The economy is only temporarily enhanced by oil extraction (ie, in terms of the length of time we'd like Homo Sapiens to be endemic to Aotearoa, the decades of benefit from oil extraction are a brief sugar rush) and "wellbeing of Kiwis" isn't enhanced by causing rapid change in the global climate, which is what burning fossil fuels does.
"It is time to reimagine how we can make a difference. It makes sense economically and strategically, and is expected by all our stakeholders. But most importantly, it is simply the right thing to do."
Velcro doesnt seem to know that Paula Bennett and Simon Bridges – as Climate change ministers went to Paris and signed NZ up to the agreements to reduce greenhouse gases below 2005 levels by 30% by 2030.
Its a financial penalty year by year, when they arent met so it costs , mostly the taxpayer, nearly $1 bill per year every year the numbers are above ,as they still are, the treaty targets.
Its in your interest velcro for OMV not to find anything
There would be something in the argument if NZ retained a substantial proportion of the value of any discovery, but sadly, under the feckless governance of the Key Kleptocracy the NZ share of any discovered petroleum fell to somewhere around 5%.
Sourcing our oil from the middle east causes us ongoing trade deficits and exposes us to price shocks arising from political instability. No meaningful steps have been taken to mitigate this – we are still substantially a full-on petroeconomy.
The Prime Minister says she would never stop people from having their say, expressing their opinions and using their voices, but then came the admonishment. Blocking people from going about their daily business "doesn't necessarily take us any closer to the climate action they're calling for".
Really- does our PM not know our history – 1981 was going beyond her limits. Remember the current govt is progressing an ambitious target of carbon neutral in 2050. Sounds like a Key comment not to hold the govt to account for being ambitions 🤮🤑
"There are 15,473 vehicles in the government fleet and only 78 are electric. When the coalition Government came into power in late 2017, the agreement between Labour and New Zealand First stipulated that the entire fleet would be emissions-free by mid-2025, "where practicable".
Although it was repeated as recently as June, that goal has been quietly revised to a commitment that, after mid-2025, all new vehicles entering the fleet will be emissions-free."
Why the surprise? Can you really picture a situation in which the head of the New Zealand government endorses disrupting the functioning of the government?
It is not as if our PM wasn’t going to be asked questions, and that all those support people could not prepare a better response.
So from inference our PM was against the land matches, bastion pt. And any others that involved say the harbour bridge or queen st being closed? Eg strike marches
P.Milt interesting that we will all claim the advancement that protest action has achieved ; civil rights, vote for woman, 1981 tour yet many including our PM condemn how this was achieved. If it all was nice lovey dovey should serious change occur ?
IMO once power has been achieved don’t rock the boat as you now reap the rewards of being institutionalised.
If the "better" response you're looking for is the head of the NZ government endorsing disruption of government functions, disappointment is guaranteed. The reason why should be obvious.
There is no climate 'crisis' – except in the minds of warmist bedwetters. The relationship between atmospheric CO2 concentration and atmospheric temperature is logarithmic. The more CO2 there is, the less effective it becomes as a warming agent because the ability of any one CO2 molecule to absorb IR radiation at 14.5 micron wavelength is being shielded by the increasing number of other CO2 molecules.
[I warned you the other day about not running climate denial under posts I put up. You’ve had multiple comments shifted to Open Mike with the off-topic warning, which you seem to be ignoring. You’re now in the banned list for a while until I see you have read this note and responded to it. It won’t show on the front end but I will still see it and make a decision about releasing the ban. I want to see two things. One is that you agree to not run climate denial lines under my posts or posts I put up (err on the side of caution if you can’t tell who put it up). Two, that you will stop treating the site like a spam exercise and pay attention to what happens to your comments – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Remember today is the last day to post your vote in the local government elections. So far turnout in Auckland is low. I am hoping that the one stop enrol and vote stall will help increase turnout. Campaigning in South Auckland I am very aware that high transience means many people do not feel connected to their communities. They also dont receive voting papers in the mail box. The papers in the box are those of previous residents.
I see they are pushing online voting again as we face a democratic crisis in local body elections. Online voting might make voting easier, but IMHO it won't increase voter turnout for local elections by more than a fraction and online voting is a terrible, terrible idea. People need to take their democratic duties more seriously – and be encouraged to do so. So:
Make voting day for local bodies and the general election a compulsory paid public holiday – make it a Wednesday so people can't just skive off for a long weekend – but you only get paid for the day off if you present an official chit or certificate or even an indelible ink hand stamp to your employer saying you voted. Make sure that voting stations has candidate material outlining their policies, and encourage people to study it before they vote with free tea, coffee and biscuits. So if you earn $25 an hour, you are up to lose $200 if you don't bother voting and just sit on your arse at home instead.
On election days fund communities to organise "celebrate democracy" street parties and make election coverage compulsory for free to air media outlets.
IMHO unless they put voting onto a phone with biological i.d., most people under 30 will never vote at all.
So instead of actually voting in a live election – with plenty of rankings about their views on climate change – we get people not voting and instead just sitting on the streets. The Prime Minister is right, but not helpful either.
All of those people sitting o the streets and in the banks have phones, and its the only way they organise their lives now. Not voting by phone is simple disenfranshisement.
Electronic voting is very insecure you must read about the pitfalls there. The “scouce code” is a doggy system that hides the voting electronic returns that are falsified
Electronic voting machines are a replacement for paper ballots. They have nothing whatsoever to do with online voting.
And the heritage foundation as a source on anything electoral? Do fuck off.
New York, N.Y. – The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity relies on a database produced by the Heritage Foundation to justify baseless claims — by President Trump and some of the panel’s members — of rampant voter fraud. But according to an analysis of the database by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, the numbers in the database reveal exactly the opposite.
Claims that the database contains almost 1,100 proven instances of voter fraud are grossly exaggerated and devoid of context, according to Heritage Fraud Database: An Assessment. It confirms what numerous studies have consistently shown: Voter fraud is vanishingly rare, and impersonating a voter at the polls is less common a phenomenon than being struck by lightning
I don't know how it could be done satisfactorily, but there needs to be a limit on the number of candidates for each local body position. I am sure many people have been turned off by the huge number of candidates on offer this time around. All it does is add another layer of confusion to an already confusing system.
I know of people who are not going to vote for this particular reason. Keep it simple and people will respond.
It used to be the 'deposits' candidates had to lodge when nominated. You had to get a good proportion of the winning candidates votes to get your money back. Its still applies but has inflation made it meaningless
I'd say it has. I think the mayoralty race has got a big parade of eccentrics and comedians that mock the democratic process and trivialize it. Its attention seeking behaviour. Mind you with a large deposit rich clowns could still participate and poor people whether clowns or or not would be excluded. I wouldn't want the deposit raised.
Half those running for Mayor are only doing it so they get publicity to get a Council position. The real problem with voting is not knowing how to distinguish one candidate from another.
Thanks for the reminder. I admit that I feel very apathetic. However due to your post I'm going to go vote…looking for those from a particular party as I have no idea about most candidates.
If you live in Auckland A "City Vision" are generally centre-left candidates as opposed to C&R (used to be called Citizens and Ratepayers) who are the National Party in drag.
If anyone lives on the Shore please consider "Heart of the Shore" candidates for their local board.
The historical revisionism around the Cook 250th anniversary is simply outrageous. In particular, I heard on NatRad a highly coloured view of Cook's contact with Poverty Bay Maori presenterd as an unprovoked assault with locals murdered in cold blood (complete with emotional guess work about Maori tearing off their clothes in panic and leaping into the ocean in a frantic attempt to escape the white man's unprovoked and genocidal actions).
As far as I know, only one primary source exists of this encounter – that being Cook's journals. What does the primary source actually say of this encounter?
