particular circumstance where everything lined up just right geologically.

      • The lost sheep 1.2.2

        ‘From a quarter to half of Earth’s vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on April 25.’

        http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fertilization-greening-earth
        http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate3004.html

    • NZJester 1.3

      Maybe trees would be able to adapt to take on more carbon. I doubt we will ever know for sure due to the fact we are loosing more trees every day due to illegal logging than any mutation that might evolve in the trees to take up that extra carbon would be able to compensate for. The remaining trees would have to start taking in a hell of a lot more carbon than they do now. But unfortunately tree growth is very slow and any mutations that might arise would be slow to appear also. Provided they are not illegally logged in the meantime before any extra carbon uptake tree mutation can spread.

    • Peter 1.4

      Is he also religious and believes the Earth is only 6 thousand years old.

    • Tricledrown 1.5

      That’s because he was a useless tosser.

    • Tricledrown 1.6

      That’s because he was a useless tosser.

  2. adam 2

    But Bill, it’s more fun to attack Key, moan about house prices, decry about tax, follow the super rugby, kid yourself labour is doing well, and most of all – laugh at the radicals.

    It’s not real, until it’s real.

    In other words, until something rather bad happens in Auckland, this is an issue which will be ignored.

    • weka 2.1

      I was thinking that too, the sheer volume of coverage of the Panama papers and at home scandals, meanwhile Rome is burning.

      Myself, I’m scared. Far more scared than of something as puny and transient as neoliberalism.

      And Gen Y is worrying about whether they’ll get to own a home and save for their retirement ;-/

      • adam 2.1.1

        I suppose they won’t have to worry about retirement, with a 4 degrees temperature rise.

        I think I’ve said it before we seem to be in a age when there is no leadership, and no hope, and no desire to save ourselves as a species. When all it takes is for the privileged to take a hit on their luxury. And before the “you are just envious” crowed rush in to add their two cents, that means me too sunshine.

        That said, I think it is the likes of Whale oil, and company with their wholesale cynicism, and 24 hour negativity, have had an impact.

        To Quote Dostoyevsky

        “Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect, he ceases to love.”

        • weka 2.1.1.1

          Most people want more action on climate change. Bugger the bastards who are agin us, there are plenty who are for the planet if they can find the way.

          Lack of leadership is an asset 😉 It leaves a vacuum into which the people can step.

          • adam 2.1.1.1.1

            It’s 25 degrees in Auckland at the moment. Washing is dry. It feels like a cool summers day, humid as.

            I’d like to see lots of leaders on this issue. Because there are so many things that need to get done. No one leader, as that just won’t work.

        • NZJester 2.1.1.2

          Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect, he ceases to love.

          That Dostoyevsky description fits people like Whaleoil to a T.

  3. Lanthanide 3

    Sure, we could all do “something”, but can any of us do what is required?

    In fact, can all of us do what is required?

    • Sabine 3.1

      the whole lot of us needs to do what is required.
      Walk, not drive.
      live in smaller houses not larger ones.
      only flush if you must
      grow your own food
      plant trees, often and everywhere
      remove concrete and let weeds grow

      etc etc etc

      but none of these things is sexy to those who have hitched their ‘sex appeal’ to a large 5 bedder with 4.5 bathrooms and a car the size of a nuclear submarine.
      And above all we, the elders, must teach the youngers our skills in making things, how to make clothes, how to make shoes, how to preserve food, before all this knowledge and expertise goes the way of the dodo and is buried with us.

      The planet will survive, it is us that will not if we don’t start adapting to the future.

      • Bill 3.1.1

        Yup. Can I add that civil society probably needs to rise up and take away the carbon rich pathway to privilege that policy makers, politicians, academics, business leaders, entrepreneurs etc utilise?

        I’m pretty sure that you and I and many others are already ahead of the curve on ‘doing what is required’ (though we’re probably labouring as individuals and haven’t yet been able to take those things to an effective community based level), while those that are causing most of the damage view themselves as special cases or as exceptions and so carry on in the same tired old way while seeking to ensure that tired old way is preserved.

        eg – neither the policy maker nor the politician is going to enact stuff that stops the climate change scientist jetting off to some developing nation to attend a conference or whatever.

        • Colonial Viper 3.1.1.1

          Yup. Can I add that civil society probably needs to rise up and take away the carbon rich pathway to privilege that policy makers, politicians, academics, business leaders, entrepreneurs etc utilise?

          Those people that you list make up a large chunk of so-called “civil society.” Also professionals, landlords, shopkeepers, local government bureaucrats, and the list goes on

      • Colonial Viper 3.1.2

        live in smaller houses not larger ones.

        Mate of mine builds a lot of houses in Christchurch.

        Lately they have all been 300m2 to 400m2 floor space.

        Yep, that’s floor space, not section size. His entire calendar this year is full of these.

        • weka 3.1.2.1

          You can make more money of the resale of a bigger house. I’m hearing that banks are refusing mortgages to people who want to build smaller homes. I’m guessing that they too understand that if they end up having to sell the house they’ll get more from a larger one. Which probably tells us where the banks think this is going.

          • greywarshark 3.1.2.1.1

            Okay say there is a bias for larger homes. Let a small not for profit group start an organisaton called Clan Couples or the like. This meets socially once a month with young people trying to get a home. They hear about the housing situation and get the info they need. They make friends, learn about each other, and then may decide to combine savings to jointly build a home for themselves as joint partners or the like.

            The house becomes two apartments, perhaps built mews style with the front door opening onto a wide hallway where bikes are stored, and two doors lead to the ground floor rooms and upstairs are the bedrooms separated by a concrete/firewall. Various versions would be designed by some of these young people. Whatever was necessary to obtain permits and loans would be in the plan, perhaps sprinklers on the ground floor and stairs. There would be a model legal framework with a few options to suit cases.

