Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, November 2nd, 2011 - 39 comments
NRT on the issue that is most important to Kiwis. It isn’t the economy.
Written By: - Date published: 9:22 am, December 9th, 2010 - 7 comments
The Commissioner for the Environment’s “Lignite and Climate Change: The High Cost of Low Grade Coal” has been released today. Its release had been postponed because of concerns that it would become entangled with reports concerning the Pike River Mine disaster.
Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, May 13th, 2010 - 5 comments
The Conservative/ Lib Dem alliance is good news for the climate, with the coalition already stating its committment to a low carbon, “eco-friendly economy”. Will Key show any of the same vision next week?
Written By: - Date published: 11:32 am, April 30th, 2008 - 3 comments
It’s not often National gets something right but their latest flip-flop, on bio-fuels, is a good policy (well, partially and for the wrong reasons). National has announced they will no longer be supporting the bio-fuel requirement in petrol because it may put up the price of petrol a few cents. The bio-fuel requirement was always …
Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, April 28th, 2008 - 15 comments
Interesting to see people gradually waking up to what Fidel Castro, last year, called “The sinister idea of converting food into combustibles”. Even crazy ol’ Mike Moore writes about it today, although he is dead wrong when he calls biofuels “a populist Green response to global warming”. Environmentalists were always suspicious of biofuels, seeing them …
Written By: - Date published: 2:26 pm, April 23rd, 2008 - 5 comments
Check out 50 ways to help the planet. My favourites? Shower with your partner Invest in your own reusable coffee cup Picnic with a marker pen
Written By: - Date published: 3:31 pm, April 22nd, 2008 - 49 comments
We have all heard of the peak oil crisis that is already manifesting itself in fuel prices. Now, consider peak food, the point where our ability to produce food peaks even as demand grows. Wheat was the first plant to be domesticated, around 10,000 years ago. Our civilisations are built on the excess calories available …
Written By: - Date published: 9:17 am, April 3rd, 2008 - 6 comments
There is a Novotel hotel beside the Canadian High Commission on The Terrace in Wellington. Check out this billboard on the wall of the hotel nearest the High Commission, you can see the Canadian flag in the bottom left corner. So, that’s where the baby seals are hanging out during the hunt. Good on the …
Written By: - Date published: 11:44 am, April 1st, 2008 - 1 comment
Al Gore has just launched a $300 million, bipartisan campaign to try to push climate change higher on the nation’s political agenda. The website is www.wecansolveit.org – you can see the debut ad, “Anthem,” here. The campaign plans to bring together “unlikely bedfellows” of differing political stripes and use shows like American Idol to promote …
Written By: - Date published: 4:44 pm, March 31st, 2008 - 11 comments
‘Tis the season for surveys of the parties. Greenpeace sent a questionnaire to each of the parliamentary parties asking for their polices on 20 climate change issues. They’ve published the answers and rated the policies for effectiveness tackling climate change. The results are summarised below. Parties could score up to two ticks per answer if …
Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, March 27th, 2008 - 21 comments
For those of you who saw the title and thought this post was about Celine Dion, sorry, it’s about the seal cull. Every year Canada kills and skins hundreds of thousands of baby harp seals, leaving their bodies to rot. The seal cullers’ favoured tool is the vicious hakapik a long pole with a sharp …
Written By: - Date published: 2:25 pm, March 26th, 2008 - 10 comments
The Vatican’s update of sins to include issues of social justice and environment reminded me of a conversation I had recently with a friend from the US. She was telling me that one of the “surprise” groups to come out in support of tougher environmental regulation over there were a number of the large evangelical …
Written By: - Date published: 1:57 pm, March 18th, 2008 - 16 comments
Meet Guest post. Guest post is 32 years old, he likes long walks on the beach and lively political debate. He is our new vehicle for experts on interesting and relevant topics to contribute posts to The Standard. Our first guest is Simon Tegg, who has done research on peak oil. It says something about …
Written By: - Date published: 3:45 pm, March 14th, 2008 - 27 comments
Frogblog covers Muriel Newman’s column in the Dom yesterday: “Climate change, we didn’t do it” [whew! back to my environmentally pollutive and destructive ways then]. Muriel’s source for this assertion is the recent (and delightfully innocuously named) International Conference on Climate Change. The purpose of the conference is to promote doubt over the increasing scientific …
Written By: - Date published: 10:32 am, March 12th, 2008 - Comments Off
Groups that issued press releases welcoming the Government announcement of the $700 million research and development fund for argiculture (press releases on Scoop): NZ Veterinary Association – Science funding just in the nick of time Science New Zealand – Science New Zealand welcomes science fund announcement Export New Zealand – Export NZ welcomes innovative funding …
Written By: - Date published: 5:08 pm, January 25th, 2008 - 15 comments
The Dom reports today that the Japanese whaling fleet has ben “spotted steaming towards the Ross Sea” – part of our territorial waters. They’re presumably coming here having had their activities in Australian waters declared illegal last week. The Greens have just just called for the government to get involved. Labour’s Steve Chadwick has said …
Written By: - Date published: 12:27 pm, October 16th, 2007 - 3 comments
Stuff reported yesterday that the New Zealand Kiwi Foundation is warning that “New Zealand’s national icon, the kiwi, could face extinction within the next 20 to 30 years, unless more is done to protect the fragile, flightless bird”. They’ve launched the ‘Fragile Kiwi’ campaign to help reverse a downward trend in kiwi population numbers caused …
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