"…Monday [Tuesday] 10th PM I rowed round the head of the Bay but could find no place to land, on account of the great surf which beat every where upon the shore; seeing two boats or Canoes coming in from Sea, I rowed to one of them in order to seize upon the people, and came so near before they took notice of us that Tobiaupia called to them to come along side and we would not hurt them, but instead of doing that this they endeavoured to get away, upon which I order'd a Musket to be fired over their heads thinking this would either make them surrender or jump over board. But here I was mistaken for they immediately took to their arms and/or and whatever they had in the boat and began to attack us, this obliged us to fire upon them. and unfortunately either two or three was were kill'd, and one wounded, and three jumped over board, these last we took up and brought on board, where they were clothed and treated with all imaginable kindness and to the surprise of every body became at once as cheerful and as merry as if they had been with their own friends; they were all three young, the eldest not above 20 years of age and the youngest about 10 or 12.
I am aware that most humane men who have not experienced things of this nature will censure my conduct in firing upon the people in this boat. Nor do I myself think that the reason I had for seizing upon her will at all justify me . And had I thought that they would have made the least resistance I would not have come near them. But as they did I was not to stand still and suffer either my self or those that were with me to be knocked on the head…"
Note the journal entry I have put in italics – never mentioned by Maori radicals keen on painting Cook in the worse possible light- hardly paint Cook as a cold blooded killer. He clearly bitterly regretted killing anyone.
Cook was by the standards of his time an enlightened and civilised man. He was one of the greatest navigators and explorers who ever lived. Smearing him as part of some sort of a historical revisionist project is regrettable, to say the least.
More to the point, only one account exists. The unchallenged slant put on the account by someone who clearly had an agenda was bad reporting of bad history.
The guy should have challenged on his account. If he claimed it to be from oral tradition, then the reporter has a duty to point out this oral tradition is at significant odds with the contemporary written account of one of the participants in the encounter, and leave it to the listener to judge what weight to give either point of view.
We owe it to ourselves as a people to make sure the historical record is correct.
Reality is, Sanctuary, that any historical record in cases such as this will be unlikely to be correct or accurate. Open-ended discussions without full resolution is the best you can hope for.
Written contemporary documents – while valuable – are not infallible. The interpretation or bias of the writer can make them unreliable, or at least raise areas of contention. It is human nature to view one's actions in the best possible light, especially in an official record such as a logbook, perhaps Cook recorded his journals in such a way.
<i>" We owe it to ourselves as a people to make sure the historical record is correct. "</i>
As 'a' people?
As people, we should be able to acknowledge that there is no hard and fast full and final truth to be pinned down. Everyone who was present at historical events had their own perspective as it took place. Some did not live to pass theirs on, others did so using oral traditions, Cook wrote his down. It does not mean that the written record should take precedence in terms of accuracy. Although this seems to be the standard in history, it is not necessarily the whole truth.
As far as I know, only one primary source exists of this encounter – that being Cook's journals. What does the primary source actually say of this encounter?
At the local commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the NZ wars, we had a history walk through a couple of our local sites of interest.
An event reported as settlers being holed up in the local church, was actually not in response to local iwi hostilities but as a response to local militia grandstanding. In the end, a local battle began against military orders because imported mercenaries were looking for a fight. It was easy to find documentation of all soldiers killed at the battle, because contemporary papers listed them by name, and those records were often repeated throughout the years. The soldiers were also laid out – by the opposing Māori fighters after the battle, so that they could be retrieved and buried, while they carried their own away for burial.
Even contemporary reports did not record the number of Māori killed. A combination of not knowing, and their relevance to readers makes that understandable. The local iwi actually became no more when their land was confiscated, and members left and joined other tribes, and the hapu exists no more. This along with oral histories, and lack of familial connections which repeats oral histories, means iwi recollections are hard, and in many cases, impossible to collate.
Which makes the discussion around the lack of fixed numbers in situations such as this a purely academic exercise, but we just need to admit that the full truth may never be known.
Odds are the SDF, who actually did most of the fighting and dying in the defeat of ISIS, will be so busy fighting Erdogan's neo-ottoman armies they'll just turn loose the 10,000 or so ISIS fighters they're holding prisoner
Syria Kurdish official told us, reacting to Trump’s overnight decision. “The Americans are traitors. They have abandoned us to a Turkish massacre. We can no longer fight against isis and have to defend ourselves. This could allow isis to return to the region.”
Donald Trump is not a Commander-in-Chief. He makes impulsive decisions with no knowledge or deliberation. He sends military personnel into harm’s way with no backing. He blusters and then leaves our allies exposed when adversaries call his bluff or he confronts a hard phone call.
Meanwhile, there's a few feeble mouse squeaks of minor disapproval, but no doubt a personalised tweet from Darth Hater will send them scurrying back into cowering subservience.
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Monday that US forces were beginning to withdraw from positions in northeastern Syria on the border with Turkey, after Ankara announced it was planning a military offensive there.
"Despite our efforts to avoid any military escalation with Turkey, the US forces have not fulfilled their obligations and withdrew their forces from the border areas with Turkey," the SDF said in a statement.
"Turkey is now preparing an invasion of northern and eastern Syria," the statement said.
Of course tRump had the Kurds dismantle their own defencive positions before leaving them to the Turks.
Based on our confidence in the #US efforts in the Security Mechanism agreement, we implemented all our commitments to remove military fortifications between Tal Abyad & SereKaniye, withdraw combat forces with heavy weapons, risking a security vacum as a result of the agreement.
— Coordination & Military Ops Center – SDF (@cmoc_sdf) October 7, 2019
this is so disgusting and will imo lead to massive death and pain for the Kurdish people. The scarlett scumsock with tiny baby-sized hands is a monster.
I'm sure that's just a coincidence, but there seems to lots of criminals residing in tRump properties.
The gold trader who spearheaded that money laundering scheme, Reza Zarrab, was a Trump Towers Istanbul resident and former ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Giuliani represented Zarrab in a quasi-diplomatic mission as a go-between for the White House and Erdogan.
NZ continuing the direction away from supporting and giving attention to the lives of the young and helping them as they face the future. Instead, the interest is on the middle-aged and older consolidating their wealth and adding wealth creation by any means, and their increase in longevity so they have time to spend their putea on their own enjoyment and wants.
The focus is on maintaining the living standards of the comfortably-off retired, which the poorer ones also benefit from as fringe dwellers of the 'golden aged'. For the rest it's the End of the Golden Weather'.
Brian Fallow: Wealth gap widens as economic growth leaves poorest Kiwis behind [25 January, 2019]
"Many older people have relatively high wealth (often in the form of a mortgage-free home in the main) but low income."
"The survey also gives us information about the distribution of wealth among individuals as distinct from the households they live in.
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, it found that net worth is strongly correlated with age.
The richest age group is 65- to 74-year-olds, who also enjoyed the strongest rise in net worth: at the median up $110,000 to $416,000 over the past three years."
So according to you, all middle aged and older women are consolidating their wealth, looking for a big spend up in their golden years? Perhaps you'd like to take a poll on here about wealth, or ask around, before you peddle idiotic nonsense as fact. If you're going to throw people under the bus, at least know who it is you're sacrificing first.
It should also be noted the article you've linked to makes no mention of old being treated before the young, no treatment or queue jumping based on an age divide, instead noting multiple dhb's are under stress and only accepting urgent referrals.
Yeah, don't know how age and wealth came into that, other than the health system has been underfunded and monkeywrenched by neoliberals for 30 years. Hard even to separate out whether women are being particularly disadvantaged (although it won't be a surprise if they are). We live in an age of rationing cancer treatment and epilepsy drugs, I think the inequities are grossly across the board.
I also just read how 60% of pensioners rely week to week on their super, so not sure where the idea came from they're living it up large more than the rest of us pay cheque to pay cheque warriors.
