science

Categories under science

It’s the economy, stupid

Written By: - Date published: 5:48 am, September 15th, 2009 - 36 comments

What a lot of people don’t seem to understand is that an emissions trading scheme has two points: 1) encourage reductions in emissions 2) allocate the cost of emitting. The ETS does not, ultimately, create the price on carbon for New Zealand. That is created by our international committment, along with other countries, to limit our […]

Maori Party to help Nats kill carbon emissions cap

Written By: - Date published: 5:15 pm, September 14th, 2009 - 78 comments

Nick Smith has just announced a deal with the Maori Party to replace the existing Emissions Trading Scheme with a do-nothing joke. The new ETS will allocate polluting rights (carbon credits) free to polluters for the first years and then at a low capped price thereafter. Agriculture, source of 50% of our greenhouse pollution, will not be […]

Examining the scientific consensus on climate change

Written By: - Date published: 10:30 am, September 13th, 2009 - 87 comments

There was an interesting preview paper published back in January by by Peter Doran and Maggie Kendall Zimmerman. It  sheds light on how the scientists who work in the field view the probability of climate change happening. It is pretty clear from the results that those closest to the data and who know the factors […]

Climate cast aways

Written By: - Date published: 11:25 am, September 9th, 2009 - 5 comments

That prolific climate campaign – Sign On – has been casting its mark across the Capital, with a new motif popping up on some unlikely arms and paws. The blue cast, which appears to have replaced Keisha and Lucy as the face of the campaign, has its origins in John’s unfortunate January faceplant. Presumably intended […]

Rod Oram: Burn after reading

Written By: - Date published: 7:36 pm, September 7th, 2009 - 22 comments

As usual Rod Oram presents an insightful argument: New Zealand’s climate change credibility is hanging by a thread. If the government indulges in bad politics on the Emissions Trading Scheme, the thread would snap. We would suffer instant, serious and long-term damage to our economy, environment and reputation. …Would National be so reckless? Logically it […]

Flood Maps

Written By: - Date published: 10:42 am, September 7th, 2009 - 62 comments

Marty G’s last post just reminded me of this – visualise who goes under as the oceans rise with Flood Maps. And yeah, before you start, 14m is a big big rise. Just let it serve as a warning to all you Aucklanders to swap out those incandescent bulbs.

Climate change in action

Written By: - Date published: 9:26 am, September 7th, 2009 - 43 comments

The world’s oceans reached a record high temperature in July of 16.37 degrees, 0.59 degrees above the 20th century average. That might not sound a lot, and it wouldn’t be if we were talking about the variation in day to day temperature where you live, but we’re talking the whole world’s oceans. It takes an enormous amount […]

Climate change is racist

Written By: - Date published: 12:10 am, September 6th, 2009 - 18 comments

Climate change is racist. Not literally of course, but in the sense that how people are affected by climate change is going to be largely determined by race. Those who are going to suffer the most are not “white”. From The Herald summary of a recent study: The Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) released today […]

Diffusion of responsibility

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, September 5th, 2009 - 54 comments

Diffusion of responsibility means that the bigger the group the less chance that anyone in the group will take action. In a typical experiment people are left to wait in a room, which is rigged so that smoke starts coming in under a door. A person who is alone will usually leave the room and […]

10:10

Written By: - Date published: 8:25 am, September 4th, 2009 - 14 comments

The scientists say we need to reduce our greenhouse emissions by 40% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 if we want to even have a 50:50 chance of not starting runaway climate change (where temperature rises trigger the release of frozen methane and other effects that will rapidly heat the world to disastrous levels). So, […]

Are you smarter than a 10th year?

Written By: - Date published: 4:57 am, September 3rd, 2009 - 50 comments

Meet Robert Wadlow. When he died in 1940, he was the tallest ever recorded person, standing 8 feet, 11 and a half inches tall (2.72m) . That record still stands. The tallest living person, Bao Xishun, is a comparatively puny 7 feet, 9 inches (2.36m). As we all know, the typical person is getting taller. […]

Always an excuse to do nothing

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, September 2nd, 2009 - 64 comments

Remember FART (Farmers Against Ridiculous Taxes)? Shane Arden driving Myrtle the Tractor up the steps of Parliament? Bill English with his poster carrying the sexist attack on Helen Clark: “the mad cow shouldn’t have signed”? (actually, it was Jenny Shipley who signed us on to Kyoto)    All that wailing and gnashing of teeth, all […]

Devil in the detail

Written By: - Date published: 4:00 pm, September 1st, 2009 - 31 comments

I’ve had a further read of the select committee report on the Emissions Trading Scheme, and found a huge problem – National, United Future, and ACT want to get rid of the cap on emissions. The normal emissions trading scheme is called cap and trade. A cap on the total number of carbon credits is […]

Stop pandering to the modern flat earthers

Written By: - Date published: 3:00 pm, September 1st, 2009 - 62 comments

ACT as part of its coalition agreement, and probably as a result of their funders conditions, forced a review of the Emissions Trading Scheme last year. The review has concluded that the science is valid and chosen to go with the IPCC 4th report as a basis. This is of course extremely conservative and doesn’t […]

“Science”

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, September 1st, 2009 - 51 comments

ACT Party Press Release 1/4/2010: ACT has now identified the number one threat to personal freedom, to unbounded economic growth and to vast wealth for all who deserve it. It is “science”. “Science” creates nothing but trouble. “Science” causes climate change. The essence of the matter is that New Zealanders are being asked to cut […]

Congratulations Maori Party

Written By: - Date published: 8:17 pm, August 31st, 2009 - 13 comments

Looks like the Maori Party has decided to stand by their principles and oppose weakening the Emissions Trading Scheme. Their stinging minority report rules out supporting any weakening of the already too weak ETS and calls for a far greater commitment to the environment from government: The Maori Party continues to oppose the introduction of an […]

Emissions Trading Scheme report released

Written By: - Date published: 4:44 pm, August 31st, 2009 - 25 comments

The report of the special select committee on the Emissions Trading Scheme has been released. I’ve only had a chance to read the recommendations and the minority reports (the whole thing is 130 pages). The committee (with the exception of ACT) says that the climate change is a real and serious environmental and economic threat […]

Hijacked by climate change?

