Eaarth
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- Date published:
7:03 am, April 26th, 2011 - 46 comments
Categories: climate change, Conservation, disaster, sustainability -
Tags: bill mckibben, book review, eaarth
At the start of the year I reviewed “Here on Earth: An Argument for Hope”, by Tim Flannery. While it was an interesting book, full of information and ideas, warmly and well written, in the end it left me unsatisfied. I felt that as an argument for hope it had failed to make its case.
I’ve recently finished a similar book, “Eaarth”, by Bill McKibben (of 350.org). It focuses on the same topic, the effect of climate change on the planet and how we should be preparing for the future. It doesn’t pull any punches.
Chapter 1: A New World. This chapter starts by noting the climatic stability that we have enjoyed for the last 10,000 years. Stability that has allowed the the development of human civilisation, with its grand cities, agriculture, and specialised culture. A world that was captured in the famous 1968 photo (from Apollo-8) of the Earth from space.
But we no longer live on that planet. In the four decades since, that earth has changed in profound ways, was that have taken us out of the sweet spot where humans so long thrived. We’re every day less like the oasis and more like the desert. The world hasn’t ended, but the world as we know it has — even if we don’t quite know it yet. We imagine that we live back on that old planet, that the disturbances we see around us are the old random and freakish kind. But they’re not. It’s a different place. A different planet. It needs a new name. Eaarth.
McKibben makes the case for the changed planet in example after example, meticulously researched and referenced. A random selection:
So far humans, by burning fossil fuel, have raised the temperature of the planet nearly a degree Celsius … A NASA study in December 2008 fiund that warming on that scale was enough to trigger a 45 percet increase in the thunderheads above the ocean … In fact, total global rainfall is increasing 1.5 percent a decade. …
Or consider the white and frozen top of the planet. Arctic ice has been melting slowly for two decades…
… a U.S. government team studying the tropics recently concluded that by the standard meteorological definition, they have expanded by more than two degrees of latitude north and south since 1980 — “a further 8.5 million square miles of the earth are now experiencing a tropical climate”. …
A new Nepalese study found temperatures rising a tenth of a degree annually in the Himalayas. … across the region the great ice sheets are already shrinking fast…
It’s not just the Himalayas. In the spring of 2009, researchers arriving in Bolivia found that the eighteen-thousand-year-old Chacaltaya Glacue glacier is “gone, completely melted away …
But lay aside the hurricanes and wreckage. Just concentrate for a minute on how the sea is changing. … Even most oceanographers were shocked a few years ago when researchers began noticing that the seas were acidifying as they absorbed some some of the carbon dioxide we’ve poured in to the atmosphere. …
Summing up:
Don’t let your eyes glaze over at this parade of statistics (and many more to follow). These should come as body blows, as sickening thuds. The Holocene is staggered, and the only world that humans have known is suddenly reeling. I am not describing what will happen if we don’t take action, or warning of some future threat. This is the current inventory: more thunder, more lightening, less ice. Name a major feature of the earth’s surface an you’ll find a massive change.
On the fact that we have recognised, far too late, that 350ppm is the safe limit for CO2 in the atmosphere:
We can, if we’re very lucky and very committed, eventually get the number back down below 350. … But even so, great damage will have been done along the way, on land and in the sea. …
We’re not, in other words, going to get back the planet we used to have, the one on which our civilisation developed. We’re like the guy who ate steak for dinner every night and let his cholesterol top 300 and had the heart attack. Now he dines on Lipitor and walks on the treadmill, but half his heart is dead issue. We’re like the guy who smoked for forty years and then he had a stroke. He doesn’t smoke any more, but the left side of his body doesn’t work either.
There’s plenty more of the same in the first chapter, all of it well referenced to original sources, but I think you get the idea. It’s a depressing read.
Chapter 2: High Tide. The focus of this chapter is the end of growth. It can’t go on, we’re hitting the wall.
But now — now that we’re stuck between a played out rock and a hot place — it’s time to think with special clarity about the future. On a new planet growth may be the one big habit we finally must break.
In a solid blow to the mainstream Green position, McKibben doesn’t see “green growth” as a viable alternative.
If we had started 20 years ago, when we first knew about global warming, and when we had the first hints of peak oil, such a plan might have made sense. … But it’s not going to happen fast enough to ward off enormous change. I don’t think the growth can rise to occasion; I think the system has met its match. We no longer possess the margin we’d require for another huge leap forward, certainly not fast enough to preserve the planet we used to live on.
That is a dark thing to say, and un-American, so I will try to make the case carefully. In the first place: this kind of transformation is a big job. Even in normal times, even on the old planet, the transition from one source of energy to another took many decades. …
Wherever we turn, we always bump their heads against the same bottom line: it’s expensive, and it takes a long time to even try to replace our fossil fuel system.
And that’s on the old planet. What we need to talk about now is what it’s like to make massive change on the new one, where we’re suddenly running out of fossil fuel and dealing with a spooky, erratic climate.
McKibben goes on to discuss aspects of the problem that relate particularly to America (huge amounts of infrastructure, such as the national road and bridge network, which is already run down), and those that are truly global:
And the fact that so much of the world remains so poor is also one of the biggest obstacles to actually doing something about the climate. Just as we come into this crisis with an infrastructure deficit and an overhang of debt, so we also suffer from a justice deficit that will slow any attempt at action.
We have seen this all play out at Copenhagen, with a major split between “developing” and “developed” nations.