Here's Mike Hosking… as he takes several knees to the groin from the Red Princess.
"Here is the problem for your Government image-wise in that you are pro drugs, you're loose on drugs, you're soft on drugs, you want to vote on drugs," Hosking said.
"You want to drug test at festivals and you want us to legalise cannabis."
Ardern then said, "Mike, do you know how ridiculous you sound right now?
"It's not ridiculous," Hosking replied. "It's all linked."
Prohibition has been tried in NZ all.of my life, and failed all.of my life.
Having said that, there is no question that the current crop of lab produced drugs like Sin and Meth are destroying our society and the lives of so many, both directly and indirectly.
What's the answer? Will legalising soft drugs like marijuana or relegalising party pills make a difference? Probably not, probably not make things worse either. And at least it removes the present hypocrisy.
Ardern then said, "Mike, do you know how ridiculous you sound right now?
That's like asking your cat if it knows how ridiculous it looks right now when its tongue is sticking out – the subject has to have at least some capacity for self-reflection for a question like that to have any point.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/400505/fire-rages-through-100-hectares-near-lake-wanaka
This fire is not regarded as suspicious. There was another fire recently arising from a burnoff that got out of hand. The situation seems suspiciously as if it is BAU and the farmers are needing to be put under a permanent ban of burnoffs. They will then likely want to spray herbicides and that will have to be banned as well.
Perhaps aerial seeding and seed or plant balls to start off alternative growth to weeds etc. But fire is our enemy now, far more than before since colonisation when it helped to kill off the huia.
I saw that but think they will have said if it was a farmer burnoff.
When farmers do burn off, they're burning bracken to try and retain pasture. There's really no good way to keep pasture in that kind of hilly country (it's burn or spray regularly). The only sustainable way out is to work with nature and let it reforest. Seedballs would help, but nature is pretty good at restore land like that via bracken then shrubs then trees (assuming destocking and rabbit control).
Sheep farming in bracken prone areas is just badly inappropriate land use. Climate change is going to make this worse, and we need to get those areas reforesting as soon as we can to get them past the bracken, highly flammable stage. There's probably some kind of fire ecology there, but it didn't evolve in bare farmland, it should be surrounded by mature forests that act as buffers, keep things more moist, and provide seed banks.
"The Climate Change Commission will be established if and when Parliament passes the Zero Carbon Bill. The Bill sets out a desire to reduce emissions of all greenhouse gases, aside from biogenic methane, to net zero by 2050. Shaw expects the Bill to pass by Christmas and says the advice the Commission provides to government on future emissions budgets has the potential to shape and reshape industries and communities for decades to come"…….
…..Shaw says he's still considering his preferred candidates for the other six Commissioners and hopes to announce appointments to these roles in coming months."
The Government has unveiled a bumper $7.5 billion surplus and the lowest debt levels in almost a decade, the latest Crown accounts reveal.
Huh? But Simon Says that the present Government is hopeless and managing the economy. All his mates complain about it so how will the Opposition spin that headline?
nor am oI 2 @Anne, but the gNatz are doubling down aye. Pass the popcorn will ya (Love), but be quick will ya, I've got an appointment at the Caci Clinic soon, and then Jen and Burton are due for drinks
I appear to have jumped the gun OWT. It looks like it was an inside job:
Peters tweeted on Tuesday night that the leak was a "deliberate and malicious misappropriation of data by a disgruntled source."
So a disgruntled former member chooses to release personal details of individuals who have nothing to do with the spat (whatever it is) presumably as an act of revenge. Whoever it was, they can do without them.
Presumably that sauce was that frightful man that's just resigned. Just as well darling.
Tols is up from the Bay and Maggers is due in any moment from the Shore and we really really must get that horrid couple Paula and Simon through finishing school before the election and I really am trying to keep it all mum from Jen and B.
The low commentator turnout in relation to that (NZ First) privacy breach may be some indication of the lack of outrage on behalf of such funders and other supporters of the party. It did a few nice things for some people long ago, but it would be reasonable to presume that most people now see it as being close to redundant, despite the Winston Peters sole, “Kingmaker” star turn, post the 2017 election which really wasn’t considered to be a nice situation by many.
Also, if certain within NZ First had seen this breach event as likely, then so as to come out sort of smelling like pansies, they'd have sterilised or cleansed any really damaging material ahead of time, surely?
If so, and I cannot say that it is so, then there would be little doubt that both National and Labour would have also gone through their supporter database by now in order to remove anything and anyone contained on/in it which might be considered more than just a little smelly.
Yes more publicly of local elections will help boost local elections participants. I still say online voting will boost voter turnout numbers. Heaps of people have phones so long as the system is set up wisely easy to use and safely more people will vote online.
Spark getting some of the sports broadcasting rights is good I assume that they will play the matches delayed on free TV I think this will get people to learn how to use our 21 century communication device.
There you go they have to much power to manipulate the people of our country they can do things illegally they don't have to worry because its all a secret they can manipulate every person in Aotearoa.
The Austrian down hill race looks like fun I have similar experiences
I know a couple of rural areas that have had a down turn in their economy's over the last 10 years its not just the West Coast that got that going down
Those Capybara are real beautiful creatures they look like a happy heard.
Kia Ora Here it is facts wealthy big carbon companies distorting the fact on Human Caused Global Warming. They have gone to great lengths to hide their behaviour of suppressing our realities on Global Warming and the damage the Phenomenon will do to the tangata of the Papatuanuku. Hence Eco Maori is like a broke record on the subject of Global warming and our futures rights to a livable environment for all.
How vested interests tried to turn the world against climate science
For decades fossil fuel majors tried to fight the consensus – just as big tobacco once disputed that smoking kills
In 1998 a public relations consultant called Joe Walker Petroleum Institute (API), a trade association representing major fossil fuel companies, with a proposed solution to a big problem.
In December the previous year, the UN had adopted the Kyoto protocol, an international treaty that committed signatory countries to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions in order to avert catastrophic climate breakdown.
Reducing emissions represented a direct threat to the profits of fossil fuel companies and the API was working on an industry response.
“As promised, attached is the Global Climate Science Communications Plan that we developed during our workshop last Friday,” Walker wrote. The workshop had involved senior executives from fossil fuel companies, including the oil multinationals Exxon – later part of ExxonMobil – and Chevron, and the gas and coal utility Southern Company, and a handful of rightwing thinktanks
Our Wild birds are like the canary in A mine the lack of birds in country's should be taken as a sign that the environment is in sharp decline. We must look after our Papatuanuku environment and all her wildlife. We must plant billions of trees to protect our futures environment.
Two-thirds of bird species in North America are at risk of extinction because of the climate crisis, according to a new report from researchers at the Audubon Society, a leading US conservation group.
Record numbers of Australia's wildlife species face 'imminent extinction'
The continent could lose 389 of the 604 types of birds studied. The species face threats to their habitats from rising temperatures, higher seas, heavy rains and urbanization.
Those at risk include the wood thrush, a well-known songbird, and the Baltimore oriole, the mascot of Maryland’s baseball team. The recognizable common loon could disappear, as could the vibrant mountain bluebird.
“Birds are indicators of the health of our environment, so if they disappear, we’re certainly going to see a lot of changes in the landscape,” said Brooke Bateman, the senior researcher who wrote the report. “If there are things changing with birds we have to understand that the environment is changing for us as well.”
Bateman said birds are an excellent lens for viewing environmental destruction, because they are visible and respond quickly. In the 1970s, humans realized the pesticide DDT was dangerous when birds were unable to successfully breed, she noted
Everyone was warned that pool games could be cancelled because of bad weather.
Condolences to Blairs whanau for their loss.
Did you see Tawhirimate crying rents are spiking still he is still trying to make Aotearoa a utopia for his wealth m8. But no Aotearoa has changed for the better.