Written By: - Date published: 8:36 am, August 30th, 2009 - 16 comments

Richard Black, environment correspondent for the BBC News website asks an interesting question – Has climate change hijacked the wider environmental agenda? If so, why? And does it matter? He a number of leading environmental thinkers for a BBC Radio Four documentary, Climate Hijack. He says: None of the people I interviewed for the programme argue […]

10-20% Pure New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 2:00 pm, August 28th, 2009 - 21 comments

Minority Report

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, August 28th, 2009 - 25 comments

National is attempting to re-write the Emissions Trading Scheme. The new version it has come up with through the special select committee would be weaker than the already weak version Labour passed. But they’ve got a numbers problem. ACT won’t ever vote for doing anything about climate change, the Greens, the Progressives and Labour won’t vote for the […]

Contract and converge

Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, August 27th, 2009 - 15 comments

There’s a limited amount of carbon emissions we can make as a world in the coming decades if we are to avoid runaway climate change. So, how to fairly share the remaining ‘safe’ emissions that can be made over the next 50 years? The solution is called contract and converge. Click on the image below […]

Are we this stupid?

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, August 21st, 2009 - 94 comments

I got along to the Greens’ sold-out screening of The Age of the Stupid last night. It’s a powerful movie, perhaps a bit disjointed at the start but it builds to a conclusion that really hits home. You can’t watch it and not come away more determined to do your bit, and demand your government […]

The science: too amibitous for New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 10:58 am, August 19th, 2009 - 32 comments

Key, Mr Ambitous when it comes to cycleways and Job Summits, says that reducing carbon emissions from developed countries like ours by 2020 to 40% below 1990 levels, which the scientists say is mandatory if we want to avoid run-away climate change, is “too ambitious“. Fair enough, I suppose. I’m sure the laws of nature will understand. Maybe they’ll […]

Subsidizing polluting industries costs taxpayers directly

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, August 18th, 2009 - 34 comments

An excellent post from Idiot Savant (reproduced with permission) on the cost to taxpayers of subsidizing polluting industries. I haven’t noticed the mainstream media reporting this critical aspect of the governments climate change proposals. Too hard for them to grasp perhaps? Climate change: An illustration How unfair is the government’s plan to cap the price […]

Punching below our weight

Written By: - Date published: 5:43 am, August 18th, 2009 - 37 comments

I’m proud to be a Kiwi, and I’ve always enjoyed celebrating the successes of our tiny country. It’s not often that I feel ashamed of our role in the world. But our National Government’s position on greenhouse gas emissions is a disgrace. It’s not just that our emissions reduction target is too low, it’s that […]

The cost of doing nothing

Written By: - Date published: 6:15 am, August 17th, 2009 - 54 comments

The climate change debate is over (apart from a few luntatics of course). The debate is now about what to do, and the current focus is on the costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately we’re only getting half of the story on the costs. Here’s a typical example of half-assed coverage: National has set […]

New Zealand’s global shame

Written By: - Date published: 4:01 pm, August 13th, 2009 - 67 comments

Well, there goes our clean, green image. After Key announced the pathetic 10-20% emissions reduction target, we were declared ‘fossil of the day’ by environmental groups attending the Copenhagen climate change conference. Here’s Eco, talking about the failure of New Zealand and other developed countries:”The New Zealand target completes a rather dismal Annex I picture. The […]

NZ’s credibility melts away

Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, August 11th, 2009 - 14 comments

As a recent article in the Guardian newspaper asked: “Can art succeed where science is proving insufficient to generate the will to act effectively on climate change? Scientists sound increasingly desperate as the evidence they are carefully accumulating stacks up but fails to prompt the urgency they insist it requires. Science seems only to create […]

Now for the spin

Written By: - Date published: 8:17 pm, August 10th, 2009 - 47 comments

It’s interesting to see how National’s spin doctors are trying to frame the Government’s pathetic and shameful emissions reduction target of 10-20% by 2020. Stuff has ‘Ambitious’ emissions target announced The NZ Herald has New emissions target ‘big ask for NZ’ – Key And 3 News has Sia Aston quoting long-discredited figures supplied to her by […]

Unambitious for New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 6:52 pm, August 10th, 2009 - 45 comments

If ever there were a sentence that summed up our collective folly it’s “Scientific opinion is that a reduction of 40 per cent is needed to prevent serious global warming but few countries are expected set that as a target.” That’s from the NZPA article on the Key Government’s newly announced climate change target. 10-20% below […]

Save the climate, raise our albedo

Written By: - Date published: 11:06 am, August 10th, 2009 - 18 comments

Dark material gets warmer in sunlight than light-coloured or white material. Heat energy enters our atmosphere after light strikes the surface of the Earth, is partially converted into heat, which then radiates into the air. White stuff reflects the sun’s energy straight back into space without converting as much of it into heat. Because of this, […]

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