So the obvious replacement for Plan A — for the now vain hope that the rest of the world can emulate us and messily grow its way into lives of relative comfort and security — is a Plan B, a grand bargain where the global North decides to share with the global South. And in return the South agrees to develop on a different, cleaner path. … Everybody knows this will have to be the eventual bargain, and everybody has spent twenty years trying to game the talks.
And if the “talks” never get it done?
Four major studies in the past two years from centrist organisations in the United States and Europe have concluded that “a warmer planet could find itself more often at war.” Each report “predicted starkly similar problems: gunfire over land and natural resources as once bountiful soil turns to desert and coastlines slip below the sea.” The experts also expected violent storms to topple weak governments — which makes a certain amount of sense to those of us who watched George W. Bush begin his descent in the polls after he bumbled the response to Katrina.
Fortunately we’ve just about reached the bottom of the book’s deep wells of depression. Time to start digging ourselves out.
The second half of this book is based on the premise that we can build durable and even relatively graceful ways to inhabit this new planet.
Chapter 3: Backing Off. McKibben’s ambitions for the future are practical and modest. “That we might choose instead to try to manage our descent”, “that we might aim for a relatively graceful decline”. Doesn’t sound very inspiring does it.
We recoil when faced with a future different from the one we imagine. And it’s hard to brace ourselves for the jump to a new world when we still, kind of, live in the old one. So we tell ourselves that scientists may be overstating our environmental woes, or that because the stock market has climbed back from its lows we’ll soon be back to the old growth economy. As we’ve seen, though, scientists are far more guilty of understatement than exaggeration, and our economic troubles are intersecting with our ecological ones in ways that put us hard up against the limits of growth. This book has been dedicated so far to the idea that we’re in very deep trouble. Now we must try to figure out how to survive what is coming at us. And that survival begins with words. …
So here are my candidates the words that may help us think usefully about the future.
Durable
Sturdy
Stable
Hardy
Robust… The project we’re now undertaking — maintenance, graceful decline, hunkering down, holding on against the storm — requires a different scale. Instead of continents and vast nations, we need to think about states, about towns, about neighbourhoods, about blocks. … We need to scale back, to go to ground. We need to take what wealth we have left and figure out how we’re going to use it, not to spin the wheel one more time but to slow the wheel down. We need to choose safety instead of risk, and we need to do it quickly, even at the sacrifice of growth. … It’s not just people in poorer nations who are exposed to the elements now, but all of us. We’ve got to make our society safer, and that means making them smaller. It means, since we live on a different planet, a different kind of civilisation.
Distributed networks are more robust than centralised systems. We need to distribute knowledge, skills, resources, agriculture, production and distribution, into communities.
Community may suffer from overuse more sorely than any word in the dictionary. Politicians left and right sprinkle it through their remarks the way a bad Chinese restaurant uses MSG, to mask the lack of wholesome ingredients. But we need to rescue it: we need to make sure that community will become, on this tough new planet, one of the most prosaic terms in the lexicon, like hoe or bicycle or computer. Access to endless amounts of cheap energy made us rich, and wrecked our climate, and it also made us the first people on earth who had no practical need of our neighbours.
Much of the rest of the chapter reviews local community initiatives, such as Transition Towns, farmers’ markets, and local currencies. The last quote I’ll take from this chapter relates to politics:
It’s not at all clear whether a farmers’ market, or a local neighbourhood crime watch, or a community-owned windmill is a liberal or conservative project. It’s some of both. Mostly it’s some of neither — our politics, like our highways, were built for an era of endless growth. Karl Marx as much as Adam Smith thought we’d end up in a material paradise; Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev sparred over whose system will produce better kitchen appliances. In the age now dawning, our hopes will shift and our ideologies will shift with them.
Chapter 4: Lightly, Carefully, Gracefully. What are the essentials for our future? “In order: food, energy, and — yes — the Internet”. Modern agriculture is massively dependent on oil, both to make the fertiliser that increases yields, and to run the machinery, transportation and refrigeration systems that harvests, processes and distributes foodstuffs.
It takes the equivalent of 400 gallons of oil annually to feed an American, and that’s before packaging, refrigeration, and cooking. In 1940, our food system produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil fuel consumed. Now … “it takes ten calories of fossil energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food. Put another way, when we eat from the industrial food system, we’re eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases.”
With peak oil and climate change, neither side of this equation is sustainable. But the work on an alternative approach is under way everywhere. After reviewing a range of case studies McKibben sums up:
So it’s unsettling (but also the first unambiguously good news this book has to offer) to learn that serious people have begun to rethink small-scale agriculture, perhaps just in time to help us deal with the strains of our new planet. In the last ten years academics and researchers have begun figuring out what some farmers have known for a long time; it’s possible to produce lots of food on relatively small farms with little or nothing in the way of synthetic fertiliser or chemicals.
So there will be dinner, if we are resourceful and clever, and if more of us are willing to do the work of farming, and if we build the kind of community institutions that make us more resilient, less vulnerable. It won’t be easy; as flood, drought, and pests spread, we’ll be pressed to keep up. And it won’t work every-place; even the best double-dug community-backed garden still needs water. I don’t know what Las Vegas will do. But many places may still produce enough calories.
What about energy?
First: … We need to cut our fossil fuel use by a factor of twenty over the next few decades. …
Second: it would be nice to replace at least some of that fossil fuel with something else, so that we’re not returned entirely to a world of manual labour …
Third: there’s no easy way out.
Nuclear, biofuels, solar, wind, there is no single viable replacement. It has to be a mixture of conservation, reduced demand (e.g. through less transportation of locally produced food), and local generation and storage methods (the smart grid). “So no silver bullet — but maybe enough silver buckshot if we gather it carefully”.