Awsome that the council concent process is going to be streamline for prefabricated House as I have just said rents are still spiking in 2 years rental av will be $800.00
Every living thing needs a habitatable environment to live in full stop
That's great our government investment of $7 million more help disabled people with sports
Ka pai to Lloyd logging hard mahi is good for the health and wairua.
Kormaru sestanable Maori business is good. Yes Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa Culture Mana is growing Papatuanuku wide.
Kia Kaha to Niue for treasureing their te reo and passing it on to their mokopuna I have seen some cultures that nearly lost their Te Reo. Thanks to our Tipuna our culture is Mana
Aotearoa has quite a few easy changes The low hangingffruit in our cities to lower our carbon footprint it looks like capping Nelson cities rubbish dump captureing the methane gas using it to generate energy will have a major influence on reducing the citys carbon footprint.
A United Nations-accredited climate specialist from Central Otago has been named as the person charged with bringing Nelson City Council up to speed on climate change.
Council spokesperson Paul Shattock said Cameron was a "UN-accredited expert inventory reviewer on greenhouse gas emissions", who was part of New Zealand's delegation to meetings of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in Europe and Indonesia in 2007 and 2008.
Cameron led Wellington City Council's climate change office before undertaking a PhD in climate science four years ago.
Council undertook a baseline survey of its greenhouse gas emissions last year, and expected to release a detailed action plan for reducing them next year
Eighty per cent of its emissions were identified as coming from the York Valley landfill, which services both Nelson and Tasman
It was taking an "adaptive pathways" approach to helping communities adapt to climate change, and was due to start engaging with communities to work out which action to take when certain impacts occurred Ka kite Ano link below.
Looks like it's is best to divert organic waste from our rubbish dumps and compost it. Minimise our waste recycling everything we can. This problem is one of the biggest Elephants in the Papatuanuku that no one is really highlighting. Its one of the biggest industries greenhouse gas producers in the Papatuanuku that no one is taking about.
LANDFILLS HAVE A HUGE GREENHOUSE GAS PROBLEM. HERE’S WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.
Food and yard waste make trash a prolific producer of methane — but fixes exist
October 25, 2016 — We take out our trash and feel lighter and cleaner. But at the landfill, the food and yard waste that trash contains is decomposing and releasing methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Landfill gas also contributes to smog, worsening health problems like asthma.
Globally, trash released nearly 800 million metric tons (882 million tons) of CO2 equivalent in 2010 — about 11 percent of all methane generated by humans. The United States had the highest total quantity of methane emissions from landfills in 2010: almost 130 million metric tons (143 million tons) of CO2 equivalent. China was a distant second, with 47 million (52 million), then Mexico, Russia, Turkey, Indonesia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil and India, according to the Global Methane Initiative, an international partnership of government and private groups working to reduce methane emissions.
A more direct — and likely more successful — way to reduce landfill methane would be to reduce the amount of methane-generating materials going into landfills in the first place
With some 40 percent of all food wasted in the United States, reducing food waste offers big opportunities. Last year the EPA and U.S. Department of Agriculture set a target to reduce food waste by 50 percent by 2030, with programs for public education and commercial policies. “Let’s feed people, not landfills,” said EPA administrator Gina McCarthy in announcing the initiative. “By reducing wasted food in landfills, we cut harmful methane emissions that fuel climate change, conserve our natural resources, and protect our planet for future generations.”
After reducing food waste, the next best step is turning what remains, along with yard waste, into compost rather than sending it to landfills, says Neil Seldman, cofounder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit that helps communities fight landfills and waste incinerators and institute composting, recycling and zero-waste programs.
If the ruling class oil barons had not covered up the effects of Global Warming in the 50s we could have already had a green Papatuanuku economy and slowed global warming.
I went shopping in Repco I seen some cockroches.
Aotearoa economy will be fine no matter what happens in Britain.
Abiy Ahmed congratulations on the winning of the Noble Peace Prize.
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President respectively for the US 2020 Election, may have dispensed with the erstwhile nemesis, Trump the candidate – but there are numerous critical openings through which much, much worse many out there may yet see fit to ...
I don’t know Taupō well. Even though I stop off there from time to time, I’m always on the way to somewhere else. Usually Taupō means making a hot water puddle in the gritty sand followed by a swim in the lake, noticing with bemusement and resignation the traffic, the ...
Frances Williams, King’s College LondonFor most people, infection with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – leads to mild, short-term symptoms, acute respiratory illness, or possibly no symptoms at all. But some people have long-lasting symptoms after their infection – this has been dubbed “long COVID”. Scientists are ...
Last night, a British court ruled that Julian Assange cannot be extradited to the US. Unfortunately, its not because all he is "guilty" of is journalism, or because the offence the US wants to charge him with - espionage - is of an inherently political nature; instead the judge accepted ...
Is the Gender Identity Movement a movement for human liberation, or is it a regressive movement which undermines women’s liberation and promotes sexist stereotypes? Should biological males be allowed to play in women’s sport, use women-only spaces (public toilets, changing rooms, other facilities), be able to have access to everything ...
Ian Whittaker, Nottingham Trent University and Gareth Dorrian, University of BirminghamSpace exploration achieved several notable firsts in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, including commercial human spaceflight and returning samples of an asteroid to Earth. The coming year is shaping up to be just as interesting. Here are some of ...
Michael Head, University of SouthamptonThe UK has become the first country to authorise the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for public use, with roll-out to start in the first week of 2021. This vaccine is the second to be authorised in the UK – following the Pfizer vaccine. The British government ...
So, Boris Johnson has been footering about in hospitals again. We should be grateful, perhaps, that on this occasion the Clown-in-Chief is only (probably) getting in the way and causing distractions, rather than taking up a bed, vital equipment and resources and adding more strain and danger to exhausted staff.Look at ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... SkS in the News... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Many Scientists Now Say Global Warming Could Stop Relatively Quickly After Emissions Go to ZeroThat’s one of several recent ...
The situation in the UK is looking catastrophic.Cases: over *70,000* people who were tested in England on 29th December tested positive. This is *not* because there were more tests on that day. It *is* 4 days after Christmas though, around when people who caught Covid on Christmas Day might start ...
by Don Franks For five days over New Year weekend, sixteen prisoners in the archaic pre WW1 block of Waikeria Prison defied authorities by setting fires and occupying the building’s roof. They eventually agreed to surrender after intervention from Maori party co-leader Rawiri Waititi. A message from the protesting men had stated: ...
Lost Opportunity: The powerful political metaphor of the Maori Party leading the despised and marginalised from danger to safety, is one Labour could have pre-empted by taking the uprising at Waikeria Prison much more seriously. AS WORD OF Rawiri Waititi’s successful intervention in the Waikeria Prison stand-off spreads, the Maori ...
Dear friends, it’s been a covidious year,A testing time for all of us here—Citizens of an island nationIn a state of managed isolation,A team (someone said) five million strong,Making it up as we went along:Somehow in typical Kiwi fashion,Without any wild excess ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Dec 27, 2020 through Sat, Jan 2, 2021Editor's Choice7 Graphics That Show Why the Arctic Is in Trouble Arctic Sea Ice: NSIDC It’s no secret that the Arctic is ...
One of the books I read in 2020 was She, by H. Rider Haggard (1887). I thoroughly enjoyed it, as being an exemplar of a good old-fashioned adventure story. I also noted with amusement ...
Scottish doctor Malcolm Kendrick looks at the pandemic and the responses to it 30th December 2020 I have not written much about COVID19 recently. What can be said? In my opinion the world has simply gone bonkers. The best description can be found in Dante’s Inferno, written many hundreds of ...
I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is unexpectedly missing or the numbers seem very low please check this out. After correcting send me the URL for your ...