            Trying to do things completely yourselves has become difficult at this time. Getting together would be a good idea. In future years a family might live in one side, with the other being a granny flat with a spare bedroom for family overflow at holidays.

            • weka 3.1.2.1.1.1

              Yes! And larger houses are conducive to working from home, so being creative around how people can make a living without travelling so much.

      • JonL 3.1.3

        the whole lot of us needs to do what is required.

        Walk, not drive. – 15km to the nearest shops……take the electric pushbike I think
        live in smaller houses not larger ones………70 m2…..tick
        only flush if you must…….septic tank, rain water only and sometimes 2 months with no rain….tick
        grow your own food………where possible and wildlife allows….tick
        plant trees, often and everywhere……10 acres bought bare now with 45% maturing tree cover…..tick
        remove concrete and let weeds grow…….wife has 30 litres of Glyphosate left, 2 electric sprayers and an urge to spray bordering on the obsessive…..hmm might have problems with that one.

    • adam 3.2

      I don’t think we all do. Just enough people to make it uneconomic for the rest.

      Also, like all BIG things/issues/problems. All we have to do is small steps ourselves. If we all just one thing a week to change our habits, by the end of the year – fundamental change would have happened.

    • McFlock 3.3

      I’m not sure that individuals’ changes in lifestyle are going to do much to reduce the problem anymore.

      The only solution is a research program similar to the Apollo program in magnitude (or the B29 or Manhatten projects), probably concentrating on carbon sequestration of some sort.

      Industrial-scale problems need industrial-scale solutions.

      • Lanthanide 3.3.1

        “I’m not sure that individuals’ changes in lifestyle are going to do much to reduce the problem anymore.”

        Well, they might. But no democratic country would seriously take the steps (or implement the laws to enforce them) necessary.

      • Bill 3.3.2

        If the change is such that it calls into question the legitimacy of the socio/political systems of governance and privilege that thrive on the back of fossil use, then as long as enough people simultaneously move away from and challenge the relevant orthodoxies, then it can have a huge impact on the problem.

        Industrial scale problems only need industrial scale solutions if the idea is to leave power residing in its current place. And if we do that, we’re fucked. We can’t maintain doing the things we do and hope to ‘industrial fix’ ourselves out of climate change.

        And sure, throw everything we’ve got at carbon sequestration and what not, but meantime, we need to get real and stop doing what we’re doing. Develop ways of ‘moving beyond the light-bulb’ as it were. 😉

        • McFlock 3.3.2.1

          Long term we either find a solution that can deal with the carbon we’ve dumped into the atmosphere and oceans, or we adapt around larger and more damaging weather events (which will be more expensive and regressive than finding a solution).

          The former would also incidentally deal with out current fossil fuel use, the latter would not be particularly affected by any change in personal habits.

          There are other good reasons to move away from carbon as an energy source, but the greenhouse horse has already bolted.

          • Bill 3.3.2.1.1

            Hmm. We’re already using the promise of CCS as an excuse to continue doing what we do – so, “the former” that you propose, doesn’t necessarily deal with current fossil use. Actually, quite the contrary if we look at the evidence.

            Adapting to likely impacts ahead of time – first at an individual level, then at a community level and finally at an international level – absolutely demands we deal with current fossil use now and means we might only have to adapt to something like 3°C.

            Politicians, policy makers, the business community (big business) and some scientists are banking on a tech fix (CCS)…and if it doesn’t work (a likely outcome) , we’ll be facing temperatures of (I dunno) maybe 6°C…and we can’t adapt to that kind of temperature rise.

            • McFlock 3.3.2.1.1.1

              IMO, factors other than AGW are the ones that will transition us away from fossil fuels – becoming more expensive to mine and more extensive clean-air policies, for example.

              But between the tundra and the ice-sheet lubrication, I’m not so sure we’re limited to 3C without some sort of tech hail-mary project, personal sacrifices or not.

          • Colonial Viper 3.3.2.1.2

            Long term we either find a solution that can deal with the carbon we’ve dumped into the atmosphere and oceans, or we adapt around larger and more damaging weather events (which will be more expensive and regressive than finding a solution).

            I think our heading is pretty much already irrevocably set. Or it will be in the next 10 years or so.

            At this stage is a choice between things becoming horrifically bad for the young generation (the current under 20s), or things being merely terribly bad for them.

            As for future adaptation: I think a lot of people in modern countries will fall into utter despair/misery/death, and the security surveillance state will swing into full action to try and maintain the privileges of the 5%.

            • McFlock 3.3.2.1.2.1

              ever the optimist

              • Pat

                actually i think that assessment is optimistic…..think about it.

                • McFlock

                  It’s an “if these trends continue” position, though. Yes, if internationally we did absolutely nothing, it goes all Mad Max (to greater or lesser degrees). But sooner or later the problem will be evident to even the biggest idiot, and governments will throw money at the problem. Whether that’s too late to actually fix the problem before e.g. pakistan/india nuclear exchange is the issue of doubt for me, but as soon as the commitment is there, I reckon we’ll take the step to active climate management.

                  • weka

                    The big problem, really the very seriously big problem with that is that we have a window of opportunity to change before we are locked into catastrophic climate change. If we wait until we are forced to change we run the very risk and high risk of it being too late. I don’t think we are there yet, but I can’t see any good reason not to change radically now.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      I don’t think we are there yet, but I can’t see any good reason not to change radically now.

                      Not that it’s a “good reason” but the people with power and wealth don’t want to give up the things which give them their power and wealth.

                    • maui

                      We’re not going to radically alter emissions under the current system of endless growth, endless debt, endless capitalism. The whole system has to break or a new system has to takeover the current one for things to change in a big way. Climate change is one symptom of our economic status quo. So something big has to happen to that system for us to properly address Climate I reckon.