And that brings us to the last of McKibben’s three key factors for the future.
The Internet may be precisely the tool we need; it’s as if it came along just in time, a deus ex machina to make our next evolution bearable. …
You could make a purely functional argument for the environmental value of the Internet, of course. If you have a computer, you can set up, say, a ride-sharing system that lets people coordinate their commutes or pick up a stranger on the way to the market. Or you can log onto the Freecycle network and find a way not to buy something. The Internet can take waste — that empty seat next to the driver, that old Ping-Pong table — and convert it into something useful.
But I’m thinking less tangibly. It’s not so much the ride to town; it’s the ride somewhere else entirely, into one of the millions of destinations that the net provides. … Mostly, though, it’s decentralised … That decentralisation will be crucial, because all of a sudden we will need vast amounts of information, very little of which can actually come from New York or Los Angeles.
McKibben also stresses the Internet for entertainment, and as a vital tool for combating the downsides of a future where the boundaries of our world are shrinking.
Which is why, if I had my finger on the switch, I’d keep the juice flowing to the Internet even if I had to turn off everything else. We need cultures … that work for everyone, so that women aren’t made servants again in our culture, or condemned to languish forever as secondary citizens in other places. The Net is the one solvent we can still afford… It will need to be the window left ajar in our communities so new ideas can blow in and old prejudices blow out.
Most of the remainder of this final chapter is spent describing the creation of 350.org, and the way that the Net was used to mobilise a community of volunteers all around the globe. Here are the closing words of the book:
The momentum of the heating, and the momentum of the economy that powers it, can’t be turned off quickly enough to prevent hideous damage. But we will keep fighting, in the hope that we can limit the damage. And in the process, with many others fighting similar battles, we will help build the architecture for the world that comes next, the dispersed and localised societies that can survive the damage we can no longer prevent. Eaarth represents the deepest of human failures. But we still must live on the world we’ve created — lightly, carefully, gracefully.
In closing. Everyone should read this book. (Climate change deniers should be forced to copy it out longhand in red crayon, complete with the 25 pages of references, twice.) I’m hugely impressed with the depth and the breadth of the research that has gone in to it, and also with the clarity with which McKibben has thought about the future that he describes. My only major criticism is that the treatment of energy in the future (Chapter 4) is scanty, and doesn’t really address the serious problems raised earlier on this very issue (Chapter 3). Yes it’s a profoundly depressing book, but the smack in the emotional solar plexus is one that we all (in the “developed” world) deserve.
Time to face up and take our medicine. Change is coming, and the future will not resemble the present. If you can accept that fundamental premise, then Eaarth is a hopeful book too. It is hopeful because it is brutally honest. There’s no sugar coating the pill, no false optimism. It sets out the problems that we face, and it sets out what are probably our best strategies for preparing for the future. Having read Eaarth I feel the way I imagine one feels after hearing a comprehensive diagnosis of cancer. The news isn’t good, but at least I know the odds. It’s something to work with.
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- Newshub is Dead.
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...3 days ago - Seymour is chuffed about cutting early-learning red tape – but we hear, too, that Jones has loose...Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...3 days ago
- Bryce Edwards: Will politicians let democracy die in the darkness?Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...3 days ago
- Was Hawkesby entirely wrong?David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...3 days ago
- PRC shadow looms as the Solomons head for electionPRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time. A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...3 days ago
- Climate Change: Criminal ecocideWe are in the middle of a climate crisis. Last year was (again) the hottest year on record. NOAA has just announced another global coral bleaching event. Floods are threatening UK food security. So naturally, Shane Jones wants to make it easier to mine coal: Resources Minister Shane Jones ...3 days ago
- Is saving one minute of a politician's time worth nearly $1 billion?Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced ...3 days ago
- Long Tunnel or Long Con?Yesterday it was revealed that Transport Minister had asked Waka Kotahi to look at the options for a long tunnel through Wellington. State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the ...3 days ago
- Smoke And Mirrors.
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...3 days ago - What is Mexico doing about climate change?This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...3 days ago
- State of humanity, 2024
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...4 days ago - Govt’s Wellington tunnel vision aims to ease the way to the airport (but zealous promoters of cycl...Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...4 days ago
- The case for cultural connectednessA recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...4 days ago
- Useful context on public sector job cutsDavid Farrar writes – The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated. While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...4 days ago
- Gordon Campbell On When Racism Comes Disguised As Anti-racismRemember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...4 days ago
- Govt ignored economic analysis of smokefree reversal4 days ago
- True Blue.
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...4 days ago - Who is running New Zealand’s foreign policy?While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...4 days ago
- 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #15A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 7, 2024 thru Sat, April 13, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week is about adults in the room setting terms and conditions of ...5 days ago
- Feline Friends and Fragile Fauna The Complexities of Cats in New Zealand’s Conservation Efforts
Cats, with their independent spirit and beguiling purrs, have captured the hearts of humans for millennia. In New Zealand, felines are no exception, boasting the highest national cat ownership rate globally [definition cat nz cat foundation]. An estimated 1.134 million pet cats grace Kiwi households, compared to 683,000 dogs ...
5 days ago - Or is that just they want us to think?
Nice guy, that Peter Williams. Amiable, a calm air of no-nonsense capability, a winning smile. Everything you look for in a TV presenter and newsreader.I used to see him sometimes when I went to TVNZ to be a talking head or a panellist and we would yarn. Nice guy, that ...5 days ago - Fact Brief – Did global warming stop in 1998?Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Did global warming stop in ...6 days ago
- Arguing over a moot point.I have been following recent debates in the corporate and social media about whether it is a good idea for NZ to join what is known as “AUKUS Pillar Two.” AUKUS is the Australian-UK-US nuclear submarine building agreement in which … Continue reading ...6 days ago
- No Longer Trusted: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.6 days ago
- Mortgage rates at 10% anyone?
