climate change

Categories under climate change

COP26 (1)
ETS (119)
polycrisis (1)

Petition for congestion free network

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:35 am, July 25th, 2013 - 17 comments

Generation Zero are running petition targeting the Auckland transport system. You can sign it here.

Generation Zero: What’s the holdup?

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:20 am, July 16th, 2013 - 68 comments

The Generation Zero speaking tour kicked off last night to a packed house in Dunedin. Generation Zero are asking – “What’s the holdup?” Why is there no action on carbon emissions and climate change?

Government still doesn’t care about climate change

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 3:23 pm, July 8th, 2013 - 146 comments

We have very good climate scientists in New Zealand, but the government isn’t exactly promoting them.

So I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that they’re planning on more than halving the climate research budget from $10 million/year to $4.5 million.

What’s the holdup?

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 2:21 pm, July 1st, 2013 - 82 comments

Generation Zero are a youth-led organisation who see climate change as their problem. They see zero fossil fuel use as 100% Possible in a sustainable Aotearoa. So they’re holding a nationwide speaking tour about it – asking “What’s the holdup?” on climate change action.

Obama acts – at last

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:24 am, June 27th, 2013 - 96 comments

The Tea Party / Republican Party in Congress are a bunch of anti-science crazies who will never agree to any action to tackle climate change. But Obama doesn’t need them. And it looks like he has finally decided to act.

Flooding

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 12:37 pm, June 23rd, 2013 - 86 comments

Noticed a lot of flooding in the world headlines recently? Me too. What’s up with that?

Extreme weather

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 6:03 am, June 21st, 2013 - 173 comments

I hope everyone in Wellington, and other places affected by ~~last night’s~~ the ongoing storms, gets through it all OK. New Zealand is entering a new phase, extreme weather will become ‘the new normal’.

Water under pressure

Written By: karol - Date published: 8:12 am, June 15th, 2013 - 38 comments

Water is becoming a precious resource, under threat from pollution, over use, population growth, & commercial profiteering. The Green & Labour Parties are very critical of Key’s government weakening the RMA in favour of commercial gains, while over-riding local government plans.

China moving on carbon?

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 11:04 am, May 26th, 2013 - 24 comments

Too many “Western” countries use lack of action from big emitters (China, India, Brazil) as an excuse for doing nothing. Well that excuse just got a whole lot thinner. And the pressure on India and Brazil just stepped up.

CO2 400 ppm and climbing

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 10:51 am, May 14th, 2013 - 45 comments

We have passed the dangerous and depressing milestone of 400ppm atmospheric CO2. 350.org are calling for a “relentless rise in activism” to match the “relentless rise in carbon”. After Copenhagen I no longer think that’s going to happen.

And in Good News

Written By: Bill - Date published: 1:38 pm, May 13th, 2013 - 19 comments

Research published today in the journal Nature Climate Change looked at 50,000 globally widespread and common species and found that more than one half of the plants and one third of the animals will lose more than half of their climatic range by 2080 if nothing is done to reduce the amount of global warming and slow it down.

The climate reality pledge

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:44 am, May 9th, 2013 - 32 comments

“… I demand action from our leaders to work on solutions to the climate crisis. I pledge to get involved …”

A poorer world

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 4:50 pm, May 5th, 2013 - 59 comments

The Great Barrier Reef is dying. We are leaving the next generations a poorer world.

Hockey stick becomes a wheelchair

Written By: lprent - Date published: 2:15 pm, April 30th, 2013 - 23 comments

When you look at the dependence of farmers in extreme climates around the world who are reliant on regular weather like the monsoons in Bangladesh or the mild winters in the gulf stream washed areas like Europe, it is clear how reliant we are for food on our relatively unchanging climate of the past 11,000 years.