                    • McFlock

                      Here’s the thing: we are already in catastrophic climate change. As time progresses, the catastrophes will get worse and the chances of sparking even more and more serious conflicts increase.

                      And the Siberian sinkholes suggest we’re over the tipping point.

                      And we’re not going to change radically without radical investment in not just carbon alternatives but in actually reversing the situation.

                      It’s never too late, but the longer it takes then the more effort is required. And I’m talking CERN-level projects, not changing to a camomile lawn.

                    • weka

                      Not that it’s a “good reason” but the people with power and wealth don’t want to give up the things which give them their power and wealth.

                      They’re not going to have a choice. And I’m not willing to let the idea that it’s up to the rich and wealthy to change first stop the rest of us from changing now.

                    • weka

                      McFlock, the advantage of a chamomile lawn over a CERN project is that the chamomile lawn* has negative carbon emissions vs the CERN project which requires mass carbon emitting infrastructure to even exist.

                      *well maybe not a lawn, but a polyculture food forest.

                      The carbon farming dudes reckon they can sequester the kinds of levels of carbon you are talking about.

                    • McFlock

                      “CERN-level”. A particle collider isn’t going to (directly) address AGW (although it can help analyse the problem with basic science).

                      One and a half billion dollars annually might help directly, though. The $25 billion total Apollo cost would be similarly helpful (and that total cost estimate was in 1973 USD).

                      Carbon farmers might reckon they can, but they still ain’t. To turn “can” into “do” requires investment in this day and age.

                    • weka

                      The beautiful thing about carbon farming is that if they are right about how much carbon they are already* sequestering, then massive numbers of farmers world wide can convert to their systems with very little tech being needed.

                      Someone just needs to do the science to see if they are right and then convince the mainstream to do it.

                      *in other words, the techniques are already available to us.

                    • Pat

                      https://www.quora.com/How-many-trees-would-it-take-to-reverse-climate-change…… Im all for planting trees….i have planted a couple of hundred in the past few years myself, but it isn’t a solution

                    • weka

                      Carbon farming isn’t treee planting.

                      Tree planting is a solution. I agree it’s not a silver bullet, but it is one of hte things we should be doing massively.

                    • Pat

                      “Carbon farming isn’t treee planting.”

                      not in its entirety however the bulk of the professed carbon sequestration is in tree planting.

                    • weka

                      I think the term gets used by two pretty distinct groups. The mainstream one which is looking at how to make money out of carbon credits, and the one that is doing actual regenerative agriculture.

                      (your link doesn’t appear to detail what kind of farming they are referring to but it doesn’t sound like regenag).

                      Regenag means no ploughing (ploughing releases carbon and is destructive to the soil ecologies that sequester carbon). Some of the more mainstream carbon farming experiments involve plouging crop waste back into the soil. This limits fertility and carbon build up.

                      The classic example of regenag comes from Joel Salatin, whose family rebuilt 12 inches of soil over rock in the last 50 years,

                      http://transitionvoice.com/2012/07/joel-salatin-and-the-straight-poop-on-sustainable-farming/

                      This is a pretty good explanation of the soil science and why they think the sequestration is significant,

                      http://www.bioneers.org/agriculture-climate-change-interview-darren-doherty/

                      The great thing about regenag is that not only might it be sequestering carbon, it is also far better for the land than conventional farming and it is one of the ways we will be able to grow food once the cheap oil is gone and the climate is more unstable.

              • Colonial Viper

                There’s no more room for optimism in our politics or in our in our circumstances.

                If you wish it, the Hobbits can hide out in the Shire for a little while longer and still lead good lives during that time. That is all the optimism that is warranted.

                • McFlock

                  in that case, why bother bitching about it?

                • Bill

                  Why hide hopelessly in ‘a shire’ waiting (referencing your other comment) for some authoritarian dystopia to descend, when it’s possible to usurp power and build sustainable, good lives rooted in community?

                  All we have to do to achieve that is simply not do most of what we do now. Maybe you’re saying it’s all too late, in which case, your ‘shire’ beckons.

                  Dunno where you’re going to get all your services and what not for that ‘shire’ if everyone else has decided to get moving on shit though. Maybe have a word with the stranded 5% who’ll be in the same isolated boat of ‘warranted optimism’?

                  • Colonial Viper

                    I’m just noting that a lot of people will choose to (try and) hide in whatever “shire” that they can find. James Cameron’s farm in the Wairarapa. Millionaire’s redoubts in Wanaka.

                    Dunno where you’re going to get all your services and what not for that ‘shire’ if everyone else has decided to get moving on shit though.

                    People are coming to this shire (NZ). Lots of them.

      • Colonial Viper 3.3.3

        Industrial-scale problems need industrial-scale solutions.

        I can guarantee that we are now at the point where the solution to the problems caused by more and more technology, and more and more industry, is not more and more technology, and more and more industry.

        • McFlock 3.3.3.1

          Oh, you can guarantee it? End of discussion, I guess. We’re all doooooooomed!

          I might as well buy a 12litre 4×4.

    • NZJester 3.4

      One big steep is coming up and that is to vote out the root of our problems.
      Those politicians who do not listen to the people.
      In the US right now groups like the Wolf-Pac are trying to get laws passed to get money out of politics there and bring back democracy to the US.
      We are losing our democracy here with National and its very large anonymous donations war chest and friends who help it control the MSM. We are meant to have controls on the money in politics here, but National has used all the loop holes to avoid a lot of the information about where the bulk of their money is coming from so they can appear to not be being influenced by money for legislation changes.

  4. b waghorn 4

    Its may and my tomatoes are still flowering in the heart of the king country,!!
    And I’ve noticed when people talk about how warm the weather is there is a their is something in there voice that makes me think that they are quietly worried, I know I am.

