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Fuel efficient cars and National’s tacky little culture war

Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, May 3rd, 2023 - 36 comments

Recent days have provided a further example of why Aotearoa’s response to climate change has been compromised by politics.

Debate of the Day: should farms be regulated to centre climate action and nature?

Written By: - Date published: 10:57 am, April 24th, 2023 - 44 comments

In election year, National’s farming regulations bonfire flies in the face of climate action and ecological restoration.

Extinction Rebellion: The Big One

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, April 17th, 2023 - 6 comments

XR are back. New strategy, same smart and bold action.

Go well Jacinda

Written By: - Date published: 12:06 pm, April 5th, 2023 - 91 comments

Today is Jacinda’s official last day on the job as a member of Parliament.

RMA reform will not solve the climate crisis

Written By: - Date published: 10:26 am, April 4th, 2023 - 25 comments

National has proposed RMA reform as the basis for accelerating the roll out of renewable energy generation.  It appears that it has never met a problem for which the solution is either a tax cut or RMA reform.

Climate change – the final final warning

Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, March 22nd, 2023 - 78 comments

The latest report from the International Panel on Climate Change has synthesised reports on the climate crisis from hundreds of scientists over the past eight years and has boiled it down to one message: act now, or it will be too late.

The great policy bonfire

Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, March 14th, 2023 - 45 comments

Chris Hipkins continues with his shock and awe campaign and has torched a number of policies that National and Act were using to foment unrest.

Did bacteria exist before we had microscopes?

Written By: - Date published: 11:26 am, March 13th, 2023 - 162 comments

So much of the ongoing debate about Mātauranga Māori is based on belief, and often unevidenced belief about what Mātauranga Māori is and how it is being used.

The government needs to understand that climate mitigation and adaptation are twins

Written By: - Date published: 10:01 am, March 8th, 2023 - 39 comments

James Shaw and Greenpeace on why mitigation and adaptation need to be paired.

Triangulating climate change

Written By: - Date published: 8:12 am, March 7th, 2023 - 78 comments

Yesterday morning there were suggestions that the Government would properly address climate change by placing greater emphasis on public transport and walking and cycling.  But by the afternoon the proposition had been watered down.

But How Do You Pay For It?

Written By: - Date published: 8:39 am, March 5th, 2023 - 27 comments

To pay for recent flood damage Grant Robertson has to decide on what proportion of this will be paid by new debt, what proportion by reallocation of expenditure, and what proportion by special tax levies.  Is an Australian style levy under consideration?

How Activism Dies

Written By: - Date published: 9:33 am, March 4th, 2023 - 40 comments

If anything progressive is to come out of this current government other than disaster recovery, really focused protest must prevail. It isn’t.

School Strike 4 Climate nationwide this Friday

Written By: - Date published: 12:42 pm, March 1st, 2023 - 32 comments

This climate crisis is a structural issue…. What it requires is a mass movement of citizens protesting for policy change and a dramatic redesign of our economy.

– Climate striker Aurora Garner-Randolph

The New Climate Denial: adaptation over mitigation

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, February 28th, 2023 - 45 comments

What if unmitigated climate change is more than we can adapt to?

What To Do About Climate Change

Written By: - Date published: 2:33 pm, February 25th, 2023 - Comments Off on What To Do About Climate Change

West Auckland’s activism, through such examples as the Arc in the Park sanctuary to the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area through to the protection of the environment provided by the South Titirangi Neighbourhood Network, provides examples of the sort of activism that may be needed if Aotearoa New Zealand is to deal properly with climate change mitigation.

Climate change – do we mitigate or do we adapt?

Written By: - Date published: 1:32 pm, February 25th, 2023 - 21 comments

The political debate about climate change is coming to an end as the North Island is battered by the third huge climate change induced storm in a month.  The focus will not be on what to do?  Do we still mitigate the effects by reducing greenhouse gas emissions?  Or do we dig in and adapt?