The deed is done, the doers undoneHad I been a Brit, I would have voted ‘Remain’ rather than Brexit (or ‘Leave’). Instead, I have been bemused by the comic theatre of British politics, fascinated by what the Brits actual think and professionally interested by the revelations of the complexity of ...
But Will She Keep Smiling? Kindness is as kindness does. And the one thing kindness cannot do is force people to be kind. Understanding that was the single most important factor in the Prime Minister’s success at stamping out the Coronavirus. She took New Zealanders with her; she encouraged them ...
Completed reads for 2020: The History of the Britons, by NenniusThe Annales CambriaeThe Life of King Alfred, by AsserThe Wood Beyond the World, by William MorrisThe Life of Merlin, by Geoffrey of MonmouthThe History of the Kings of Britain, by Geoffrey of MonmouthThe Life of Gildas, by Caradoc ...
As per my blog tradition, here is where my blog viewers came from in 2020: United StatesUnited KingdomCanadaAustraliaNew ZealandBrazilGermanySpainSwedenThe Netherlands The top four remain as per 2019. After four years at #6, New Zealand gains a spot. Brazil is up four, and The Netherlands jumps from #16 to #10. ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. “The past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Year’s Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. “We are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Year’s Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Government’s investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. “COVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
New virus variants and ongoing high rates of diseases in some countries prompt additional border protections Extra (day zero or day one) test to be in place this week New ways of reducing risk before people embark on travel being investigated, including pre-departure testing for people leaving the United Kingdom ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago – some 124 days – since Mā’ohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planet’s lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governor’s apology and claim he will ‘own the issue’ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union said: “It’s been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools – from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing – have transformed the way we work. In many respects they’ve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. “We ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on England’s Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called “founding fathers” of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country – this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand’s Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, it’s not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authority’s Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If you’ve ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
“We may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Jackson, Program Director, Centre for Policy Development, and Associate Professor of Education, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Childcare centres across Australia are suffering staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Many childcare workers across Australia left when parents started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as “death ...
*This article was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission* Whoever leads the Republican Party post-Trump will need to consider how they will maintain the rabid support of his “base”, while working to regain more moderate voters who defected from the party in the 2020 election. In a historic ...
Covid-19 fears accelerated banks’ moves towards cashless transactions. But the Reserve Bank is fighting to protect cash, and those who still use it. ...
Good morning and welcome to this one-off edition of The Bulletin, covering major stories from the last few weeks.A quick preamble to this: Today’s special edition of The Bulletin is all about filling you in on some of the stories you might have missed over the summer period. Perhaps you had ...
Summer reissue: In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate.First published August 27, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
The contrast between the words of John F Kennedy and today’s anti-democratic demagogue is inescapable, writes Dolores Janiewski I still remember three eloquent speeches by an American president. One happened in January 1961 and spoke about a “torch being passed to a new generation”. Two years later and one day apart, ...
The debate over cutting down a large macrocarpa to make way for a new residential development has highlighted a wider agreement between developers and protesters: that we also need to be planting far more trees. At the corner of Great North Road and Ash Street in Avondale, a 150-year-old macrocarpa stands its ground ...
More infectious variants of Covid-19 are increasingly being intercepted at the country’s borders, but the minister running New Zealand’s response is resisting pressure to accelerate vaccination plans despite demands from health experts as well as political friends and foes, Justin Giovannetti reports.New Zealand’s first Covid-19 jabs will be administered in ...
As CEO of her iwi rūnanga, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was on the frontline protecting her community during the first outbreak of Covid-19. Now that more virulent strains threaten to breach our borders, the Māori Party co-leader calls on the government to introduce much stricter measures.As we enter the New Year I ...
The Prada Cup challenger series starts today. Suzanne McFadden goes behind the scenes of the world's only live yachting regatta to see what's in store for the next five weeks. At 6am on race days, Iain Murray wakes up and immediately checks the weather outside his Auckland window. “It’s all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Raquel Peel, Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland This story contains spoilers for Bridgerton The first season of Bridgerton, Netflix’s new hit show based on Julia Quinn’s novels, premiered on December 25 last year. The show is set in London, during the ...
The New Zealand government believes its own negotiations with Rio Tinto will be resolved "fairly quickly" now there is certainty about the future of the Tiwai Point smelter. ...
Amanda Thompson and her family are attempting to cut back on the meat, so they gave all the vego sausies the local supermarket had to offer a hoon on the barbie. Here are the results.I was a vegetarian once. Even the best of us take a well-meaning wrong turn on ...
The Taxpayers’ Union welcomes the call by Wellington City Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons for a shift to land value based rates charges. Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, "Local government leaders across the country should join in Fitzsimons’s call ...
It’s been described as ‘pointless revenge’, but impeaching the president has a firm moral purpose, argues Michael Blake – setting a limit to what sorts of action a society will accept.A House majority, including 10 Republicans, voted today to impeach President Trump for “incitement of insurrection”. The vote will initiate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bryan Cranston, Lead Academic Teacher – Politics & Social Science (Swinburne Online), Swinburne University of Technology In a historic vote today, Donald Trump became the only US president to be impeached twice. By a margin of 232–197, the Democrat-controlled US House of ...
Hurrah. The PM is back to posting her announcements on the government’s official website, her deputy is back in the business of self-congratulation, Rio Tinto is back in the business of sucking up cheap electricity to produce aluminium at Tiwai Point, near Bluff. And overseas students (some, anyway) can come ...
The electricity sector, Government and people of Southland are rejoicing after Tiwai Point aluminium smelter owner Rio Tinto announced the major industrial would be open until the end of 2024, Marc Daalder reports Stakeholders in the electricity sector and across Southland are celebrating the extension of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter's ...
If you’ve been on social media this week, you may well have come across a surge in interest in sea shanties. We asked a veteran of the style why. In case you missed it, soon may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and rum. If that sentence is even ...
“It is basic human decency to speak up and protect any vulnerable child from harm, so withholding information in child abuse cases and allowing the abuse to happen by not speaking up is, put simply, a cowardly move,” says Jess McVicar Co-Leader ...
Allowing 1,000 returning international students back to New Zealand is the right move by the Government, and hopefully we will be able to welcome more, says ExportNZ Executive Director Catherine Beard. "International education has contributed ...
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For the sake of the NZ economy, hence the wellbeing of Kiwis, one can only hope OMV are successful in their drilling off the South Island
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
The economy is only temporarily enhanced by oil extraction (ie, in terms of the length of time we'd like Homo Sapiens to be endemic to Aotearoa, the decades of benefit from oil extraction are a brief sugar rush) and "wellbeing of Kiwis" isn't enhanced by causing rapid change in the global climate, which is what burning fossil fuels does.
I hope they do not find a lot of oil because if the do the Americans will want to
bring us democracy.
"It is time to reimagine how we can make a difference. It makes sense economically and strategically, and is expected by all our stakeholders. But most importantly, it is simply the right thing to do."
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/09/beyond-business-as-usual-addressing-the-climate-change-crisis/
Velcro doesnt seem to know that Paula Bennett and Simon Bridges – as Climate change ministers went to Paris and signed NZ up to the agreements to reduce greenhouse gases below 2005 levels by 30% by 2030.
Its a financial penalty year by year, when they arent met so it costs , mostly the taxpayer, nearly $1 bill per year every year the numbers are above ,as they still are, the treaty targets.
Its in your interest velcro for OMV not to find anything
Exactly
There would be something in the argument if NZ retained a substantial proportion of the value of any discovery, but sadly, under the feckless governance of the Key Kleptocracy the NZ share of any discovered petroleum fell to somewhere around 5%.
Sourcing our oil from the middle east causes us ongoing trade deficits and exposes us to price shocks arising from political instability. No meaningful steps have been taken to mitigate this – we are still substantially a full-on petroeconomy.