Networks of influence: (dis)Advantage NZ

Written By: karol - Date published: 9:33 am, April 30th, 2013 - 21 comments

An Advantage New Zealand conference at SkyCity is the centre of major PR for John Key-backed, big oil exploration in NZ. While promoting and backing each others’ destructive profiteering, and endangering NZ’s environment, they are nurturing their networks of influence over expensive dinners and on the golf course.

Farmers unhappy about lower power prices?

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 8:32 pm, April 28th, 2013 - 40 comments

Former banker Bruce Wills and current head of Federated Farmers has joined the chorus attacking NZPower. Given the tired old arguments he raises, it would be interesting to know if his farmer members would rather have lower power prices, or banker Bruce as their spokesman.

Monbiot on our misplaced faith in “the market”

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:22 am, April 25th, 2013 - 23 comments

Relevant in so many ways to current events in NZ, here are extracts from an excellent article by George Monbiot. Read the full piece in The Guardian or at monbiot.com.

Space and density: Auckland Unitary Plan

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:15 am, April 22nd, 2013 - 8 comments

The draft Auckland Unitary Plan is massive and complex. The Auckland Transport Blog helps in untangling issues around intensification vs sprawl. The government & some right wing councillors want sprawl & to delay implementation. The Akl Council website has some cool videos visualising the planned developments. And social housing?

The disconnected: the future of the left?

Written By: karol - Date published: 12:30 pm, April 18th, 2013 - 42 comments

The current direction of Key’s government, and the challenging circumstances of the 21st century create a need for urgent attention to the form of a new left politics; one that embraces the working class, trade union solidarity, gender, diversity & the emerging “precariat”.

The Greens, electricity & sustainability

Written By: karol - Date published: 2:15 pm, April 16th, 2013 - 48 comments

The Greens and Labour are planning a joint announcement on their policies on power prices. Both parties want to bring down costs of electricity. The policies of the two parties will also have some differences. How will it mesh with Green Party policies on sustainability?

Mining & the sly dismantling of conservation protections

Written By: karol - Date published: 11:00 am, March 28th, 2013 - 32 comments

Cuts to DOC, the Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill [3rd reading today], permits allowing the exploration for minerals on Schedule 4 land: here is the stealthy NAct MO in action, to undermine the strong public protests against Schedule 4 mining. [Update: the Bill is #6 on today’s Final Order Paper]

Pacific Renewables

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:30 am, March 25th, 2013 - 21 comments

There is a summit on renewable energy in the Pacific happening in Auckland. McCully acknowledges climate change, the PM focuses on investment opportunities, the EU hopes for clean energy to aid poverty reduction. What’s best for Pacific island communities?

English in denial on climate change

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 9:12 am, March 18th, 2013 - 172 comments

Corin Dann interviewed Bill English very well on climate change and the drought yesterday on Q+A. It was clear that English has his head in the dust. Despite claiming that the government is leading on climate change, English would barely let the ‘cc’ words pass his lips and referred ‘dry cycles’, as if climate change is just temporary, so not really worth worrying about.

Akl Unitary Plan: the good, the bad & the debatable

Written By: karol - Date published: 10:44 am, March 17th, 2013 - 39 comments

The Draft Auckland Unitary Plan has much to commend it. It focuses on resource management, responds to the reality of climate change & aims for a more dense but ‘liveable’ city. It has weaknesses, embraces destructive “growth” and raises questions: e.g. about affordable housing & environmental management.

Two Things

Written By: Bunji - Date published: 5:05 pm, March 13th, 2013 - 124 comments

David Shearer won’t rule-out asset buy back (at cost), and a great blog post on “Climate Change: The New Normal”

The big dry

Written By: James Henderson - Date published: 10:17 am, March 13th, 2013 - 77 comments

We’re now experiencing the worst drought in the North Island in recorded history. It comes just five years after the previous severe drought and there was a lesser one in between. Let’s not beat around the bush, it’s climate change. Bill English came very close on Monday to admitting that climate change induced-droughts will make bailouts unsustainable.