No – nothing about that in PM Luxon’s nine-point plan to improve the lives of New Zealanders. But beyond our shores Jamie Dimon, the long-serving head of global bank J.P. Morgan Chase, reckons that the chances of a goldilocks soft landing for the economy are “a lot lower” than the ...6 days ago - Sad tales from the leftMichael Bassett writes – Have you noticed the odd way in which the media are handling the government’s crackdown on surplus employees in the Public Service? Very few reporters mention the crazy way in which State Service numbers rocketed ahead by more than 16,000 during Labour’s six years, ...6 days ago
- In Whose Best Interests?On The Spot: The question Q+A host, Jack Tame, put to the Workplace & Safety Minister, Act’s Brooke van Velden, was disarmingly simple: “Are income tax cuts right now in the best interests of lowering inflation?”JACK TAME has tested another MP on his Sunday morning current affairs show, Q+A. Minister for Workplace ...6 days ago
- Don’t Question, Don’t Complain.
It has to start somewhereIt has to start sometimeWhat better place than here?What better time than now?So it turns out that I owe you all an apology.It seems that all of the terrible things this government is doing, impacting the lives of many, aren’t necessarily ‘bad’ per se. Those things ...6 days ago
- Release: Dark day for Kiwi kids as a third of Govt cuts affect them
News that 1000 jobs at the Ministry of Education and Oranga Tamariki could go is devastating for future generations of New Zealanders. ...2 days ago - Release: Alarm as Government signals further blow to school lunchesMore essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...2 days ago
- Release: Quick, submit – stop Govt’s dodgy approvals billThe Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...3 days ago
- Government throws coal on the climate crisis fire
The Government’s policy announced today to ease consenting for coal mining will have a lasting impact across generations. ...3 days ago - Release: Public transport costs to double as National looks at unaffordable roading project insteadCancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...4 days ago
- Release: Cost of living in Auckland still not a priorityA laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...4 days ago
- Greens look to fast-track submissions on harmful lawThe Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...7 days ago
- Release: Govt should stop making people’s lives harder and build more homesThe National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...1 week ago
- Release: Melissa Lee missing in action on mediaThe action Melissa Lee promised to protect democracy and the media sector is missing, Media and Communications spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...1 week ago
- Landlord Government leaves little hope for rentersThe Government’s announcement on tenancy rules prove that it does not care about renters. ...1 week ago
- Opportunity to build a more sustainable economyGreen Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...1 week ago
- Significant step forward in fixing cruel and unjust pastA significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...1 week ago
- Missed opportunity but NZ will surely one day recognise the right to a sustainable environmentNew Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...1 week ago
- Release: Don’t cut our lunches – clear message sent to GovernmentTens of thousands of people are demanding the Government commits to fully funding free and healthy school lunches. ...1 week ago
- Release: Govt makes U-turn on Suicide Prevention OfficeLabour welcomes the Government’s U-turn on the closure of the Suicide Prevention Office, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...1 week ago
- CCC issues warning over further climate delayToday’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...2 weeks ago
- Luxon targets lame and lousy example of leadershipIf talk is cheap, Chris Luxon’s “targets” are bankrupt. ...2 weeks ago
- Luxon targets are lousy example of leadershipIf talk is cheap, Chris Luxon’s “targets” are bankrupt. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Commitment to disability communities missing from Govt prioritiesMinister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...2 weeks ago
- Methane target review is dangerous duplicationThe Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Government must commit to school building project for disabled studentsThe Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: National must take mental health seriouslyMental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...2 weeks ago
- Referendums for Māori wards a racist step backwardsThe Government's imposed referendum on Māori wards is a racist step backwards for Māori representation, and disregards Te Tiriti o Waitangi. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Job losses at Health not worth it for tax cutsNew Zealand will feel the harm of the National Government’s reckless cuts to jobs at the health ministry for generations, says Ayesha Verrall. ...2 weeks ago
- Press release: No Māori initiatives in Government’s nothing planMāori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...2 weeks ago
- Thirty six point PR spinThe Government’s ‘36 point’ plan for the next three months is as pointless as it is hollow. ...2 weeks ago
- Thirty six point PR spinThe Government’s ‘36 point’ plan for the next three months is as pointless as it is hollow. ...2 weeks ago
- Thirty six point PR spinThe Government’s ‘36 point’ plan for the next three months is as pointless as it is hollow. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Social housing off Government’s to-do listThe Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Less money in most people’s pockets this AprilChanges to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...3 weeks ago
- Minister to Europe for OECD meeting, Anzac Day
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...1 hour ago - Comprehensive Partnership the goal for NZ and the PhilippinesPrime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...13 hours ago
- Government commits $20m to Westport flood protectionThe Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...18 hours ago
- Taupō takes pole positionThe Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...19 hours ago
- Cost of living support for low-income homeownersLocal Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...21 hours ago
- Government backing mussel spat projectThe Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...22 hours ago
- Government focused on getting people into workBenefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...1 day ago
- Clean energy key driver to reducing emissionsThe Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...1 day ago
- Earthquake-prone buildings review brought forwardThe Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...1 day ago
- Thailand and NZ to agree to Strategic PartnershipPrime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...2 days ago
- Government consults on extending coastal permits for portsRMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...2 days ago
- Inflation coming down, but more work to doToday’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...2 days ago
- School attendance restored as a priority in health adviceRefreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...2 days ago
- Unnecessary bureaucracy cut in oceans sectorOceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...2 days ago
- Patterson promoting NZ’s wool sector at International CongressAssociate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...3 days ago
- Removing red tape to help early learners thriveThe Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...3 days ago
- RMA changes to cut coal mining consent red tapeChanges to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...3 days ago
- McClay reaffirms strong NZ-China trade relationshipTrade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...3 days ago
- Prime Minister Luxon acknowledges legacy of Singapore Prime Minister LeePrime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...4 days ago
- PMs Luxon and Lee deepen Singapore-NZ tiesPrime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...4 days ago
- Antarctica New Zealand Board appointmentsForeign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...4 days ago