The Prime Minister says she would never stop people from having their say, expressing their opinions and using their voices, but then came the admonishment. Blocking people from going about their daily business "doesn't necessarily take us any closer to the climate action they're calling for".
Really- does our PM not know our history – 1981 was going beyond her limits. Remember the current govt is progressing an ambitious target of carbon neutral in 2050. Sounds like a Key comment not to hold the govt to account for being ambitions 🤮🤑
And…
"There are 15,473 vehicles in the government fleet and only 78 are electric. When the coalition Government came into power in late 2017, the agreement between Labour and New Zealand First stipulated that the entire fleet would be emissions-free by mid-2025, "where practicable".
Although it was repeated as recently as June, that goal has been quietly revised to a commitment that, after mid-2025, all new vehicles entering the fleet will be emissions-free."
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/10/08/847665/government-quietly-abandons-electric-vehicle-target
2025 is about 6 years away Pat so a bit hard to condemn the result in 2019.
The condemnation is for the winding back (again)…and 6 years is further delay in meaningful action from a timeframe that is already non existent
What hasnt happened is a range of affordable electric vehicles to buy.
They are mostly high end vehicles
and that wasnt known in June when the policy was reaffirmed?
Why the surprise? Can you really picture a situation in which the head of the New Zealand government endorses disrupting the functioning of the government?
Then why enter into the debate then ?
It is not as if our PM wasn’t going to be asked questions, and that all those support people could not prepare a better response.
So from inference our PM was against the land matches, bastion pt. And any others that involved say the harbour bridge or queen st being closed? Eg strike marches
Herodotus,
So right you are,”’ Jacinda is looking more like a paper tiger today doesn’t she just.
A far cry from the Auckland town hall speech when she was giving her electric speech “climate change is our generations nuclear moment”
Fool me as I believed her sincerity then.
She has been hollowed out by big business now and their legions of corporate lobbyists it seems sadly.
P.Milt interesting that we will all claim the advancement that protest action has achieved ; civil rights, vote for woman, 1981 tour yet many including our PM condemn how this was achieved. If it all was nice lovey dovey should serious change occur ?
IMO once power has been achieved don’t rock the boat as you now reap the rewards of being institutionalised.
If the "better" response you're looking for is the head of the NZ government endorsing disruption of government functions, disappointment is guaranteed. The reason why should be obvious.
There is no climate 'crisis' – except in the minds of warmist bedwetters. The relationship between atmospheric CO2 concentration and atmospheric temperature is logarithmic. The more CO2 there is, the less effective it becomes as a warming agent because the ability of any one CO2 molecule to absorb IR radiation at 14.5 micron wavelength is being shielded by the increasing number of other CO2 molecules.
[I warned you the other day about not running climate denial under posts I put up. You’ve had multiple comments shifted to Open Mike with the off-topic warning, which you seem to be ignoring. You’re now in the banned list for a while until I see you have read this note and responded to it. It won’t show on the front end but I will still see it and make a decision about releasing the ban. I want to see two things. One is that you agree to not run climate denial lines under my posts or posts I put up (err on the side of caution if you can’t tell who put it up). Two, that you will stop treating the site like a spam exercise and pay attention to what happens to your comments – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Wow, what amazes me is that the the UN don't employ you as there sole climate scientist.
mod note for you above.
Remember today is the last day to post your vote in the local government elections. So far turnout in Auckland is low. I am hoping that the one stop enrol and vote stall will help increase turnout. Campaigning in South Auckland I am very aware that high transience means many people do not feel connected to their communities. They also dont receive voting papers in the mail box. The papers in the box are those of previous residents.
I see they are pushing online voting again as we face a democratic crisis in local body elections. Online voting might make voting easier, but IMHO it won't increase voter turnout for local elections by more than a fraction and online voting is a terrible, terrible idea. People need to take their democratic duties more seriously – and be encouraged to do so. So:
Make voting day for local bodies and the general election a compulsory paid public holiday – make it a Wednesday so people can't just skive off for a long weekend – but you only get paid for the day off if you present an official chit or certificate or even an indelible ink hand stamp to your employer saying you voted. Make sure that voting stations has candidate material outlining their policies, and encourage people to study it before they vote with free tea, coffee and biscuits. So if you earn $25 an hour, you are up to lose $200 if you don't bother voting and just sit on your arse at home instead.
On election days fund communities to organise "celebrate democracy" street parties and make election coverage compulsory for free to air media outlets.
IMHO unless they put voting onto a phone with biological i.d., most people under 30 will never vote at all.
So instead of actually voting in a live election – with plenty of rankings about their views on climate change – we get people not voting and instead just sitting on the streets. The Prime Minister is right, but not helpful either.
All of those people sitting o the streets and in the banks have phones, and its the only way they organise their lives now. Not voting by phone is simple disenfranshisement.
+100. All excellent ideas.
Sanctuary,
Electronic voting is very insecure you must read about the pitfalls there. The “scouce code” is a doggy system that hides the voting electronic returns that are falsified
VVTIP is safe though.
https://www.heritage.org/report/the-dangers-internet-voting
Electronic voting machines are a replacement for paper ballots. They have nothing whatsoever to do with online voting.
And the heritage foundation as a source on anything electoral? Do fuck off.
New York, N.Y. – The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity relies on a database produced by the Heritage Foundation to justify baseless claims — by President Trump and some of the panel’s members — of rampant voter fraud. But according to an analysis of the database by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, the numbers in the database reveal exactly the opposite.
Claims that the database contains almost 1,100 proven instances of voter fraud are grossly exaggerated and devoid of context, according to Heritage Fraud Database: An Assessment. It confirms what numerous studies have consistently shown: Voter fraud is vanishingly rare, and impersonating a voter at the polls is less common a phenomenon than being struck by lightning
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/analysis-heritage-foundations-database-undermines-claims-recent-voter
The scouce code only works in Liverpool cleenee.
And I would add one more proviso:
I don't know how it could be done satisfactorily, but there needs to be a limit on the number of candidates for each local body position. I am sure many people have been turned off by the huge number of candidates on offer this time around. All it does is add another layer of confusion to an already confusing system.
I know of people who are not going to vote for this particular reason. Keep it simple and people will respond.
It used to be the 'deposits' candidates had to lodge when nominated. You had to get a good proportion of the winning candidates votes to get your money back. Its still applies but has inflation made it meaningless
I'd say it has. I think the mayoralty race has got a big parade of eccentrics and comedians that mock the democratic process and trivialize it. Its attention seeking behaviour. Mind you with a large deposit rich clowns could still participate and poor people whether clowns or or not would be excluded. I wouldn't want the deposit raised.
Half those running for Mayor are only doing it so they get publicity to get a Council position. The real problem with voting is not knowing how to distinguish one candidate from another.
Thanks for the reminder. I admit that I feel very apathetic. However due to your post I'm going to go vote…looking for those from a particular party as I have no idea about most candidates.
If you live in Auckland A "City Vision" are generally centre-left candidates as opposed to C&R (used to be called Citizens and Ratepayers) who are the National Party in drag.
If anyone lives on the Shore please consider "Heart of the Shore" candidates for their local board.
The historical revisionism around the Cook 250th anniversary is simply outrageous. In particular, I heard on NatRad a highly coloured view of Cook's contact with Poverty Bay Maori presenterd as an unprovoked assault with locals murdered in cold blood (complete with emotional guess work about Maori tearing off their clothes in panic and leaping into the ocean in a frantic attempt to escape the white man's unprovoked and genocidal actions).
As far as I know, only one primary source exists of this encounter – that being Cook's journals. What does the primary source actually say of this encounter?
http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/17691010.html – I have edited the account to make it easier to read for a modern reader and correct spelling mistakes, etc.