    • Bill 4.1

      Dunedin mate. Flowering fucking tomatoes right now in the open air in Dunedin.

      • Colonial Viper 4.1.1

        Its awesome ain’t it. Had a great harvest of tomatoes this year. And still going.

        Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.

        • corokia 4.1.1.1

          Guess you guys are watering your tomatoes then? In East Otago it’s very dry, it might be warm , but we haven’t been getting the rain here to grow much.

          Of course some one will helpfully tell me that we have always had droughts.

          And then we go and use huge amounts of water to grow grass to feed cows to produce milk and then use fossil fuels to take the water out of the milk.

          Age of Stupid.

          • Colonial Viper 4.1.1.1.1

            Stupid is as stupid does.

            And we have many very bright, very experienced, very highly educated people doing the stupid right now.

    • Rosie 4.2

      Ditto. Ripening tomatoes in Wellington.

  5. Rosie 5

    I wonder if NZer’s still have their heads in the sand because we see insane weather events happening on a large scale overseas, eg, heatwave and high death rates two years in a row in India, mega snow storms in the States, floods and epic high tides in the UK but urban based media ignore NZ’s own increasingly dramatic weather events, or simply report them without putting these events in a CC context. Little is discussed in the msm about rural drought and issues with irrigation. It’s just not Auckland enough baby. (No offence intended to Aucklanders – I simply observe that tv news is quite Auckland centric).

    Worst ever floods in Whanganui last year and the West coast flood a few weeks ago are only ever talked about in a human interest and insurance related context.

    Here in Wellington we’ve had unnaturally warm temperatures all year and the second driest summer on record. Now the annual watering restrictions have been lifted, I am watering the dead garden, now, in May. There has not yet been even one autumnal fire lit. I have wild ducks visiting in droves and ripping up what’s left of the lawn because there’s no grazing left for them in their usual spots due to farm paddocks drying out.

    And yet, the local media and the Mayor rave about what a great summer it was. The council seems to see no problem with CC apart from sea level rises and are ploughing ahead with their convention centre and airport extension plans. Hardly planning for a drastically different future is it?

    • Sabine 5.1

      First thing Rosie, rip out the lawn. plant veggies and let the ‘lawn’ grow back into manageable weeds of all sorts – it is better for the dirt underneath the lawn.

      The weather in AKL is way to warm and not enough rain. Friends in Dunedin are still harvesting Tomatoes as of last week in April. And fruit trees are budding up in Northland.

      We do realise, but we are still in the ‘oh what a lovely day it is today’ mode. And the nice weather is good for tourism, so lets build more shit we don’t need, and concrete over some more nature.
      See, why make the people all nervous with doom and gloom, when you can pretend that the warmer then usual and the hotter then ever is good for something like tourism.

      • Rosie 5.1.1

        Hi Sabine. We’re on rock where we are, with a thin layer of wind eroded soil and some pathetic grass, so what green there is, is staying 🙂 The section was barren when we arrived so had to borrow a post hole borer to drill through rock to plant shrubs and trees. We top up the malnourished soil/rock with home made compost.

        We are in phase one of growing food. Vege are planted in pots and we have made a raised herb garden out of recycled untreated pallets. We’re trying to source more untreated pallets to make a proper raised vege garden.

        And yep, there tourist mileage to be had out of unnatural weather. Apparently the local hospitality sector has been booming here too because people can eat more ice cream and sit outside the pub and have more to drink than usual, so it’s all good………… according to the paper.

        • Sabine 5.1.1.1

          what i mean is rather then trying to grow “lawn’ which is an abomination unto itself, why not grow what would naturally grow there?

          and yes, raised beds are good, and compost. Go check with some of the vegetarian restaurants you might be able to score scrabs from them to feed your compost.

          Also I must say, i am a great fan of urban guerilla gardening and seed bombs. So much fun can be had.

          • Rosie 5.1.1.1.1

            Lawns are a prickly topic for some, no pun intended. In fact, Philip Ure used to give regular anti lawn speeches here on TS. There are fair points, I accept, to the no lawn philosophy – in fact, if I lived somewhere fertile and sheltered I would probably grow a herb lawn.

            As it is “what naturally grows” where I live is gorse. Gorse on bare rock. Gorse comes through the lawn as we speak. Grass, so much more pleasant than gorse. Because summer was so dry, we didn’t mow it and just left it to grow into clover flower – it fed the bumble bee’s.

            • Sabine 5.1.1.1.1.1

              ah ack hate gorse, hate it hate it hate it.

              i think we might be speaking about different ideas as “lawn”.
              lawn to me is manicured golf/rugby type greenery that takes liters upon liters of water to do well not really anything.

              what would be a better word for lawn that is grasses, dandylions, clover and the likes that feed insects and bee’s, use less water and are better in maintaining soil humidity?

              • Bill

                Gorse flowers = excellent wine.
                Gorse cut = excellent fire wood.
                Gorse left = protective shelter for saplings.
                Saplings grown to trees = dead gorse.

                I kinda quite like the stuff 🙂

                • Colonial Viper

                  Does the stuff remind you of the SNP

                • maui

                  Gorse is a real prick, it’s full of pricks! And the prickiest thing to walk through. Doesn’t cut with loppers, hard enough to cut with a decent saw. Hangs around for way too long (that can be decades). Then the seeds can last in the soil for years too. Much rather have manuka!

                  • weka

                    True, if you want scrub. Gorse is a far better regeneration plant though. Manuka tend to hard the ground for itself. You can grow new native bush via gorse. Never seen that done with manuka.

                    I agree that manuka is a better choice for Rosie’s front lawn 🙂

                    • corokia

                      How much land have you taken from gorse to native bush weka?