- Finance Minister travels to Washington DCFinance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...4 days ago
- Pet bonds a win/win for renters and landlordsThe coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...4 days ago
- Long Tunnel for SH1 Wellington being consideredState Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...4 days ago
- New Zealand condemns Iranian strikesPrime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...5 days ago
- Huge interest in Government’s infrastructure plansHundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...7 days ago
- Health Minister thanks outgoing Health New Zealand ChairHealth Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...7 days ago
- Roads of National Significance planning underwayThe NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...7 days ago
- Navigating an unstable global environmentNew Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...7 days ago
- NZ welcomes Australian Governor-GeneralPrime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...7 days ago
- Pseudoephedrine back on shelves for WinterAssociate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...1 week ago
- NZ and the US: an ever closer partnershipNew Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...1 week ago
- Joint US and NZ declarationApril 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...1 week ago
- NZ and US to undertake further practical Pacific cooperationForeign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...1 week ago
- Government redress for Te Korowai o WainuiāruaThe Government is continuing the bipartisan effort to restore its relationship with iwi as the Te Korowai o Wainuiārua Claims Settlement Bill passed its first reading in Parliament today, says Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith. “Historical grievances of Te Korowai o Wainuiārua relate to 19th century warfare, land purchased or taken ...1 week ago
- Focus on outstanding minerals permit applicationsNew Zealand Petroleum and Minerals is working to resolve almost 150 outstanding minerals permit applications by the end of the financial year, enabling valuable mining activity and signalling to the sector that New Zealand is open for business, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “While there are no set timeframes for ...1 week ago
- Applications open for NZ-Ireland Research CallThe New Zealand and Irish governments have today announced that applications for the 2024 New Zealand-Ireland Joint Research Call on Agriculture and Climate Change are now open. This is the third research call in the three-year Joint Research Initiative pilot launched in 2022 by the Ministry for Primary Industries and Ireland’s ...1 week ago
- Tenancy rules changes to improve rental marketThe coalition Government has today announced changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to encourage landlords back to the rental property market, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “The previous Government waged a war on landlords. Many landlords told us this caused them to exit the rental market altogether. It caused worse ...1 week ago
- Boosting NZ’s trade and agricultural relationship with ChinaTrade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay will visit China next week, to strengthen relationships, support Kiwi exporters and promote New Zealand businesses on the world stage. “China is one of New Zealand’s most significant trade and economic relationships and remains an important destination for New Zealand’s products, accounting for nearly 22 per cent of our good and ...1 week ago
- Freshwater farm plan systems to be improvedThe coalition Government intends to improve freshwater farm plans so that they are more cost-effective and practical for farmers, Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay have announced. “A fit-for-purpose freshwater farm plan system will enable farmers and growers to find the right solutions for their farm ...1 week ago
- Fire engineering expertise may take a big hit with job cuts at MBIE
The public sector cuts are poised to take out a big chunk of expertise at the country's building regulator. ...1 hour ago - “Fast-track Law To Kill Kiwi”: Students Say Fight Against Anti-democracy Legislation Is Only Jus...
Student groups ‘Climate Action VUW’, Schools Strike 4 Climate and VUWSA will be on the street in Wellington today, the last day for submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, with a message that the fight against the Government’s ‘War on ...2 hours ago - ‘We have thousands of Modis’: the secret behind the BJP’s enduring success in India
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sofia Ammassari, Research Fellow, Griffith University Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity has grown exponentially – and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP a ...2 hours ago - Online schooling is not just for lockdowns. Could it work for your child?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendon Hyndman, Associate Professor of Education (Adjunct) & Senior Manager (BCE), Charles Sturt University During COVID almost all Australian students and their families experienced online learning. But while schools have long since gone back to in-person teaching, online learning has not gone ...2 hours ago
- Hear me out: You can shove your reusable period products
Yes, they’re better for the environment. No, that’s not a good enough reason for me to use them. Once every 26 days or so, my period arrives, and if struck by an act of God, I am caught red-crotched without products. How, after 17 years of this, do I still ...2 hours ago - Rip It Up And Start Over – Fast-Track Approvals Bill Needs To Be Scrapped“It will cause significant harm to our environment and communities. It is completely at odds with New Zealanders’ relationship with nature and our need for a low-carbon, sustainable economic future." ...2 hours ago
- Maori Authority Warns Government On Fast Track LegislationThe Chair of the National Maori Authority, Matthew Tukaki, has warned a Parliamentary Select Committee that fast-tracking legislation is a perilous practice that undermines the core tenets of democracy, transparency, and accountability. ...3 hours ago
- Why the government’s haste in changing the health system could come back to haunt itSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Tenbensel, Associate Professor, Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Since coming into power, the coalition government has adopted a simple but shrewd see-how-fast-we-can-move political strategy. However, in the health sector this need for speed entails ...3 hours ago
- Many suicides are related to gambling. How can we tackle this problem?Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Hronis, Clinical Psychologist, University of Technology Sydney Darya Sannikova/Pexels Whether you’re watching TV, attending a footy game, or eating a meal at your local pub, gambling is hard to escape. Although the rise of gambling is not unique to Australia, ...3 hours ago
- Things that go buzz in the night – our global study found there really are more insects out after ...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Wong, Forrest Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia Have you ever wondered if there are more insects out at night than during the day? We set out to answer this question by combing through the scientific ...3 hours ago
- Why don’t Australians talk about their salaries? Pay transparency and fairness go hand-in-handSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carol T Kulik, Research Professor, University of South Australia IR Stone/Shutterstock In Australia, it’s not the done thing to know – let alone ask – what our colleagues are paid. Yet, it’s easy to see how pay transparency can make pay ...3 hours ago
- ‘Character’ And Its Impact On Immigration StatusThe Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is sounding a warning to migrants, that running foul of the law may see them leaving the country prematurely. ...3 hours ago
- 20,000 more on jobseeker benefits than this time last yearThe government’s plan to get 50,000 people off jobseeker support by 2030 has had a rocky start, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Beneficiary numbers are up – and so are ...4 hours ago
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yawn.