"…Monday [Tuesday] 10th PM I rowed round the head of the Bay but could find no place to land, on account of the great surf which beat every where upon the shore; seeing two boats or Canoes coming in from Sea, I rowed to one of them in order to seize upon the people, and came so near before they took notice of us that Tobiaupia called to them to come along side and we would not hurt them, but instead of doing that this they endeavoured to get away, upon which I order'd a Musket to be fired over their heads thinking this would either make them surrender or jump over board. But here I was mistaken for they immediately took to their arms and/or and whatever they had in the boat and began to attack us, this obliged us to fire upon them. and unfortunately either two or three was were kill'd, and one wounded, and three jumped over board, these last we took up and brought on board, where they were clothed and treated with all imaginable kindness and to the surprise of every body became at once as cheerful and as merry as if they had been with their own friends; they were all three young, the eldest not above 20 years of age and the youngest about 10 or 12.
I am aware that most humane men who have not experienced things of this nature will censure my conduct in firing upon the people in this boat. Nor do I myself think that the reason I had for seizing upon her will at all justify me . And had I thought that they would have made the least resistance I would not have come near them. But as they did I was not to stand still and suffer either my self or those that were with me to be knocked on the head…"
Note the journal entry I have put in italics – never mentioned by Maori radicals keen on painting Cook in the worse possible light- hardly paint Cook as a cold blooded killer. He clearly bitterly regretted killing anyone.
Cook was by the standards of his time an enlightened and civilised man. He was one of the greatest navigators and explorers who ever lived. Smearing him as part of some sort of a historical revisionist project is regrettable, to say the least.
History is written by the victors?
More to the point, only one account exists. The unchallenged slant put on the account by someone who clearly had an agenda was bad reporting of bad history.
The guy should have challenged on his account. If he claimed it to be from oral tradition, then the reporter has a duty to point out this oral tradition is at significant odds with the contemporary written account of one of the participants in the encounter, and leave it to the listener to judge what weight to give either point of view.
We owe it to ourselves as a people to make sure the historical record is correct.
Reality is, Sanctuary, that any historical record in cases such as this will be unlikely to be correct or accurate. Open-ended discussions without full resolution is the best you can hope for.
Written contemporary documents – while valuable – are not infallible. The interpretation or bias of the writer can make them unreliable, or at least raise areas of contention. It is human nature to view one's actions in the best possible light, especially in an official record such as a logbook, perhaps Cook recorded his journals in such a way.
<i>" We owe it to ourselves as a people to make sure the historical record is correct. "</i>
As 'a' people?
As people, we should be able to acknowledge that there is no hard and fast full and final truth to be pinned down. Everyone who was present at historical events had their own perspective as it took place. Some did not live to pass theirs on, others did so using oral traditions, Cook wrote his down. It does not mean that the written record should take precedence in terms of accuracy. Although this seems to be the standard in history, it is not necessarily the whole truth.
"…. It does not mean that the written record should take precedence in terms of accuracy. Although this seems to be the standard in history…"
Pesky thing, literacy.
Sanctuary. I love reading written historical records, especially when they are written by persons unknown.
I also understand the failings of using written records – solely – as a measure of accuracy.
Do you really not see that there is a problem with keeping to this sole standard, in a vain attempt to determine accuracy?
(NB. Slick use of ellipticals in quoting me to remove context. A good example of written records removing truths – was that your intention?)
ellipticals…. ellipsis.Even the number killed varies between 3 and 9 according to who is reporting.
"…according to who is reporting…."
Are you aware of other contemporary reports?
I meant current radio comment.
I wonder if the current anti-Cook is just a strategy for gaining publicity for the cause. 250 years ago?
There were two parties to the slaughter mate – wise up thicko
While I am pleased that you've demonstrated a previously unsuspected ability to count, I don't believe I questioned the mathematics of the encounter.
no – what did you question again?
hmmm oh dear what a fail by you lol
At the local commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the NZ wars, we had a history walk through a couple of our local sites of interest.
An event reported as settlers being holed up in the local church, was actually not in response to local iwi hostilities but as a response to local militia grandstanding. In the end, a local battle began against military orders because imported mercenaries were looking for a fight. It was easy to find documentation of all soldiers killed at the battle, because contemporary papers listed them by name, and those records were often repeated throughout the years. The soldiers were also laid out – by the opposing Māori fighters after the battle, so that they could be retrieved and buried, while they carried their own away for burial.
Even contemporary reports did not record the number of Māori killed. A combination of not knowing, and their relevance to readers makes that understandable. The local iwi actually became no more when their land was confiscated, and members left and joined other tribes, and the hapu exists no more. This along with oral histories, and lack of familial connections which repeats oral histories, means iwi recollections are hard, and in many cases, impossible to collate.
Which makes the discussion around the lack of fixed numbers in situations such as this a purely academic exercise, but we just need to admit that the full truth may never be known.
An alternative view…
[no climate denial under my posts – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
mod note for you above.
Amazing ,simply amazing.
Wow this guy is the lowest of the low.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12167698
Odds are the SDF, who actually did most of the fighting and dying in the defeat of ISIS, will be so busy fighting Erdogan's neo-ottoman armies they'll just turn loose the 10,000 or so ISIS fighters they're holding prisoner
McGurk was tRump’s envoy to the region.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1181085818493927425.html
What a surprise – guess who owns property where and (presumably) wants to keep in good with the local capo di capi?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-kurds-turkey-istanbul_n_5d9b82ffe4b03b475f9de498
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/10/reminder-trump-has-a-massive-conflict-of-interest-in-turkey/
Meanwhile, there's a few feeble mouse squeaks of minor disapproval, but no doubt a personalised tweet from Darth Hater will send them scurrying back into cowering subservience.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mitch-mcconnell-trump-syria-turkey-kurds_n_5d9b7e38e4b0fc935edeabc2
From 2012 but yeah, feathering the family nest.
tRump up and abandons the Kurds and the tanks roll in.
Crickets from cowards of both stripes.
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Monday that US forces were beginning to withdraw from positions in northeastern Syria on the border with Turkey, after Ankara announced it was planning a military offensive there.
"Despite our efforts to avoid any military escalation with Turkey, the US forces have not fulfilled their obligations and withdrew their forces from the border areas with Turkey," the SDF said in a statement.
"Turkey is now preparing an invasion of northern and eastern Syria," the statement said.
https://www.dw.com/en/us-begins-troop-withdrawal-from-northeastern-syria-ahead-of-turkish-offensive/a-50719681
edit:
Of course tRump had the Kurds dismantle their own defencive positions before leaving them to the Turks.
this is so disgusting and will imo lead to massive death and pain for the Kurdish people. The scarlett scumsock with tiny baby-sized hands is a monster.
I'm sure that's just a coincidence, but there seems to lots of criminals residing in tRump properties.
Oh I dunno. Like attracts like. 😎
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/400491/women-denied-treatment-for-gynaecological-conditions
NZ continuing the direction away from supporting and giving attention to the lives of the young and helping them as they face the future. Instead, the interest is on the middle-aged and older consolidating their wealth and adding wealth creation by any means, and their increase in longevity so they have time to spend their putea on their own enjoyment and wants.
The focus is on maintaining the living standards of the comfortably-off retired, which the poorer ones also benefit from as fringe dwellers of the 'golden aged'. For the rest it's the End of the Golden Weather'.
+100. As waters rise, the 'golden aged' (nice phrase) are buying all the best ‘boats’.
Can’t say I blame them.
So according to you, all middle aged and older women are consolidating their wealth, looking for a big spend up in their golden years? Perhaps you'd like to take a poll on here about wealth, or ask around, before you peddle idiotic nonsense as fact. If you're going to throw people under the bus, at least know who it is you're sacrificing first.
It should also be noted the article you've linked to makes no mention of old being treated before the young, no treatment or queue jumping based on an age divide, instead noting multiple dhb's are under stress and only accepting urgent referrals.
