Author Archive

Local Government election results

Written By: - Date published: 1:52 pm, October 8th, 2022 - 256 comments

Live updates and discussion post

A few notes on how to get out of this mess

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, October 2nd, 2022 - 7 comments

“In an unstable complex system, small islands of coherence have the potential to change the whole system.” – Ilya Progogine.

Local Body Election voting options: Taranaki Regional Council and Urs Signer

Written By: - Date published: 12:50 pm, September 30th, 2022 - 57 comments

Urs Signer is standing for the Taranaki Regional Council, and is speaking a lot of sense about working with farmers, iwi and greenies for a Just Transition.

Tāme

Written By: - Date published: 10:29 am, September 22nd, 2022 - 18 comments

Tāme Iti’s pitch perfect, political performance art sets activist hearts aflutter.

Climate Commision Chair: it’s time to reform the “plant and pollute” Emissions Trading Scheme

Written By: - Date published: 11:39 am, September 20th, 2022 - 32 comments

This good news bodes well.

Voting for our lives: protecting the environment from the late capitalism death cult

Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, September 5th, 2022 - 86 comments

Environment Southland gives the ok for intensive farming on the edge of Fiordland National Park. Everyday there’s more news of disastrous decisions being made by people in power. The local body elections in the next month give us one easy and straightforward way to change that.

This is what the climate crisis looks like in New Zealand, so far

Written By: - Date published: 1:26 pm, August 19th, 2022 - 66 comments

If we keep doing what we are doing (not acting on climate), then at some point there will just be too many of these events to keep up with. But we still have time to limit the damage and transition society.

What New Zealanders are thinking about climate change

Written By: - Date published: 9:13 am, August 3rd, 2022 - 29 comments

A new Ipsos poll has some good news.

Poverty is a political choice, why are Labour choosing it?

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, August 1st, 2022 - 54 comments

Labour announced earlier in the year that it would give a $350 cash transfer to all New Zealanders earning less than $70,000.

Except beneficiaries.

Why is the UK’s only youth gender identity clinic closing, and what does this mean for New Zealand?

Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, July 29th, 2022 - 76 comments

The NHS is shutting down its gender identity clinic for children after a damning review found that it failed vulnerable under-18s.

Act on climate

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, July 27th, 2022 - 27 comments

Everything we do matters. Stories of hope and renewal.

James Shaw and the Green Party co-leadership

Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, July 24th, 2022 - 189 comments

The tension in the Green Party is between pragmatism and the need for urgent system change.

For the public, there’s no need to panic. Dissent is valuable and healthy in politics. It sits alongside trusting that the Greens know how to manage their internal processes even if the public at large doesn’t understand them well.

 

“Fight fossil fuels or the future dies”

Written By: - Date published: 1:52 pm, July 16th, 2022 - 68 comments

The UK government is warning of an extreme heatwave coming next week and asking people to prepare. This is the beginning stage of climate collapse and it has the potential to get much worse. But it’s not too late to prevent the worst – choosing proactive pathways right now empowers us to make the changes needed.

The US abortion bans and women’s rights

Written By: - Date published: 12:22 pm, June 25th, 2022 - 103 comments

We have abortion rights by the grace of men.

parts per million

Written By: - Date published: 11:55 am, June 7th, 2022 - 10 comments

Prince Louis and the perfect tweet.

Climate politics

Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, June 2nd, 2022 - 5 comments

Quick quiz on which New Zealand politicians led well on climate action in the past 15 years. Which New Zealand town is in a climate emergency today? And how our focus and voting matters if we want to avert climate disaster.

How to get the progressive government we want

Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, May 23rd, 2022 - 95 comments

What if instead of waiting for a new left wing party to arise, the left worked with the three progressive parties we already have in parliament?

Budget Day: there are real alternatives

Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, May 19th, 2022 - 9 comments

Budget Day, where our centre left neoliberal government straddles the line between compassion and BAU. Given the pressures of climate, the pandemic and global instability, what are the real alternatives?

Longing for a low carbon future

Written By: - Date published: 8:27 am, May 18th, 2022 - 48 comments

It’s the question that obsesses me, how to cultivate a deep cultural longing for a post-carbon, more just, more equal world?

– Transitions Town pioneer Rob Hopkins

The Emissions Reduction Plan we voted for

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, May 17th, 2022 - 33 comments

what kind of climate action do we want?

Announcing New Zealand’s low carbon future

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, May 10th, 2022 - 33 comments

The climate crisis is no longer something that’s happening to someone else, somewhere else, at some point in the future. It’s happening to us. It’s happening here. It’s happening now. – James Shaw

XR protestors have stopped operations at a Southland coal mine

Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, May 2nd, 2022 - 60 comments

Go you beautiful people!

UK government signals urgent inquiry into overmedicalisation of gender non-conforming children

Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, April 24th, 2022 - 40 comments

This is a medical scandal affecting children and teens, and the left is still largely in denial of it.

What if… Dunedin no longer needed so much petrol?

Written By: - Date published: 10:03 am, April 22nd, 2022 - 17 comments

It’s 2032, and we’re looking back at a decade of oil, climate and economic crisis, and how one city found a way through.

The approaching fuel crisis: what if we no longer needed so much petrol?

Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, April 13th, 2022 - 93 comments

What would our society, communities and lives look like in New Zealand if we weren’t so reliant on fossil fuels?

Climate Action Mondays: after the IPCC report, what now?

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, April 11th, 2022 - 87 comments

It’s time to act as if our lives depend on it.

Grumpy mod note

Written By: - Date published: 10:21 am, April 9th, 2022 - 28 comments

Please read if you are commenting at The Standard.

Greens call for rent freeze

Written By: - Date published: 12:56 pm, April 7th, 2022 - 151 comments

The Green Party has published a reasonable plan to make renting more affordable for low income New Zealanders. There’s nothing extreme-communist-scary here, it’s well within the values of the NZ electorate.

Last chance to see or finally acting as if our lives depend on it?

Written By: - Date published: 8:49 am, April 6th, 2022 - 55 comments

That IPCC report telling it like it is. Ball is in our court.

Climate Action Mondays: slow fashion

Written By: - Date published: 9:54 am, April 4th, 2022 - 44 comments

It’s time to act as if our lives depend on it. Here are the things we can do and we can require government and business to do.

Climate Action Mondays Tuesday

Written By: - Date published: 2:45 pm, March 29th, 2022 - 10 comments

It’s time to act as if our lives depend on it.

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