science

Four wheels good, two wheels bad

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:08 am, March 20th, 2009 - 34 comments

The Government is taking nearly half a billion dollars out of public transport, cycling, walking, road maintance, and traffic policing to pay for more state highways. Transport Minister Steven Joyce’s reasoning for this – ‘86% of people go to work by car’. Doesn’t he get that people have to go by car because there aren’t […]

Once upon a time there was an island

Written By: Dancer - Date published: 10:36 pm, March 16th, 2009 - 47 comments

Fancy a restful island holiday? If the Cateret Island was your chosen destination you might want to travel sooner rather than later according to CNN: There is one holiday destination that should shake the faith of even the most vehement climate change skeptic: the Carteret Islands, part of Papua New Guinea, located northeast of Bougainville… […]

I wish my house was clean coal clean

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 12:16 pm, February 27th, 2009 - 1 comment

Whither the PIF?

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 6:10 am, January 30th, 2009 - 1 comment

I attended the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji back in 2006. The shadow of Bainimarama’s approaching coup hung over the forum but it wasn’t enough to quell the heat as we sat in our ridiculously ill-suited suits through endless, pointless meetings. Nothing was achieved and everyone clapped each other on the back for a job […]

Climate change deniers – accidental comedians

Written By: lprent - Date published: 10:39 am, January 4th, 2009 - 26 comments

I’m always amazed about the level of sheer scientific ignorance of most of the climate change deniers. Characteristically ridiculous statements (and scientifically humorous) usually emit from them like CO2 emissions from a coal fired power station. For instance, Garth George in the NZ Herald on his new years eve article said In Britain, the Meteorological […]

Evolution and Crime

Written By: lprent - Date published: 12:19 am, December 28th, 2008 - 76 comments

The Economist is one of the few main stream media that seem to be flourishing in the days of decline for most media outlets. This is probably because it offers truly interesting comment and opinion. For instance in the current science section, they have “Darwinism:Why we are, as we are, a view on the current […]

From clean and green to grey and grubby

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 1:52 pm, December 15th, 2008 - 39 comments

Tourism New Zealand has recently launched its dedicated YouTube channel – Have Your Say – where tourists can post video messages about their experiences while visiting here via a mobile studio. Here’s what our new PM, Minister of Tourism, and veteran YouTube user John Key had to say. But while John’s out there on YouTube doing the hard […]

Oh dear

Written By: Tane - Date published: 5:14 pm, December 9th, 2008 - 55 comments

Rodney Hide on National and ACT’s select committee into the ETS: “I am especially pleased to see that the issue of the scientific and trade implications will be considered alongside the impacts on the economy. “There is definitely not a monolithic view on the fact of human induced climate change and I welcome this government’s […]

The moral high ground

Written By: all_your_base - Date published: 11:05 am, December 5th, 2008 - 15 comments

Murray McCully has just used his recently acquired ministerial discretion to allow Fiji’s under-20 soccer team to enter New Zealand in transit on its way to a tournament in Tahiti. This is broadly at odds with the Labour government’s sanctions following the coup in 2006 (though they did grant the Fiji sevens team permission to […]

Brownlee’s blow-out

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 11:33 pm, November 27th, 2008 - 47 comments

National/ACT has only been in power a week, but the flip-flops keep coming. Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee will not confirm that that National/ACT will reversing the new light-bulb standards. This after they campaigned hard against these standards and Key repeatedly promised that under a National government people would not be told which type of light-bulbs they can use. Brownlee […]

The departed

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:52 am, November 26th, 2008 - 56 comments

The UK has announced plans to increase departure tax from its airports for flights outside Europe to pay for offsetting their carbon emissions. This is part of the worldwide response to climate change – countries are making emitters pay and even aviation, which is excluded from Kyoto, is now being targeted (quite rightly too, it […]

Delaying tactics

Written By: Tane - Date published: 4:49 pm, November 19th, 2008 - 73 comments

The National Party’s decision to resurrect the idea of a carbon tax is one of the most cynical plays I’ve seen in a while, coming from a party that opposed a carbon tax from day one. In fact, for all their hollow attacks on Labour’s climate change record it’s been National that has campaigned harder […]

Polar bear returns

Written By: Tane - Date published: 11:28 am, November 14th, 2008 - 17 comments

From Scoop: The hapless polar bear that emerged during the recent TVNZ You-Tube leaders debate has resurfaced to issue a plea to Prime Minister-elect John Key. “The planet is on the slide due to climate change,” stresses the bear. “Me and my ilk are like canaries in the coal mine. But by-God we’re not the […]

Wrong time for short-term thinking

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 10:55 am, October 14th, 2008 - 90 comments

National’s Nick Smith has announced that they would cancel the $1 billion fund to insulate New Zealand houses, which the Greens won as part of the Emissions Trading Scheme. This massive programme would improve energy efficiency, create warmer, healthier homes and would provide useful employment during the downturn. A study, ironically carried out under National and mentioned to me […]

Shallow recession this year but the future looks tough

Written By: Steve Pierson - Date published: 12:03 pm, September 26th, 2008 - 42 comments

We all knew New Zealand was in recession in the first six months of this year. The official figures have confirmed this. The surprise though is on the upside. The consensus had been that the economy had shrunk 0.5% in the quarter. In fact, it was 0.2%. Remember that this figure occurred during the height of […]