This is really awkward

Written By: - Date published: 3:13 pm, February 21st, 2023 - 63 comments

National MP Maureen Pugh has questioned the existence of human induced climate change.

Windfall tax on bank super-profits needed to help fund repair

Written By: - Date published: 3:57 pm, February 20th, 2023 - 69 comments

The repair bill for the recent cyclones will be similar to the direct cost to government of the Canterbury earthquakes, in the $13 billion region. Banks are currently making obscene profits. The time is right to impose a one-off banking windfall tax. If a conservative Margaret Thatcher can do it, it is pretty hard to argue why a Labour government can’t.

Why right wing media is bad for democracy and the planet

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, February 19th, 2023 - 37 comments

Newstalk ZB hosts have rightfully been criticised for minimising the danger posed by Cyclone Gabrielle.  Which funnily is that they have been doing about climate change for the past few decades.

Prime Ministerial

Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, February 17th, 2023 - 31 comments

Chris Hipkins has so far not put a foot wrong.  Since he became PM he has quickly and competently reformed the Cabinet and jettisoned policies that were for one reason or another causing problems. And he has quickly asserted control over two massive storms, the first which pummeled the country’s major city and the second which has caused massive floods to much of the East Coast of the North Island.

Climate Minister James Shaw: If we do not act, it will get worse

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, February 15th, 2023 - 155 comments

“There will be a certain crowd who say … let’s give up on stopping climate change and its focus entirely on responding to the effects of climate change and I cannot state enough what a catastrophic mistake that would be, because every tenth of a degree of warming increases the frequency and the severity of these events.”

Is it too early to talk about climate change?

Written By: - Date published: 8:58 am, February 13th, 2023 - 50 comments

Two unprecedented summertime storms in Auckland suggest that the threats posed by climate change are not in our future but are here now.

Protecting poor people: the call for a rent freeze in Auckland

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, February 3rd, 2023 - 187 comments

As property investors indicate an intention to raise rents, Renters United and 20+ community groups call for a rent freeze in Auckland.

Super City’s handling of the storm event

Written By: - Date published: 1:40 pm, January 29th, 2023 - 135 comments

As Auckland slowly recovers but ready itself for further storms there is some attention being given to review Council’s response to the super storm. The initial impression, and this is held widely is that the response was sub optimal.

Take Care Auckland and Northland

Written By: - Date published: 9:22 pm, January 27th, 2023 - 129 comments

Heavy rain has caused severe flooding in Auckland, leading to evacuations, power outages, and high risk warnings of sewerage on beaches.

People are being urged to stay home if safe, and stay off the roads. Please also check on neighbours and people who may be struggling especially disabled people, elderly, those on their own, and those with young children and pets.

Why do rationalists position Science against Mātauranga Māori?

Written By: - Date published: 9:41 am, January 25th, 2023 - 142 comments

Another piece on the internet by a Western scientist calling indigenous knowledge superstitious woo that should be separated from the Mighty Western Science way of knowing. Take that as a content warning either way if you are reading on.

German riot police defeated by some kind of mud wizard

Written By: - Date published: 6:09 am, January 16th, 2023 - 2 comments

Who said climate action can’t be funny?

The climate fight

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, January 15th, 2023 - 34 comments

What are we fighting exactly?

Dog whistling climate change

Written By: - Date published: 11:24 am, January 12th, 2023 - 30 comments

National MP Stuart Smith has tweeted suggesting that students should not be taught about climate change but should instead be taught the skills to decide for themselves if it exists.

The weather sucks

Written By: - Date published: 10:39 am, January 9th, 2023 - 48 comments

I’m back at work at my home office desk today and the weather sucked in Auckland and the north of the North Island over my break. Waiting for Luxon and minons blaming the government for not controlling La Niña – now in the third year of her current reign.It seems like all that National can do these days – blame the government for external events.

New Zealand is in a terrible state *

Written By: - Date published: 10:55 am, January 6th, 2023 - 116 comments

* or is it?