                    • maui

                      I don’t know, gorse might be a quicker regenerater. I know of a couple of places where the manuka canopy is starting to break down and there’s now five finger, totara underneath that will replace it. I thought manuka had a life of about 40 years, not sure about gorse. Although when I was a kid the Rimutakas used to be mostly gorse, now a couple of decades later it’s all native forest when you drive over them.

                    • weka

                      I don’t have any land corokia. Do you want examples of where other people have done this? Even DOC now agree this is possible and can be useful.

                      I don’t know, gorse might be a quicker regenerater. I know of a couple of places where the manuka canopy is starting to break down and there’s now five finger, totara underneath that will replace it. I thought manuka had a life of about 40 years, not sure about gorse. Although when I was a kid the Rimutakas used to be mostly gorse, now a couple of decades later it’s all native forest when you drive over them.

                      That’s very cool about the five finger and totara, I’ve not seen that. I’m sure climate and soil are a lot to do with it too (and what the land was used for before). And actually, I’m more familiar with kanuka, which can last hudreds of years before anything else happens and in some places is the climax forest (nothing else takes over). Manuka grow in wetter places right? so more likely to be suceeded.

                      Botanist Hugh Wilson said the turnover of gorse to native in the Hinewai Reserve was 25 years, but that was ideal conditions (moist, damp gully with native bush nearby as seed stock).

                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1FtUmfxT8c


                      The dominant early successional species in New Zealand, kānuka and mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium), have now been largely replaced by gorse (Sullivan et al. 2007). If disturbance such as fire or clearing of gorse is prevented, and a native seed source is available, native broadleaved species can dominate in around 30 years (Sullivan et al. 2007). Wardle (1991) noted that dense gorse stands collapse with age and are subsequently invaded by native plants. In Wellington, Druce (1957) found that gorse was vigorous in 10-year-old scrub, senile in 34-year-old scrub and dead in 40-year-old scrub, where it had been replaced by native trees. In Williams & Karl’s (2002) study near Nelson, native seedling survival was higher in gorse stands than in kānuka, probably because of openings in the canopy and the lower density of hares (Lepus europaeus) and rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). However, where seed sources of native forest species are remote, the environment is marginal for forest or grazing eliminates tree seedlings, seral species such as gorse can form self-perpetuating stands (Wardle 1991).

                      http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/science-and-technical/drds336entire.pdf

                    • Pat

                      “Manuka is a very important pioneering plant: its growth is the first stage towards the growth of a new native forest. By creating shade and shelter from the wind, it provides an excellent nursery for many young native plants to grow up in. Then, as they get taller and overtop it, the manuka dies away as a result of being shaded. It is excellent for revegetating bare, eroded slopes and can grow on poorer, colder, wetter and more acidic sites than kanuka. Another advantage of planting manuka for soil conservation is that browsing animals like sheep, cattle and goats don’t often eat it.”

              • Brigid

                Gorse is a legume – fixes nitrogen. And goats love it.

                • corokia

                  Gorse is an inpenetrable thicket of thorns. It covers many hectares down here, you’d need a lot of goats and a lot of tall stock proof fences to stop them eating everything else.

                • KJT

                  Yep. Goats love gorse, but they love non prickly plants even more. They eat every sign of anything else below the roots before they touch the gorse.

                  I can vouch for gorse as a nurse crop. Remembering so many places 30 years ago which seemed irredeemably covered in gorse which are now actives.
                  Clearing gorse just seems to encourage it.

    • weka 5.2

      I wonder if NZer’s still have their heads in the sand because we see insane weather events happening on a large scale overseas, eg, heatwave and high death rates two years in a row in India, mega snow storms in the States, floods and epic high tides in the UK but urban based media ignore NZ’s own increasingly dramatic weather events, or simply report them without putting these events in a CC context. Little is discussed in the msm about rural drought and issues with irrigation. It’s just not Auckland enough baby. (No offence intended to Aucklanders – I simply observe that tv news is quite Auckland centric).

      It’s true that the media and govt are failing us but I think we need to be careful about how we frame things too. Most NZers don’t have their heads in the sand, something like 75% want the govt to do more on climate change. That’s what we need to focus on.

      • Rosie 5.2.1

        Are we really that clued up weka? I just don’t see people driven change happening around us. But then my observations could be quite subjective in the big picture, meaning, over the last few years I’ve met only a handful of people that have any concern about CC – the rest, when the topic is raised couldn’t seem to care less. Do I mix in the wrong circles? Am I not seeing something?

        I would like to have faith in NZer’s embracing serious climate change policy, should we ever elect a govt that will face the problem head on, but call me pessimistic, I don’t see people moving past their selfishness.

        • weka 5.2.1.1

          Can’t disagree with a lot of that Rosie. I also would say that most people aren’t that clued up, but there is research that shows that most people want the NZ govt to do more, so not completely clueless either. And remember how last year when the flag referendum meetings were happening, all that publicity and hardly anyone went to them, but the CC target meetings were happening at the same time, very little notice was given and they were badly adverstised and some of those meetings were packed out.

          We’re at a tipping point, which is why I think we need to be careful about how we frame things. I’ll have a look for the research later.

          Speaking of circles, I know lots of people who are aware of climate change. Most of them are still not making significant sacrifices in their lives either. People are still waiting for the govt to save us, or they feel powerless, or they think that it’s all about the transition to electric cars and that is for someone else to sort out. Sometimes I think it’s selfishness, but I also think it’s just what we are used to. Most people can’t yet conceive of being in wartime, or having to rely on ourselves to change. Yet.

          • Rosie 5.2.1.1.1

            Hi weka. When you have time I would be interested to see the research on NZer’s attitudes towards CC, but no hurry. I don’t doubt you, personally – I’m just curious.

