science

Categories under science

No Right Turn: Climate Change: Legal actions

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, February 10th, 2021 - 7 comments

Lawyers for Climate Action is threatening to take Auckland Council to court if they reneg on their climate action promises in the upcoming consultation on the Regional Land Transport Plan.

Escape Velocity

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, February 7th, 2021 - 93 comments

In this series so far I’ve examined three of the four terms in the Kaya Identity, population, economic intensity, and energy intensity. It can be conclusively shown that none of these factors can be reduced sufficiently to reduce CO2 emissions to zero – or even close enough to be useful. Let’s return to each one […]

Layers of Culpability

Written By: - Date published: 11:40 am, February 2nd, 2021 - 20 comments

The huge tyre fire near Amberley in North Canterbury last Friday is in an area with a high water table, extreme fire risk in summer, two kilometres from a town of 2000 residents, and on the edge of one of NZ’s premier wine regions.

Having a say on how NZ transitions to a post-carbon society

Written By: - Date published: 6:11 am, January 31st, 2021 - 99 comments

Now is the time for people power. The government is about to ask us what we think about New Zealand’s plan on climate action.

UPDATED with links to the report and media analysis.

Both sides reporting in the time of Trump

Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, January 24th, 2021 - 85 comments

You would think that after the Trump years the media would be turning away from the reporting of “both sides” of an issue and in many cases they are.  But there is a recent example of a hold out urging that extremist views should be given media attention.

PM Ardern and President Biden as a comparison

Written By: - Date published: 9:30 am, January 23rd, 2021 - 34 comments

On his first day in office Joe Biden executed 17 executive orders making wide scale change to the Trump Administration’s policies.

Frogs swimming in the heated pot

Written By: - Date published: 8:52 am, January 23rd, 2021 - 34 comments

The distracting political stupidities in places like the US and now in Russia tend to be entertaining for us southerners. But changes in climate are getting faster and more extreme. The continued instability in the northern polar vortex and the extreme weather it causes cut into our global food creating systems. The foundation of our population and societies. Froggies, the heat is still rising.

What do you want our government to achieve on climate action in their first 100 days?

Written By: - Date published: 6:06 am, January 23rd, 2021 - 38 comments

“We want our government to listen to us as youth and as New Zealanders. Our house is on fire, and soon, all that we know will be too”

School Strike 4 Climate’s rally on Tuesday will present demands to the government on what action needs to be taken now.

Climate news and personal actions

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, January 4th, 2021 - 19 comments

2021, the climate emergency is still an emergency. Personal action is not sufficient but it’s still necessary.

Without the handbrake what should this Government do?

Written By: - Date published: 9:52 am, January 1st, 2021 - 112 comments

Welcome to 2021.  This is the year for the Labour Government to be brave.  What should it seek to achieve this year?

A Few Good Green Wins

Written By: - Date published: 8:37 am, December 23rd, 2020 - 22 comments

There is always plenty of bad news when it comes to nature in New Zealand, but this year has had an accumulation of good.

The Malthusian Spectre

Written By: - Date published: 10:52 am, December 20th, 2020 - 46 comments

Population has always been a critical driver of events and prior to the Industrial Revolution we lived in a zero sum world, with energy and resources effectively limited to that which could be harvested from photosynthesis, one person’s gain was at the limit, always someone else’s loss. Very low density hunter gather populations could thrive […]

The Government’s finances are in very good shape

Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, December 17th, 2020 - 66 comments

The Government’s finances are in remarkably good shape.  Who would have predicted that dealing properly with a global pandemic would have had better results for the economy than timidly dealing with it and trying to ensure that economic activity continued? But by international levels our Government debt is already low and maybe now is the time to spend on vital areas such as poverty, climate change and the housing crisis.

Show me the climate action New Zealand

Written By: - Date published: 9:06 am, December 15th, 2020 - 67 comments

The Prime Minister is talking about demonstrating a plan for action, but as we move into 2021 we need to settle back into grappling with the urgency of the climate crisis.

The Mayor’s budget proposal and Auckland’s climate change response

Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, December 11th, 2020 - 10 comments

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff’s recently released budget proposal for Auckland Council contains some welcome proposals to address climate change. But of itself this budget will not go near to achieving Auckland’s goal of halving emissions by 50% in 2030.

