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Players only love you when they’re playing

Written By: - Date published: 8:44 am, December 9th, 2009 - 52 comments

O’Sullivan“[Key] indicated that one of the reasons why he had been loath to sign up earlier for the Copenhagen event was because it would clash with the Fleetwood Mac gig”. He went on to make some bad puns about Fleetwood Mac-based headlines. Let me get this straight. Key wanted to skip the meeting to determine […]

The Copenhagen editorial

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, December 8th, 2009 - 20 comments

Yesterday 56 newspapers in 45 countries published a “global editorial” – the same joint statement – most of them on their front page. This is an unprecedented step in the face of a profound emergency. You can find a list of the papers (with links to their copies of the editorial) here. It is sad […]

Key is going. Now who pays?

Written By: - Date published: 9:10 am, December 4th, 2009 - 19 comments

So John Key has finally dropped his veils* and is going to Copenhagen. Well, Rob Emmerson correctly predicted how the ineffectual Emissions Trading Scheme amendments by NACT did wind up. Taxpayers pay almost all of the cost, our kids pay even more, and polluters have no incentive to reduce emissions. Now imagine what happens when […]

Ethical meat on its way

Written By: - Date published: 7:58 am, December 4th, 2009 - 20 comments

Jon Stewart covers developments in the science around making meat without raising and killing an animal. Jon has a laugh of course but this is actually really exciting stuff. I’ve been following the developing science around this for a while. The upsides are huge. You can grow meat without the animal. That means no sow […]

The Key to change?

Written By: - Date published: 10:25 pm, November 29th, 2009 - 9 comments

Will Key go to Copenhagen? Or rather, why wouldn’t he want to go?  According to TVNZ tonight: At least 90 world leaders are now expected to attend next month’s global climate change talks in Copenhagen but New Zealand’s prime minister still says he will not be among them. That is despite coming under pressure at […]

No amateur hour for real leaders

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 am, November 29th, 2009 - 15 comments

Among the breathless reporting of who John Key is having a meeting with (‘he’s talking to the Queen!’ ‘he’s going to talk to India’s PM), as if a meeting itself is an outcome, an achievement, I’ve seen one very interesting comment on CHOGM. On her blog, Audrey Young writes about French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s appearance […]

Everybody else is going, so why can’t we?

Written By: - Date published: 8:11 am, November 28th, 2009 - 16 comments

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon have called on world leaders to attend the Copenhagen talks on the new climate change treaty. President Obama will be attending as will the leaders of most major countries. Yet John Key still says he almost certainly won’t go, even after New Zealanders raised the money […]

Key must bite the bullet over Copenhagen

Written By: - Date published: 11:03 am, November 27th, 2009 - 6 comments

Another instalment of “John Key’s” video diary from talented impersonator PlumedeKiwi; this time taking a comedic stab at the PM’s refusal to attend the UN climate talks in Copenhagen. Key has come under an increasing amount of pressure in recent weeks over the summit, widely dubbed one of the most important meetings in history. It’s […]

The evidence on warming

Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, November 27th, 2009 - 94 comments

Much ado about nothing in the last few days, with the release of materials related to climate change and warming on both the international and local scales. First the international event – “Climategate” (sigh) – the now well known theft and publication of data from the University of East Anglia’s world renowned Climate Research Unit. […]

Shame on you

Written By: - Date published: 12:30 pm, November 26th, 2009 - 77 comments

Never in the history of New Zealand politics has so much taxpayers’ money been hurled into the chasm with such contempt for the poor citizens who will pay billions out of their own dwindling pockets forever while rich polluters wreck the earth with impunity and bask in the profits. Never in the history of NZ […]

Sharples and the Maori Party revolt

Written By: - Date published: 3:40 pm, November 25th, 2009 - 9 comments

Via Newsroom [offline], Pita Sharples has confirmed reports of an internal revolt within the Maori Party over its support for National’s ETS. The Maori Party will honour its deal to back National’s emissions trading scheme despite many in the party being opposed to much of the ETS bill, co-leader Pita Sharples has said in a […]

Rod Oram on ETS and Monetary Policy

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, November 25th, 2009 - 5 comments

Rod Oram did a business segment on Nine to Noon yesterday. As usual he went quite deep into the issues. A welcome contrast to Colin Espiner and his very limited level of understanding (“they did it too”) on the complete change of direction in the short-sighted changes to the Emissions Trading Act being pushed through […]

Shane Jones on National’s ETS

Written By: - Date published: 5:20 pm, November 24th, 2009 - 12 comments

Not all ETSs are created equal

Written By: - Date published: 2:32 pm, November 24th, 2009 - 34 comments

On his blog, Colin Espiner writes: “it’s also extremely ironic to hear Labour wringing its hands about the impact of the ETS when…HELLO…Labour passed the Emissions Trading Scheme!!!” Oh dear. That’s like saying ‘Labour is opposed to National’s ACC policy but Labour had an ACC policy of its own, hello!!!’ Labour isn’t (and I really […]

CCDs. Worms perhaps?

Written By: - Date published: 2:15 pm, November 24th, 2009 - 73 comments

It has been fascinating over the last few days watching the CCDs (Climate Change Deniers) make an another attempt to scale the bastion of scientific thinking and language. In this case someone hacked a copy of decade of e-mails at the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at a insecure University of East Anglia webmail server. There […]

A plague on both your houses

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, November 24th, 2009 - 35 comments

So, as far as National and Maori leaders are concerned, it’s a done deal: “Maori Party to support ETS – bill to become law in days”. Unless (as suggested by Eddie) some Maori Party MPs remember their principles and vote against it, National’s ETS will be forced through parliament under urgency. NRT weighs in with […]

Harawira and Katene to cross the floor?