            Good example about the poorly advertised govt run CC talks last year 🙂

            • weka 5.2.1.1.1.1

              Can’t find what I was looking for but there is these,

              A summary of the consultation responses said there was a strong call for an ambitious target and leadership from the government with the most common target suggested by stakeholders being 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 or a target of zero carbon by 2050.

              (17,000 submissions despite being poorly organised)

              http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/new-2030-greenhouse-gas-emissions-target-far-weaker-2020-goal-climate-change-expert-b-175262

              This article focusses on the 13% of deniers, but we could look at the 87% of non-deniers instead.

              http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/277400/study-finds-13-percent-of-nzers-climate-change-sceptics

              • Colonial Viper

                I think use of carbon fuels will drop to near zero sometime in the 2060s anyway, without any special effort.

              • Rosie

                Thanks for those two articles. This in particular makes sense:

                “The study found countries with higher carbon dioxide emissions had greater rates of scepticism – and the people most likely to be sceptics tend to be male, politically conservative and less concerned about the environment.”

                This is what we see in NZ. Interesting that we had among the highest rates of scepticism in the Tasmanian study. Still, like you say, that’s 87% who aren’t sceptics.

                Re the gorse thread above. Our neighbourhood native planting group has planted up public areas with 1000’s of plants over the years. The gorse is a good shelter plant for saplings but because of the harsh windy dry conditions we do struggle to get natives to thrive. Would like to see the manuka doing better. Manuka forest would be appropriate for this area.

      • Pat 5.2.2

        “Most NZers don’t have their heads in the sand, something like 75% want the govt to do more on climate change.”

        That may well be correct…..until the changes necessary directly impact their lifestyle…and therein is the problem, there is no doubt radical action is needed urgently but can it occur without system collapse in the required timeframe?….

        • Bill 5.2.2.1

          Lifestyle changes are only changing those things that require fossil to be burned – some travel, some fairly vacuous consumerism…

          Anyway, lets assume for the sake of argument that the required action entails bringing about a collapse of current institutions and the systems they’re embedded in. Is that a problem?

          • Colonial Viper 5.2.2.1.1

            Well, a quack like me still knows exactly where and who to go to for healthcare when that massive entrenched system implodes due to a lack of $$$, global logistics, and surplus energy high tech.

            • corokia 5.2.2.1.1.1

              Hit you up for some insulin then when the shit hits the fan CV?

              • Colonial Viper

                we will still be able to raise pigs in NZ you know.

                And since rates of obesity are going to drop through the floor, we aint going to be using as much of it.

                • Corokia

                  Food shortages will probably cut the numbers of type 2 diabetics, but as for the 10% of diabetics who are type 1, we are hoping that the medical supply chains keep going for a while yet 🙂

          • Pat 5.2.2.1.2

            We can burn maybe between 10 and 30 % of known reserves…a simple formula would be a rapid reduction in current consumption…the basis of almost all economic activity…..and almost all food production.

            “nyway, lets assume for the sake of argument that the required action entails bringing about a collapse of current institutions and the systems they’re embedded in. Is that a problem?’

            Yes, its a huge problem….its very difficult to organize any form of concerted activity when you have anarchy….ask the likes of a Syrian refugee…..How will the majority of the developed world cope with say an overnight doubling of fuel price or rationing?….but, but i need to drive for my job, we have no public transport. its not fair that agriculture gets all the fuel to use.etc etc…how much food do you have in your cupboards? could you provide all your families needs next year if you had to? could you function without access to a private vehicle?would your job still exist if the fuel was rationed?what do you mean i can’t fly to Oz to see the grandkids….starting to get the picture?….we have wasted 20 plus years where we may have been able to transition but now the timeframe is dangerously short.

            • weka 5.2.2.1.2.1

              Forget about the developped world, we can’t solve that problem, look at NZ, or even better our own rohe.

              If your job is essential to keep society going society will prioritise your transport fuel. It will also be hugely motivated to enable people to work from home where that is possible, and/or move work close to where people live.

              I agree a hard and fast collapse would leave people hungry and starving, but we know that other kinds of collapses are manageable. Cuba is the obvious example. The end of the Soviet Union means they have very little import fuel and have to convert to local low-industrialised food production quickly. Yes people went hungry, afaik no-one starved to death, and in the end the health of the population improved due to eating less processed foods and meat and more veges, and to having to walk and cycle more.

              “could you function without access to a private vehicle?”

              I have a disability and am very dependent on my car, but it’s still doable. It’s one of the things I am focussed on currently, how to use my car less. What do we need to travel for? Mostly for me it’s going to town to buy food or going to visit people. My neighbours can pick up my groceries once a week. Or someone opens a food store in my neighbourhood. People who lose their jobs will stay home and grow food, or fix the roof, or whatever.

              “what do you mean i can’t fly to Oz to see the grandkids….starting to get the picture?”

              Honestly, I think if we’re worried about being able to feed ourselves for the rest of the year then concerns like overseas flights disappear pretty quick.

              I think a medium paced collapse would be hard but not impossible. We have to stop being afraid of it because it’s not only likely, but it’s the best thing that could happen right now for the planet. Govt led climate change action is not happening.

              For me the scariest thing isn’t the powerdown or a collapse, it’s having National in power when it happens. This is a huge part of the pragmatics of my voting politics. We need a left wing govt not because they will save us but because they are less likely to go feudal on us when the time comes.

              • Pat

                you ask why the leadership does nothing…I submit they don’t know how.

                you suggest we can drive it from below….I suggest when people realise what it entails you will have massive resistance

                you suggest we can cope with a power down or dismantling of our economic system….i say some individuals may, society cannot in the required timeframe.

                I will agree that when you don’t know where your next meal is coming from air travel is merely an escapist dream…..but these are the sort of questions that will need to be asked and answered very soon as we cannot continue to use fossil fuels at current rates and virtually at all in the medium term.