Ahh, the voice of “ACT on campus”. I’ll send you guys a box of red crayons. Try not to hurt yourselves with the pointy ends.
His argument is clearly so powerful it doesn’t need explaining.
heh!
Yawn indeed, everybody knows that climate change isn’t real; just ask the intellectual heavyweights from the act party who brought us ‘Edison hour’..
(cheers for the review, I share your criticism though, I don’t think he’s ever been the strongest when it gets down to the real details & complicated stuff, will have a read of it tho)
Thanks for the review! I’ll buy a copy.
(Yet another book that neither Kobo nor Kindle have.)
But Auckland Libraries does have it & several copies & no waiting list.
[hit refresh before making comment, VOR, anti-spam word typed correctly, using firefox]
That worked :).
And thanks for the review.
R0B, good write up – I’m going to see if the local library has this book. I’m glad it’s brutally honest because all the solar and wind farms in the world will not allow us to run things at their present rate – people will need to get off the Disney ride fast.
Don’t know if you’ve seen this National Geographic film called ‘World Without Oil’ but I think it would be good for Obama (as he presides over the world’s most wasteful and don’t care nation) to see it because the visuals would be easy for him to digest as he appears tone deaf/blind to any other means re America’s predicament – first of three:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyEGnMa9MyM
The NG film shows how quickly people would have to get used to their new energy diet and laid out the fuel versus food arguments where crop sowing was concerned. Scenes were enacted where people were clamouring for food from distribution trucks and armed guards were posted outside grocery stores for the purchase of half dead produce that in times past would be on a rubbish truck. The change to air quality from vastly reduced FF emissions belching into the atmosphere is also laid out.
Farmers can only hazard a guess as to what weather they may have to endure in the future and therefore crop failure. It constantly amazes me that they’re not storming government bodies about how their livelihoods will be largely destroyed if no action is taken. For the general populace they would prefer to sleep on or gaze at the TV of an evening.
Change is all very well in individuals but the real heft will only come from the top – can’t see that happening with Key, the high priest of jest in charge.
Great Post Rob.
Humans have so much trouble seeing past the end of there nose’s. The shear waste that goes on as we speck is breathtaking, how about this.
“800 million gallons of gas are burned yearly by Americans mowing their lawns.”
No I don’t have a lawn!
M: People aren’t storming anything because they don’t know. They don’t know for a variety of reasons: don’t WANT to know; aren’t curious about anything much really (and it’s corollary: “It’s boring.”).
Curious people already know. But they are relatively few in number and these few aren’t going to be one of 30-40 people storming anything and then be described as “radicals” or leftists” by the media….and dismissed.
The rest generally are happy to not know anything. This allows them to avoid any responsibility. It means they can throw a tantrum when they don’t get what they want. After all, it can’t be THEIR fault.
Our society operates on a very infantile model.
some thoughts on why
http://www.clivehamilton.net.au/cms/media/why_we_resist_the_truth_about_climate_change.pdf
It’s obvious when you think about the phrase anyway.
About a year ago I heard an interview with the 90+ year old English chappie whose name escapes me, but he was regarded as responsible for the birth of the conservation movement. He said that he had previously been totally opposed to atomic energy production but now has done an about face.
In spite of the negative publicity from Chernobyl in which about 50 people died (and now the Japanese disaster) he argues that the insatiable appetite for energy and the advent of global warming, means that atomic power is the only viable alternative. The rising sea levels alone would lead to catastrophic loss of arable land and most cities are within reach of rising sea levels. Millions and millions of people would be at risk.
Maybe this is in the mind of Bill McKibben but is a very unpopular suggestion to make.
James Lovelock.
You’re bluddy marvellous Joe! Will bookmark James for future ref. especially in light of the anti-nuclear climate at the moment.
I think you will find a lot more than 50 people died or are still dying from Chernobyl try between 4000 and 500,000
I can’t argue about the detail but the fact that it is somewhere between 4000 and 500,000 suggests that the number is uncertain and therefore unreliable.
50 was the number of clearly identified deaths directly attributed to the explosion.
The principle that James Lovelock argues is that the balance has shifted. Weighing the destruction from a Chernobyl against the potential catastrophic destruction from global warming is the debate. He says also that the marine, wind solar energy cannot meet the growing appetite for energy. And that oil, and coal is a problem which must be dealt to.
