climate change

Categories under climate change

The Government’s Feebate scheme

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, June 14th, 2021 - 70 comments

Labour and the Greens have announced the establishment of a Feebate scheme to incentivise the purchase of electric vehicles and disincentivise the purchase of gas guzzlers.

Auckland’s Northern Pathway

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, June 11th, 2021 - 144 comments

Last week’s announcement of major changes to the New Zealand Upgrade program in my view was welcome.

Greenpeace on the cow shaped hole in the Climate Commission report

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, June 10th, 2021 - 22 comments

Greenpeace says there is still a cow-shaped hole in both the Climate Change Commission’s advice and the Government’s approach to climate action, following the release of the Commission’s finalised climate plan.

The Climate Commission Report

Written By: - Date published: 5:19 pm, June 9th, 2021 - 54 comments

As they said they would, the Government has today released the full advice from the Climate Commission, taking into account all the submissions and all the big fat evidence.

Cycling Politics is Winnable Politics

Written By: - Date published: 3:43 pm, May 29th, 2021 - 100 comments

This Sunday Aucklanders have an opportunity to protest the catastrophic failure of NZTA to generate a cycleway from the North Shore to the CBD, and to promote a practical proposal to “liberate a lane” on the Harbour Bridge which would do the job in the meantime.

Cycling Politics Is Damn Serious Business

Written By: - Date published: 7:12 am, May 26th, 2021 - 73 comments

Don’t knock local politics until you’ve had to stand up and defend a cycleway in public.

Regenerative agriculture and climate solutions

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, May 6th, 2021 - 94 comments

Research is now showing the advantages of regenerative agriculture. Are we wise enough to make best use of them?

The problem with coal

Written By: - Date published: 10:13 am, May 1st, 2021 - 38 comments

New Zealand is about to enter a transition phase in energy that’s going to affect absolutely everyone.

Climate change. It’s still happening.

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, April 27th, 2021 - 35 comments

This is tough information to take in. I feel better when I try to take action to support the Climate Justice Movement which has known for decades that capitalism must be transformed and replaced for decent survival. Individual-collective action is possible. Keep going. – @climateben

Biden is serious about climate change

Written By: - Date published: 7:28 am, April 24th, 2021 - 70 comments

One of the many regretful aspects of the Trump presidency was the United States open hostility to doing anything about climate change. It looks like Joe Biden will do his best to make up for lost time.

Too much too far?

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 23rd, 2021 - 97 comments

As we lead up to Budget 2021, there’s much more shape to the whole direction of this government.

Climate Commission Hope Versus NLTP Reality

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, April 19th, 2021 - 19 comments

The very hardest climate challenge New Zealand has is in transport, but the latest National Land Transport Plan is pretty much like the wind being resisted by the Climate Commission air conditioning unit. Time to face our reality not our words.

Sustainability and learning from forest gardening

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, April 11th, 2021 - 30 comments

The Guytons’ 25 year old food forest in Riverton is a showcase of sustainability practice and knowledge.

Greta Thunberg is now 18

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, April 2nd, 2021 - 59 comments

Greta Thunberg is now aged 18.  And her activism is still strong.

No Right Turn: Climate Change: Heading for uninhabitability

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, March 13th, 2021 - 8 comments

it looks like just 1.5 degrees will be enough to cook most of the tropics:

Greenpeace: Another win for the movement against deep sea oil exploration

Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, February 22nd, 2021 - 6 comments

The announcement comes with little fanfare, but marks another huge moment for people power, for iwi, hapū, environmental groups, and the hundreds of thousands of people who for the last decade have maintained one of the most relentless campaigns of the modern era to put an end to deep sea oil exploration in New Zealand.

Texas’s power crisis

Written By: - Date published: 8:26 am, February 18th, 2021 - 89 comments

Over in the US of A in the great state of Texas and in surrounding states locals are experiencing unusually cold weather and are suffering from the effects.  But instead of blaming their not fit for purpose electrical systems they are blaming the Green New Deal, even though it has not been implemented.

The unlucky New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 10:17 am, February 17th, 2021 - 107 comments

The first New Zealand study to look at the effects of food hardship on pre-schoolers’ nutrition has found that nearly half of families struggle to access healthy food in their child’s first year of life.

Will Technology Solve Climate Change?

Written By: - Date published: 6:01 am, February 14th, 2021 - 87 comments

What if we actually planned to reduce energy usage significantly while revamping the economy to promote happiness and well-being? Then it would be far easier to replace our remaining energy usage with renewable sources. – Richard Heinberg

No Right Turn: Climate Change: Legal actions

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, February 10th, 2021 - 7 comments

Lawyers for Climate Action is threatening to take Auckland Council to court if they reneg on their climate action promises in the upcoming consultation on the Regional Land Transport Plan.

Escape Velocity

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, February 7th, 2021 - 93 comments

In this series so far I’ve examined three of the four terms in the Kaya Identity, population, economic intensity, and energy intensity. It can be conclusively shown that none of these factors can be reduced sufficiently to reduce CO2 emissions to zero – or even close enough to be useful. Let’s return to each one […]

Layers of Culpability

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, February 2nd, 2021 - 20 comments

The huge tyre fire near Amberley in North Canterbury last Friday is in an area with a high water table, extreme fire risk in summer, two kilometres from a town of 2000 residents, and on the edge of one of NZ’s premier wine regions.

Having a say on how NZ transitions to a post-carbon society

Written By: - Date published: 6:11 am, January 31st, 2021 - 99 comments

Now is the time for people power. The government is about to ask us what we think about New Zealand’s plan on climate action.

UPDATED with links to the report and media analysis.

Both sides reporting in the time of Trump

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, January 24th, 2021 - 85 comments

You would think that after the Trump years the media would be turning away from the reporting of “both sides” of an issue and in many cases they are.  But there is a recent example of a hold out urging that extremist views should be given media attention.

PM Ardern and President Biden as a comparison

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, January 23rd, 2021 - 34 comments

On his first day in office Joe Biden executed 17 executive orders making wide scale change to the Trump Administration’s policies.

Frogs swimming in the heated pot

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, January 23rd, 2021 - 34 comments

The distracting political stupidities in places like the US and now in Russia tend to be entertaining for us southerners. But changes in climate are getting faster and more extreme. The continued instability in the northern polar vortex and the extreme weather it causes cut into our global food creating systems. The foundation of our population and societies. Froggies, the heat is still rising.

What do you want our government to achieve on climate action in their first 100 days?

Written By: - Date published: 6:06 am, January 23rd, 2021 - 38 comments

“We want our government to listen to us as youth and as New Zealanders. Our house is on fire, and soon, all that we know will be too”

School Strike 4 Climate’s rally on Tuesday will present demands to the government on what action needs to be taken now.

Climate news and personal actions

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, January 4th, 2021 - 19 comments

2021, the climate emergency is still an emergency. Personal action is not sufficient but it’s still necessary.

Without the handbrake what should this Government do?

Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, January 1st, 2021 - 112 comments

Welcome to 2021.  This is the year for the Labour Government to be brave.  What should it seek to achieve this year?

A Few Good Green Wins

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, December 23rd, 2020 - 22 comments

There is always plenty of bad news when it comes to nature in New Zealand, but this year has had an accumulation of good.

The Government’s finances are in very good shape

Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, December 17th, 2020 - 66 comments

The Government’s finances are in remarkably good shape.  Who would have predicted that dealing properly with a global pandemic would have had better results for the economy than timidly dealing with it and trying to ensure that economic activity continued? But by international levels our Government debt is already low and maybe now is the time to spend on vital areas such as poverty, climate change and the housing crisis.