Written By: - Date published: 8:15 am, November 24th, 2009 - 14 comments

National wants to get its shambolic ETS through the House this week. It’s not quite clear what the hurry is; there’s no actual reason why it should be passed before the Copenhagen meeting in December, it’s just an artificial deadline that National have set themselves.   We already know the ETS will cost taxpayers hundreds […]

Lunch time quiz

Written By: - Date published: 12:37 pm, November 23rd, 2009 - 23 comments

1) What the hell is John Key trying to say here? “Maori are not getting special preference, if you go back to those pre-1990 forests Maori are significant owners in that area, so is Ngai Tahu, those forests are all affected by the emissions trading scheme unless we can get a change at Copenhagen and […]

Doctors speak up against ETS

Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, November 19th, 2009 - 4 comments

A couple of days ago I raised (again) the question of why we don’t see more experts, scientists and academics contributing to public debate. Well here’s one example where they are doing so: Docs say emissions trading scheme will hurt Kids Senior doctors today said that the intended changes to New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme […]

Greenpeace to focus on poverty

Written By: - Date published: 7:49 pm, November 17th, 2009 - 47 comments

The new head of Greenpeace, South African Kumi Naidoo, has pledged under his leadership that the organisation’s core focus will be the effect of climate change on the world’s poorest people. This is great news. I have always been critical of the way many (really great) environmental organisations have tried to divorce themselves from social […]

Maori Party shafts Maori workers

Written By: - Date published: 7:59 pm, November 16th, 2009 - 12 comments

The Maori Party says it will support John Key’s emissions trading scheme in exchange for a lucrative deal for the wealthiest Maori. According to TV3: Five of New Zealand’s richest iwi, who have already signed multi-million-dollar treaty settlements, will gain millions more in the deal. Basically, Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples don’t give a sh*t […]

Key’s $155b subsidy to polluters

Written By: - Date published: 1:27 pm, November 16th, 2009 - 38 comments

A month ago, I wrote that National’s moves to gut the Emissions Trading Scheme would increase government debt by $73 billion by 2050. A Treasury report said that National’s ETS changes to subsidise polluters would see government debt 6-8% of GDP higher than it otherwise would be. GDP in 2050 is modelled at $914 billion, so 8% […]

Kiwis will continue to subsidise PM’s rich mates

Written By: - Date published: 1:06 pm, November 16th, 2009 - 2 comments

The Finance and Expenditure Committee has released its report on John Key’s Emissions Trading Scheme. ACT, Labour, and the Greens refused to support the changes which will see taxpayers subsidising big business. We were unable to reach agreement on whether to recommend that the Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill be passed, because of members’ […]

Climate Change cowardice hurting NZ’s image abroad

Written By: - Date published: 12:00 pm, November 13th, 2009 - 37 comments

One of the UK’s most influential newspapers, The Guardian, carries a stinging attack under the title New Zealand was a friend to Middle Earth, but it’s no friend of the earth. It damns us for our abject failure to live up to the clean, green image we sell ourselves on. Here are the main points: […]

Sciblogs

Written By: - Date published: 10:15 am, November 13th, 2009 - 4 comments

Welcome to a new NZ blog, Sciblogs. From the About: Sciblogs brings together the best science bloggers in the country on one website, creating a hub for scientific analysis and discussion and facilitating reader interaction. The website is for scientists who want to reach out to a general audience to explain their science and how […]

Climate Change: The Looney Lord Responds

Written By: - Date published: 9:38 am, November 10th, 2009 - 37 comments

Rob Salmond The other day I posted a critique of Lord Monckton’s recent presentation, which purports to show that global warming is not real and not a problem. Imagine my astonishment to see that Lord Monckton himself took 2,700 words to respond to me in the comments! I am very surprised see that a new […]

Climate Change: Looney Tunes from Lord Monckton

Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, November 6th, 2009 - 121 comments

Rob Salmond In attempting to cover for DPF’s embarrassing disaster of a post on climate change, in his comments section some prominent right wingers (most notably John Ansell) pointed to a recent presentation by Lord Monckton. The presentation got a lot of publicity this month, including thinly veiled advertising from Fox News’ Glenn Beck, for arguing […]

Shamed by Africa

Written By: - Date published: 10:12 am, November 4th, 2009 - 9 comments

  On Monday climate change negotiations got under way in Barcelona – “the final chance for negotiators to hammer out a text before December’s Copenhagen summit”.   It seems that these vital talks may have failed already. Geoff Keey reports: It’s been a dramatic first day at the climate change negotiations here in Barcelona and […]

Kiwis should be free-riders – NZIER

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, November 3rd, 2009 - 15 comments

A nice attempt at wedge politics from rightwing economic think-tank NZIER today. They say we should be concentrating on water quality, air quality, and saving native species, rather than climate change – a transparent attempt to divide conservationists from environmentalists. The entire substance of this ‘report‘ is a table on page 17 that doesn’t actually […]

David Farrar’s echo chamber fail

Written By: - Date published: 5:40 pm, November 2nd, 2009 - 45 comments

There’s some massive FAIL going on over at Kiwiblog. Farrar’s got this new green-bashing post up where he breathlessly mocks Al Gore for saying sea levels could rise by 67 metres because of climate change. “67 metres in ten years!” wails Farrar. “I think politicians like Al Gore actually damage the very cause they purport […]

Four day week good – science

Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, October 30th, 2009 - 14 comments

Yes Mr and Ms Work-Life-Balance, science is on your side. Last month the New Scientist summarised research from Utah that showed workers were happier, took fewer sick days, and were more energy efficient when working four day weeks instead of five. The full results of this experiment won’t be published until October, but an ongoing […]

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