                Can it be done?…possibly, if we are very very lucky

                Will it be done?…not in my opinion

                • Bill

                  k – you’re overlooking something. Right now, it’s about 10% of people within current society who have to knock their lifestyles on the head to begin that drop to zero from fossil. Now, I can imagine most of them won’t want a bar of it. But if they carry on – if we allow them to carry on, then there will likely be a sudden end to economic framework of the way things are now.

                  On the other hand, if they play ball and a kind of Marshall Plan is launched to retrofit existing infrastructure and otherwise prepare for (say) a 3°C increase in temperature, then they can get back to living the lives they do today in a generation or so…after zero fossil fuel supplies have been built.

                  My preference, given all that is wrong with capitalist society and market economies, is to see the whole lot dropped it all in the dirt. I’m happy enough to give the 5% or 10% a chance to do the right thing though…question is, how long do they get exhibit any inclination of doing the right thing? Or is their time up?

                  • Pat

                    no …the question is how do you organize society and the means of production that doesn’t continue feeding climate change?….without destroying society.

                    • Bill

                      Any way you like…as long as it doesn’t involve burning fossil.

                      And the policy doc from 2007 that Weka has linked below (comment 10) contains some good stuff that the Clark government was taking on board. Seems that National doused it in petrol and set it alight…

                    • weka

                      I think the question is should we save the planet even if that means society gets destroyed? For me it’s a moot point. If we don’t do the right things society will be destroyed anyway.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      Our current society will need to be fundamentally reorganised. Many of the things which motivate and control people in society now will be gone.

                      Is this the same as destroying it?

                      Perhaps, from a certain point of view 😛

                    • Pat

                      “I think the question is should we save the planet even if that means society gets destroyed? ”

                      you mistakenly think the planet is the human population….the planet will survive fine (better) without human society….been plenty of extinction events in the past

                    • Colonial Viper

                      I think the question is should we save the planet even if that means society gets destroyed?

                      The planet will be fine. It does not require us to “save it” in any way shape or form.

                      And its coming to the time when it is going to quit doing us favours, too.

                    • weka

                      you mistakenly think the planet is the human population

                      No, I really don’t.

                      ….the planet will survive fine (better) without human society….been plenty of extinction events in the past

                      What do you mean by the planet there? Because I was meaning the whole of life that exists currently, including the multiplicity of ecosystems. Saying that the planet will be fine is like saying that Māori were fine after colonisation. Mass extinction of the kind happening now is not ‘fine’. Or course nature will continue, it would be pretty hard to wipe out all life on earth. But we don’t know how it will recover, or if it will. Just because life evolved in certain ways in the past doesn’t mean it will again.

                      It’s also a concern that this idea feeds another idea that the only reason we should look afer the environment is for human needs. If nature will be fine then it doesn’t matter if we pollute the water and burn down the forests.

                    • Pat

                      when I say destroy CV I mean as a functioning unit that provides for its members….not a dystopian jungle like a bad Mad Max movie.

                    • weka

                      I will also note that you avoided dealing with my statement directly,

                      “I think the question is should we save the planet even if that means society gets destroyed? ”

                      So let me rephrase. I think the question is should we take action to prevent global warming even if that means society gets destroyed?

                      I can see that if you think that nature will be fine whatever happens then the destruction of society is pretty important and avoidance of that at all costs might be a valuable thing. But if like me one believes that nature has inherent value and even rights, and that humans are part of that not separate from it, then the preservation of society becomes a far less important thing.

                    • Pat

                      suggesting Im implying that ecosystems are there for the use/exploitation by humans is a cheap shot and serves no purpose

                    • weka

                      no more than you suggesting that I think the planet is just the humans. And yet I still responded to your points.

                    • Pat

                      touche

                    • Pat

                      “So let me rephrase. I think the question is should we take action to prevent global warming even if that means society gets destroyed?”

                      couple of points…..it would be preferable to try to do it without destroying society and by extension those who make it up….and if we keep a functioning society it will provide the opportunity to (perhaps) develop the engineered mitigations that appear to be increasingly needed…..but as stated often my faith in the species allowing that to occur is close to non -existent, so my opinion in that respect carries about 1/8,000,000,000 of impact

                    • weka

                      For me I think societal collapse is fairly inevitable, it’s just a matter of when and whether we prepare for it or let it crash from under us. I don’t see societal collapse as a negative, because like Bill I think the whole capitalist what have you structure is inherently destructive and is the thing that is preventing us from mitigating the worst of AGW. But I also don’t see the collapse of society as being anarchic in the way you meant, nor a tragedy for people. If it happens fast people will get hurt, but there are benefits too if it happens in a more paced way or if we prepare.

                      Have you ever read Dmitri’s Orlov’s work on what happened to the villages in Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed?

                    • Pat

                      No I haven’t read Orlov but suspect that the villagers rallied and by working together survived and perhaps prospered…..and i too think that societal (as we know it) collapse inevitable and controlled collapse is preferable, but before jumping headlong into pulling down the old I think it preferable to have a plan for a new that at least has a chance of success

                    • Colonial Viper

                      the Earth has under gone mass extinction events before, and massive cycles of climate change and ecosystem destruction.

                      And it will carry on fine after the next one. 5M years from now a whole new ecosystem will be taking root, long after all trace of intelligent apes have disappeared.

                    • Lanthanide

                      “long after all trace of intelligent apes have disappeared.”

                      I know you just meant that as a flippant remark, but I think there will be traces of humans on this planet still visible in a billion years time. Also on the moon and mars.