Energy’s Iron Triangle.

Written By: - Date published: 7:46 am, December 11th, 2020 - 62 comments

For those who don’t trawl through all the comments; a little personal background. I’ve been fortunate enough to have just finished up a 40 year career in technology and automation, most of it in heavy industry. Looking back it’s been one hell of an adventure, tough at times, but I’ve been one of those lucky […]

The human Pangaea

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, December 9th, 2020 - 16 comments

Humans have created the most recent virtual super-continent. At least as far as species movement has been concerned world wide. We’ve picked up species from around the world and transplanted them almost everywhere else – including microbiological. Pandemics will be the inevitable result. Could be amphibians dying off. It could be us. Perhaps it is time to have an intelligent discussion about the risks.

What could possibly go right?

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, December 6th, 2020 - 34 comments

Bridging the gap between the people who are involved in proactive, regenerative responses to the climate, ecological and social crises, and those who don’t know this is happening, feel overwhelmed, and don’t know what to do.

Climate emergency framing

Written By: - Date published: 9:53 am, December 5th, 2020 - 19 comments

Climate goals explained.

Being real about the climate emergency

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, December 4th, 2020 - 118 comments

Green tech, negative emissions and carbon capture and storage won’t save us, but we have other options.

Parliament’s climate change declaration

Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, December 3rd, 2020 - 28 comments

Parliament has finally declared that the country is in a climate emergency.  And it has also told the public service that it has to become carbon neutral within five years.

Power across the Tasman

Written By: - Date published: 8:22 am, November 30th, 2020 - 25 comments

Australia is likely to have less of an issue with raging bush fires this year. La Niña is likely to give a break to the droughts with a wetter East Coast. Doesn’t stop record heatwaves as is happening at present. Climate change in action. What is also happening is equally predictable – the power systems get affected as well. Interesting to consider for similar climate issues here hitting our power. 

The Speech From The Throne

Written By: - Date published: 7:35 am, November 27th, 2020 - 21 comments

I’m sure one needs a particular depth of political nerdiness to give a flying fig about such things, but since I am one of those, these are my highlights from the speech from the throne to Parliament this week.

Resiliency politics

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 am, November 19th, 2020 - 14 comments

With news of more global stressors next year, the stories we tell right now are critical to how we build resiliency. Let’s make sure they are good ones.

No Right Turn: Climate Change – The problem of air travel

Written By: - Date published: 6:02 am, November 19th, 2020 - 147 comments

Until the pandemic, air travel was one of the fastest growing causes of greenhouse gas emissions. And its obscenely unequal, with just 1% of the world’s population causing 50% of the problem:

C’mon Grant

Written By: - Date published: 10:40 am, November 18th, 2020 - 51 comments

This government must demonstrate that it has the ability to lead the New Zealand economy where it has stated it wants it to go. It does not want more headlines like the average house in Auckland now being priced at $1 million.

Powerdown part two

Written By: - Date published: 8:50 am, November 16th, 2020 - 90 comments

Christchurch transition engineer Susan Krumdieck lays out the realities of the various crises we are facing, and why green tech won’t save us. What can we do instead?

Labour’s new Oceans Ministry

Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, November 3rd, 2020 - 23 comments

Jacinda Ardern’s decision to rename the Fisheries Ministery to “Oceans and Fisheries” and install David Parker instead of Stuart Nash shows a welcome desire to protect this most precious of resources.

Business Develops Practical Plan for New Zealand Climate Response

Written By: - Date published: 8:56 am, October 31st, 2020 - 10 comments

The Sustainable Business Council has released a list of priorities for the new government.  And they are pretty good.

Justice Coney Barrett appears to be a climate change denier

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, October 28th, 2020 - 10 comments

Newly appointed Republican and Trump supported Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is not convinced that humans are changing the world’s climate.  Meanwhile China and Japan are convinced and have announced dates by which time they intend to be carbon neutral.

This should have been the climate election

Written By: - Date published: 10:35 am, October 16th, 2020 - 30 comments

A new Ministry for the Environment report on New Zealand and the climate crisis is sobering. If you haven’t voted, climate is still by far New Zealand’s biggest challenge, and it’s the Greens that have the plan for what to do.