The question of nuclear power should be debated but I hope not from closed minds. The Japanese problem was not from the earthquake but the tsunami and colours the debate. A bad time.
Ianmac you seem to be saying, just because we don’t know the exact numbers killed (and never will) we should take your word that it was “about 50 people”, “50”,”less than 50″, sorry mate can’t swallow that when reliable sources like the WHO http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2005/pr38/en/index.html are saying up to 4000
The other major problem you seem to forget is in an increasingly unstable world nuclear power plants are prime targets for terrorists.
Yes, health effects are still a battleground, apart from the people who died from severe radiation numbers are not really known. People are still calling for proper research into the issue of long term effects
There are some really good pics of the area here If nuclear is the answer then the question is wrong, I think.
Except for the minor technicality that nuclear power isn’t actually viable.
viable – capable of being done with means at hand and circumstances as they are.
Sure, we can make them, it’s just not worth it.
Fixed up your definition of the viability of nuclear power there…
If mankind were to suffer a severe disruption in the next week or two, there are an awful lot of nuclear reactors around the world which need to be shut down safely, without which they will fatally contaminate thousands of square km each.
And shutting them down has been demonstrated to be a hell lot harder than one might have thought.
Gen III+ and Gen IV (not yet designed) nuclear reactors promise much safer operation, but the problem of what to do with the resulting nuclear waste for the next 10,000+ years is still intractable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/apr/24/nuclear-waste-storage?INTCMP=SRCH
Somewhere at the height of the Fukushima crisis a senior nuclear industry spokesperson admitted that not one of the 450 odd commercial reactors currently operating in the world can sustain a 3 day loss of power to the cooling pumps.
Not one. Regardless of how modern or recent the design.
What the hell were we thinking when we made these things?
ianmac: Dr Helen Caldicott has recently released a book that apparently reports on over 5000 Russian documents previously not translated into English. They (it is claimed) show that Chernobyl has actually killed about 1 million people.
Thanks Steve. The outright death toll was fewer than 50 I believe but the evidence of such numbers as Dr Caldicott quote are less sure.
Anyway the possible effect of global warming, might have a far greater harm on people than damage from a 50+ year old ill-designed plant at Chernobyl. A bit like saying air-travel is too dangerous because look what happened to the Hindenburg airship. Sort of.
There’s a difference between the Hindenburg and Chernobyl – several thousand years of difference in fact. The Hindenburg went up in 30 seconds but that was it, over. Chernobyl will be poisoning the area for another few thousand years.
Ukraine seeks Funds
How long before the sarcophagus needs to be rebuilt again? and again?
DTB: I believe that the millions needed for the final solution for Chenobyl is slow in coming from other nations. Recently I think that the money is coming.
But this should not stop the debate.
Lots of on topic reading at the pro-nuke Brave New Climate.
So what’s the solution?
The only solution has to be the overthrow of the social system that has created the problem – production for profit and not need. Our big need is to survive, but that is not profitable. So we eliminate profits and survive. Look to the Arab revolution and the educated youth coming up against the moribund profit system that starves and represses them. They revolt demand democracy and form democratic organs to fight. Dictators kill the unarmed masses, yet the revolution strengthens. No Fear. The barbarism cause armies to defect, and dictators billions to buy mercenaries runs out. The 1% cannot buy the 10% needed to kill the 90%. Total system dysfunction and breakdown. Masses win, unite across borders to form regional, continental and ultimately global socialist society in which allocation of resources to meet basic needs are met. By-product? Eaarth.
I don’t share your confidence in the ability of the masses to overthrow anyone in Western countries. Look at the Libyan situation, at first the rebels where doing okay but eventually started losing badly in the face of the superior weaponry of the government’s forces. The only reason the rebels are still around is because of the support of even more powerful weapons courtesy of NATO. Imagine what chance the general population of a modern Western country (except maybe NZ) would stand if their military was turned against them. Basicallly, as modern weapons provide a huge advantage to anyone possessing them, even 0.1% of the population could successful beat back at revolution of 99.9% of the population. The only chance would be if the whole military refused the carry out their orders and defected, and that is a big if.
wtl your logic leads to a few drones run from the Pentagon ruling the world. Or maybe the Death Star ruling the empire. I think there is a lot to be said for the ragtag army especially a geek ratbag army. Advanced weapons systems still rely on communications and power sources. The Libyan revolutionaries are caught in a contradiction only because the rest of the Arab revolution hasnt caught up yet. If the Egyptian army had already split (is hasnt because its playing cool along with US) then it would have more than dealt to Gaddafi. As it is NATO has its own reasons to get rid of Gaddafi, and its not trying very hard, but that is not equal to installing a new US friendly regime, yet. Once the rats are out of the bag… The main point is that imperialism cannot be cool it has to destroy. Democracy is too costly. For that reason the mass fight for survival and democracy will win.
“God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact.” –Tyler Durden
Maybe that’s why ordinary people accept the laws passed to help the rich Ropata. I am going to be one of the rich soon so good on the Government.
Thanks for raising this issue. It gets almost no mention, other than on Common Dreams, Climate Code Red, Nature Bats Last etc.
392 ppm and rising by around 2 ppm per annum. Not that anyone in government or local government is the least bit interested in that. Their attitude can be summed up by: “We must have growth, whatever the cost! Oh, and rugby. We must have rugby. Lots of people flying and driving, so we can the oil used up quickly and get the CO2 level over 400 ppm soon.”