                      Just as we can find fossils going back about ~1 billion years. And obviously humans have made way bigger changes to the landscape than individual fossilized animals ever have. Eg all of the deposits of metals on the earth’s surface from our industrial civilization, even if they’re buried under landslides and mountain building, will be revealed under close examination (by aliens) to be artificial. There will probably be a fair number of fossilized humans that last that long too – we’ve already found lots of “bog bodies” – they’re really just the first few centuries of how a fossil is formed.

                      Radioactive isotopes that aren’t found in nature are also a dead giveaway, and some of them have half-lives in the billions of years range.

                • weka

                  you suggest we can cope with a power down or dismantling of our economic system….i say some individuals may, society cannot in the required timeframe.

                  It depends on whether we are referring the same kinds of circumstances. I don’t for instance believe that it’s terribly likely that NZ will end up in a situation like Syria. So that’s not what I am referring to. We can certainly cope collectively with the powerdown if we participate. There are people alive who lived through the Great Depression and WW2. Not exactly what we are facing now, but still pretty big societal change.

                  I will agree that when you don’t know where your next meal is coming from air travel is merely an escapist dream…..but these are the sort of questions that will need to be asked and answered very soon as we cannot continue to use fossil fuels at current rates and virtually at all in the medium term.

                  True, but I think I was meaning that we would cope if it was forced on us by circumstance eg a big GFC.

                  Can it be done?…possibly, if we are very very lucky

                  Will it be done?…not in my opinion

                  Well if we are doing predictions, I would offer Tipping Point theory as applied to society. We cannot know what will happen, nor the likelihood of any particular direction. When you have very complex phenomena that are unstable unexpected thigns can happen. I’m not surprised we haven’t changed (8 years of National and yep, see the MSD report link below and what they squashed). I’ll also not be surprised if in the next 5 years we have a whole lot of people start to get on board with the need to change and actually doing something.

                  • Pat

                    “I’ll also not be surprised if in the next 5 years we have a whole lot of people start to get on board with the need to change and actually doing something.”

                    like what exactly?……reducing the use of dense energy by say 80% in the next 5 years perhaps and all that that implies?

                    • weka

                      No, I’m talking about a tipping point in society and people’s consciousness and willingness to change. Nothing will change until that happens. We’ve already seen a huge shift in the past five years. If that speeds up in response to more local extreme weather events and reporting of global ones, then it’s possible that people will get on board much more quickly than in the past.

                      And let’s not forget that whole economies have adapted in short periods of time (Cuba, WW2).

                    • Colonial Viper

                      theres no “tipping point”. All that is optimistic hippy nonsense.

                  • Pat

                    “And let’s not forget that whole economies have adapted in short periods of time (Cuba, WW2).”

                    not without the use of the basis of system support….which is the main cause of the problem and has created the excess demand for ALL resources that make it unsustainable

                    • weka

                      I don’t know what you are saying there. We don’t lose all infrastructure overnight, so of course we have the basis of that support system.

                      If you are arguing that we cannot reduce emissions significantly without underming the economy, I agree. I just don’t think the economy we have now is the only option.

                    • Pat

                      what is the economy?

                    • weka

                      true.

                    • Pat

                      no ,its a question….what is the economy, what does it do?

                    • Colonial Viper

                      “I don’t know what you are saying there. We don’t lose all infrastructure overnight, so of course we have the basis of that support system.”

                      Most of those infrastructure systems will be completely broken within 6 months. How many days stock does your local Foodstuffs distribution centre hold: 5? I doubt even tgat.

  6. Coaster 6

    The first thing to change peoples perceptions is on where to buy, to do this we would need an easy to access map with sea level rise shown. This would lower the value of coastal property as who would buy a house that might be submerged in 30 years, thus making those people with expensive coastal propertys squark.
    When the rich sqwark in dismay as there coastal proert values crash, the government will act quick sharp.

  7. Paul 7

    This website is an excellent source of climate news, with a New Zealand perspective.
    Frankly, it’s terrifying what’s happening at the moment.

    http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/

  8. Michael 8

    It’s too late now to do anything effective about climate change, even if our friends in the “business community” allowed us. The time to take action was 20 to 30 years ago, when the evidence concerning anthropogenic climate change began to seep into the public domain (in spite of heroic efforts by, and on behalf of, our friends in the “business community” to suppress that evidence, along with those who discerned it). As for the future, we will live in a warmer, and more climatically usntable, world. Who knows, perhaps our friends in the “business community” have some profitable schemes for making money out of the perils and opportunities of that world, just as they did from the world we are now leaving? One thing is for certain: if our friends in the “business community” don’t want something to happen, it won’t.

  9. weka 10

    For interest, the MSD under Clark’s government did the work on The Social Implications of Decarbonising the New Zealand Economy,

    https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/spj31/31-the-social-implications-of-decarbonising-pages104-136.html

    • Bill 10.1

      Kind of depressing to know that NZ was getting towards the right track back in 2007.

      Also abundantly clear from reading that paper that the actions of John Key and his cronies have been deliberate and done with the knowledge that a huge amount of unnecessary suffering was going to be inflicted on people if they did what they have done.

      • weka 10.1.1

        tbh I think it’s going to take a while for the implications of that link and the date on it to sink in. I suspect I am going to feel very angry.

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    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
    4 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
    7 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
    7 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
    7 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
    8 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
    9 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
    10 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
    12 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
    24 hours 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
    1 day 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
    1 day 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
    1 day 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 ...
    1 day 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 ...
    1 day 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
    1 day 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
    1 day 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
    1 day 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
    2 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
    2 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
    2 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
    2 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
    3 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
    3 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
    3 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
    4 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
    4 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
    4 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
    4 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 ...
    5 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
    5 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
    5 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 ...
    5 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
    5 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
    5 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
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Echoes of 1968 in 2024?  Pocock on the repetitive problems of the New Left
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days 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
    6 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
    8 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
    8 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
    22 hours 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. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
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