sustainability

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Brittle cities

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, October 29th, 2019 - 10 comments

It is pretty hard to miss a variety of cities around the world going nuts for apparently minor offences.

Why we save rivers

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, August 29th, 2019 - 47 comments

An application to dam the Waitaha River on the West Coast has been declined. When looking at how to meet human needs, we need to do better than ‘how much can we get away with taking from nature?’

photo – Zak Shaw

What if there were only 34 31 more whitebait harvests left?

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, August 20th, 2019 - 66 comments

If we want to prevent the extinction of whitebait it’s time to stop buying and selling it.

Fertile land is priceless

Written By: - Date published: 7:45 am, August 15th, 2019 - 220 comments

As Labour moves to protect prime food growing land around our cities, we should be having a wider discussion about food security in New Zealand.

Totally shit farming

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, August 12th, 2019 - 47 comments

Farmers blockading environmentalists to stop them taking photos of their degraded farms. Is this really what we’ve come to?

Dunedin South as Next Fox River Dump Disaster?

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, August 10th, 2019 - 75 comments

If we thought the devastation and mess caused by a flood ripping through the old dump at Fox Glacier village was bad, just wait until a decent storm punches through the old dump of New Zealand’s fifth largest city on its coastline. It’s getting close.

Maybe we shouldn’t take the plane

Written By: - Date published: 6:21 am, August 8th, 2019 - 84 comments

The case for reducing mass air travel rests in looking at whole systems rather than counting the carbon emissions of each flight.

Maybe we should take the plane

Written By: - Date published: 7:42 am, August 7th, 2019 - 119 comments

Activist Greta Thunberg is attending a United Nations global warming summit in New York, and will get there by boat not airplane.  But should she consider flying?

Can the Greens rise like the liberal democrats?

Written By: - Date published: 9:56 am, August 4th, 2019 - 71 comments

Only 6 months ago the UK Liberal Democrat party was at a real low, with their leader resigning and the polls about 7%: same as the last five years.  Fast forward five months from that and they are ready to become a major opposition party of opposition.  Can the Greens do the same?

Embark 2019

Written By: - Date published: 8:05 am, July 29th, 2019 - 99 comments

Last week the Embark 2019 conference involved corporations discussing what they can do to address climate change.

Southland and Thames think they don’t have climate crises

Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, July 4th, 2019 - 163 comments

Regular Standard contributor Robert Guyton put up a great fight but has failed to persuade the dinosaurs on Environment Southland to declare a climate emergency.

The strange case of the missing Oregon Republican State senators

Written By: - Date published: 1:45 pm, June 24th, 2019 - 67 comments

Republican State Senators in the state of Oregon have headed for the hills and are being protected by a local nut job militia in an effort to thwart the democratically elected majority from doing passing a law to address climate change.

The false left anti road narrative

Written By: - Date published: 8:24 am, May 28th, 2019 - 26 comments

Shane Te Pou has claimed that the Government is anti road and pro bike lane and light rail.  But a look at the Government’s spending priorities suggests that roads still dominate.

Will the Christian Conservatives rise again?

Written By: - Date published: 11:07 am, May 20th, 2019 - 78 comments

Simon Bridges has conceded that his claim that talk about Alfred Ngaro setting up a conservative party was “rumour and speculation” was not actually true.  And Ngaro has gone on the offensive describing abortion as an unholy holocaust.

The hard change of forestry

Written By: - Date published: 10:41 am, May 18th, 2019 - 98 comments

Forestry is forcing an important tilting point between mitigating climate change and land use, and it’s going to affect the viability of some North Island towns.

Bill Nye loses his s&(t about climate change

Written By: - Date published: 2:08 pm, May 14th, 2019 - 17 comments

Bill Nye has decided that anger is the only adequate response to the climate change crisis.

Is there a middle ground on climate change

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, May 11th, 2019 - 271 comments

It has been reported that US Presidential hopeful Joe Biden is hoping to craft a middle ground position between the extraordinarily strong scientific consensus suggesting we have a climate crisis and the industry supported anti scientific knee jerk opposition to doing anything.

Zero carbon bill – let the battle commence

Written By: - Date published: 8:21 am, May 9th, 2019 - 102 comments

The Zero Carbon bill is already being attacked by farming groups who are clearly concerned at the implications for their industry.  And National is already showing signs that it will play politics with the issue.

It’s the end of the world as we know it *

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, May 7th, 2019 - 104 comments

* and I don’t feel fine.

Eugenie Sage vetos vast tailings dump

Written By: - Date published: 7:46 am, May 6th, 2019 - 72 comments

Green Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage has vetoed Oceania Gold’s attempt to buy a 180-hectare dairy farm to store mining tailings from its Waihi gold mines.

Is Tony Abbott finished?

Written By: - Date published: 10:20 am, May 5th, 2019 - 9 comments

Tony Abbott is facing electoral defeat from Zali Steggall, an independent candidate who has put combating climate change at the centre of her campaign.

Everything Should Be Made As Uncomfortable As Possible, But No Less Comfortable

Written By: - Date published: 7:01 am, April 24th, 2019 - 26 comments

When providing a voluntary carbon-offset scheme, make it as simple as possible, but not simpler, and tell people about it.

The School climate strikes

Written By: - Date published: 2:20 pm, March 11th, 2019 - 20 comments

Details concerning the School strike day of action against Climate change scheduled for this week.

No More Investing In Oil Exploration

Written By: - Date published: 10:47 am, March 10th, 2019 - 21 comments

Norway’s government has announced it is selling out of oil exploration although it will continue to invest in energy companies that have refineries and are engaged in distribution and retail sales of oil and gas products.

Young people and climate change

Written By: - Date published: 7:56 am, March 6th, 2019 - 50 comments

School students are planning national protests against climate change on March 15, 2019. The response of some politicians to this news is less than optimal.

National’s Tax review strategy

Written By: - Date published: 11:22 am, March 5th, 2019 - 107 comments

The Government is not due to announce its response to the Tax Working Group’s recommendations for a few more weeks. It appears that National using outrageous assumptions will take the opportunity to raise horror stories in the media on how bad the tax could be.

Sage gets the money

Written By: - Date published: 7:30 am, March 5th, 2019 - 47 comments

Greens Minister Eugenie Sage deserves praise for securing some solid funding increases for her Conservation portfolio.

23 dinosaur councils refuse to sign Climate Change commitment

Written By: - Date published: 9:29 am, February 20th, 2019 - 78 comments

Thames-Coromandel mayor and former National Party MP Sandra Goudie has called a request to sign up to LGNZ’s Climate Change declaration irresponsible at the same time as the Council has entered a coastal inundation notation on the titles for a Retirement Village development it issued consent for.

The end of tenure review

Written By: - Date published: 11:45 am, February 15th, 2019 - 29 comments

Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage has ended the policy of tenure review, under which large tracts of land were privatised and onsold for huge profits and sensitive ecological areas wrecked.

Right wing environmental sock puppet party launched

Written By: - Date published: 8:01 am, February 11th, 2019 - 195 comments

No friends National’s sock puppet party has now been announced.

Trump restarts Nuclear Arms race

Written By: - Date published: 7:55 am, February 8th, 2019 - 58 comments

Donald Trump has announced that the US will be withdrawing from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and Russia has also given notice. Stand by as the nuclear arms race restarts.