It is not the current crop of moronic politicans (and civil servants) who ignore all the evidence or the fools who vote for the morons who are going to suffer the worst effects of the environmental meltdown that is underway: it is their children.
The present generation of adults is the first in history to demand continuation of an economic system which destroys their own children’s futures. It’s quite surreal when you think about it.
And yes, ‘green growth’ -the slight tweaking of business as usual- certainly won’t save us. In all probability we are now so far down the wrong track that even if the global industrial economy collapsed next week it wouldn’t help. Positive feedbacks are already kicking in and we are likely to see a rise in temperature that will cause the release of humungous amounts of carbon dioxide and methane from the permafrost, and methane from clathrates. A worst case scenario sees the Earth will be largely uninhabitable by mid-century.
The big question is: Will the collapse of the globalised industrial economic system -flagged for around 2015- will come fast enough to prevent complete meltdown of the environment? Which will we run out of first, oil to burn or air to burn it?
However, we can be quite certain this issue will not be mentioned during the forthcoming election campagns, nor anything else that is happening in the real world.
A lesson most consumers caught in the web of deceit that characterises western societies: Nature doesn’t negotiate.
Nope, we’ve already gone too far.
http://www.peakoilblues.org/blog/?p=2666
Nice one Rob.
‘Eaarth’… What’s the extra ‘a’ for??
There are communities of people who’ve been talking about and finding working solutions to this for some time. As well as the Transition Towns networks, permaculture has also been working on ‘energy decent’ or powerdown. David Holmgren’s work is good because it places the ideas and solutions in an Antipodean context. See this write up from a CSIRO newsletter in 2005 on how to transition our suburbs. Here we can address the crucial issues of food and energy.
http://www.bml.csiro.au/susnetnl/netwl49E.pdf
I really like what McKibben is saying about the internet, and hope the geek communities are readying too to step up and set up localised networks that will survive increasing outages from the big providers.
Having said that, James Lovelock, mentioned earlier in the comments as being a new proponent of nuclear power in the medium term, also says we should be putting all our knowledge into hardcopy locally (because digital is so dependent on oil).
There’s also people in NZ already developping farming and local food production that are better prepared for peak everything and climate change. I agree the situation is really fucking serious, but I also think that it helps to look at what already works and know that we’re not completely unprepared. People get scared when they realise that all our food is dependent on oil and unstable economies. But we still have time to support the people who are already doing the critical work to help us through this mess. Find out who they are in your communities (they’re already there) and how you can support them.
asw: eaten
Government should be putting $4B-$5B a year into projects and regulations focussed on creating and strengthening enduring sustainability infrastructure and robust, localised community networks.
Individual community initiatives are great, and there are several of them around, but we can’t ignore the fact that 95% of people have no contact with anything like that and there is a complete absence of central co-ordination/vision.
Many local bodies do not get it either (although some really do).
Govt should be putting money in, but they’re not and we don’t have time to make that political change happen.
I think alot more than 5% of the population is aware of the issues and starting to make changes. Most of that is due to economics (fuel and food prices) but also the quakes and things like recent years where storms have taken out power supplies for days at a time. The shift in the mainstream in recent years around local food production for instance is heartening.
Networks like TT and permaculture are doing the crucial work without waiting for govts to act or endorse or lead. We can sit on The Standard and wring our hands about what the govt is not doing, but please also support the people in our communities that are already sorting these issue out. Many Maori also are doing important work, and there are other groups as well – if TT and Pc are too fringe try the local Farmers Market or Ooooby. It’s not accurate to categorise these networks as merely ‘several’. It’s also inaccurate to call them individual community initiatives because it renders invisible the importance of the network and how those networks function in the wider community and with each other.
But then I live in the SI where community self reliance is still a core value in most places.
I think that localised leadership (and I’m not talking Councils) is just as important as localised food and energy. We’ll be in much deeper shit if we wait for the politicians to lead us on this one (I know that is anathema for a political blog, but it’s pretty simple – you can’t expect people to vote for you on a three year term if you scare the shit out of them).
Great article, I’ll definitely be looking out for a copy of this book.
I tend to concur with the sentiments being expressed by those who understand the ruling elite are antagonistic to any kind of social or economic change that would diminish their personal status and standard of living. I don’t accept that most people are willfully indifferent to the dangers facing humanity, I believe the information on which they exercise their decision making processes has become so heavily loaded with corporate misinformation campaigns that they have been effectively alienated from reality.
I have faith that corporate propaganda will end up being one of the main ropes from which the class enemy will hang. Telling the big lie often enough does not work when reality is at an observably contrary extreme. It is in all our interests, for those of us who have the time and inclination, to absorb the information provided by the likes of McKibben and relay it as clearly and articulately as we possibly can. We may be shouted down, laughed at or ignored, that does not matter when reality is so relentlessly demonstrating what we say is occurring with greater immediacy.
The current uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa are harbingers of the social upheaval the West will experience at home.
Great review. I am going to kill myself now.
Hopefully, taking a few others with me
It will be good for our “Clean Green Image”
I was just reading about your performance at hot topic. If you’ve determined that this course of action will allow you to haunt the blogs more effectively, then I couldn’t possibly stand in your way. But I would urge you to not take anyone else with you. This is your own private matter rather than being an opportunity to be further exercise your exhibitionistic tendencies.
However I would counsel you that it is unlikely to change anyone’s mind apart from making me more willing to report such random threats to the police.
Personally I would suggest that actually learning some science to the point that you understand what people are talking about is a preferable course of action. Yes I know that it is a harder row to hoe. Bu then you might be able to understand some of what you have been reading for many years.