Yeah, don't know how age and wealth came into that, other than the health system has been underfunded and monkeywrenched by neoliberals for 30 years. Hard even to separate out whether women are being particularly disadvantaged (although it won't be a surprise if they are). We live in an age of rationing cancer treatment and epilepsy drugs, I think the inequities are grossly across the board.
I also just read how 60% of pensioners rely week to week on their super, so not sure where the idea came from they're living it up large more than the rest of us pay cheque to pay cheque warriors.
yep. It's a myth from the whole boomer vs millennial hate fest.
The housing crisis must be hitting pensioners with rent or mortgages hard.
Any seniors who depend on investment returns for income will be suffering with low interest rates. Of course people with mortgages love those.
Any lower income/asset seniors. The higher ones won't be suffering 😉
Here's Mike Hosking… as he takes several knees to the groin from the Red Princess.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12274484
Prohibition has been tried in NZ all.of my life, and failed all.of my life.
Having said that, there is no question that the current crop of lab produced drugs like Sin and Meth are destroying our society and the lives of so many, both directly and indirectly.
What's the answer? Will legalising soft drugs like marijuana or relegalising party pills make a difference? Probably not, probably not make things worse either. And at least it removes the present hypocrisy.
Ardern made a big mistake, she added right now
I was disappointed in Hosking. I expected him to have said somewhere in his thing with the PM this morning, "I in my great and unmatched wisdom …"
Isn't that the current signature of f'wits?
Ardern then said, "Mike, do you know how ridiculous you sound right now?
That's like asking your cat if it knows how ridiculous it looks right now when its tongue is sticking out – the subject has to have at least some capacity for self-reflection for a question like that to have any point.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/400505/fire-rages-through-100-hectares-near-lake-wanaka
This fire is not regarded as suspicious. There was another fire recently arising from a burnoff that got out of hand. The situation seems suspiciously as if it is BAU and the farmers are needing to be put under a permanent ban of burnoffs. They will then likely want to spray herbicides and that will have to be banned as well.
Perhaps aerial seeding and seed or plant balls to start off alternative growth to weeds etc. But fire is our enemy now, far more than before since colonisation when it helped to kill off the huia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seed_ball
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/11/drones-plant-trees-deforestation-environment/
Necessity is the mother of invention, to those who are open to practical sustainable ideas.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z28screy0Mg
Could this be good? Is anyone looking and picking up the findings?
https://projects.sare.org/sare_project/fnc13-916/
https://forestsnews.cifor.org/41242/switching-swidden-to-agroforestry-a-small-intervention-with-big-potential-in-west-java?fnl=en
Indonesia – Farming trees and crops together could be a win-win solution for rural farmers in West Java, a study has found – increasing incomes, enhancing land tenure security and reducing deforestation and forest degradation.
Subterranean clover in NZ stands dry conditions.
https://beeflambnz.com/news-views/sub-clover-valuable-tool-dryland-farm-systems
I saw that but think they will have said if it was a farmer burnoff.
When farmers do burn off, they're burning bracken to try and retain pasture. There's really no good way to keep pasture in that kind of hilly country (it's burn or spray regularly). The only sustainable way out is to work with nature and let it reforest. Seedballs would help, but nature is pretty good at restore land like that via bracken then shrubs then trees (assuming destocking and rabbit control).
Sheep farming in bracken prone areas is just badly inappropriate land use. Climate change is going to make this worse, and we need to get those areas reforesting as soon as we can to get them past the bracken, highly flammable stage. There's probably some kind of fire ecology there, but it didn't evolve in bare farmland, it should be surrounded by mature forests that act as buffers, keep things more moist, and provide seed banks.
"The Climate Change Commission will be established if and when Parliament passes the Zero Carbon Bill. The Bill sets out a desire to reduce emissions of all greenhouse gases, aside from biogenic methane, to net zero by 2050. Shaw expects the Bill to pass by Christmas and says the advice the Commission provides to government on future emissions budgets has the potential to shape and reshape industries and communities for decades to come"…….
…..Shaw says he's still considering his preferred candidates for the other six Commissioners and hopes to announce appointments to these roles in coming months."
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/102030/climate-change-minister-james-shaw-names-rod-carr-chairman-climate-change-commission
The Chairman choice shows signs of being a good one but if hes as good as his word I hope frustration isnt a condition he suffers from
Huh? But Simon Says that the present Government is hopeless and managing the economy. All his mates complain about it so how will the Opposition spin that headline?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12274510
I'm not a NZ First voter but Dirty Politic is in full force!
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/116409225/major-leak-of-nz-first-membership-database-exposes-personal-details
Interesting that the only major party who doesn't get hit by these capers is National.
nor am oI 2 @Anne, but the gNatz are doubling down aye. Pass the popcorn will ya (Love), but be quick will ya, I've got an appointment at the Caci Clinic soon, and then Jen and Burton are due for drinks
I appear to have jumped the gun OWT. It looks like it was an inside job:
So a disgruntled former member chooses to release personal details of individuals who have nothing to do with the spat (whatever it is) presumably as an act of revenge. Whoever it was, they can do without them.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/116409225/major-leak-of-nz-first-membership-database-exposes-personal-details
Presumably that sauce was that frightful man that's just resigned. Just as well darling.
Tols is up from the Bay and Maggers is due in any moment from the Shore and we really really must get that horrid couple Paula and Simon through finishing school before the election and I really am trying to keep it all mum from Jen and B.
I've been all a fluster I can tell you!
The low commentator turnout in relation to that (NZ First) privacy breach may be some indication of the lack of outrage on behalf of such funders and other supporters of the party. It did a few nice things for some people long ago, but it would be reasonable to presume that most people now see it as being close to redundant, despite the Winston Peters sole, “Kingmaker” star turn, post the 2017 election which really wasn’t considered to be a nice situation by many.
Also, if certain within NZ First had seen this breach event as likely, then so as to come out sort of smelling like pansies, they'd have sterilised or cleansed any really damaging material ahead of time, surely?
If so, and I cannot say that it is so, then there would be little doubt that both National and Labour would have also gone through their supporter database by now in order to remove anything and anyone contained on/in it which might be considered more than just a little smelly.
Kia Ora Breakfast.
Yes more publicly of local elections will help boost local elections participants. I still say online voting will boost voter turnout numbers. Heaps of people have phones so long as the system is set up wisely easy to use and safely more people will vote online.
Spark getting some of the sports broadcasting rights is good I assume that they will play the matches delayed on free TV I think this will get people to learn how to use our 21 century communication device.
There you go they have to much power to manipulate the people of our country they can do things illegally they don't have to worry because its all a secret they can manipulate every person in Aotearoa.
The Austrian down hill race looks like fun I have similar experiences
I know a couple of rural areas that have had a down turn in their economy's over the last 10 years its not just the West Coast that got that going down
Those Capybara are real beautiful creatures they look like a happy heard.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Here it is facts wealthy big carbon companies distorting the fact on Human Caused Global Warming. They have gone to great lengths to hide their behaviour of suppressing our realities on Global Warming and the damage the Phenomenon will do to the tangata of the Papatuanuku. Hence Eco Maori is like a broke record on the subject of Global warming and our futures rights to a livable environment for all.
How vested interests tried to turn the world against climate science
For decades fossil fuel majors tried to fight the consensus – just as big tobacco once disputed that smoking kills
Felicity Lawrence, David Pegg and Rob Evans
In 1998 a public relations consultant called Joe Walker Petroleum Institute (API), a trade association representing major fossil fuel companies, with a proposed solution to a big problem.
In December the previous year, the UN had adopted the Kyoto protocol, an international treaty that committed signatory countries to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions in order to avert catastrophic climate breakdown.
Reducing emissions represented a direct threat to the profits of fossil fuel companies and the API was working on an industry response.
“As promised, attached is the Global Climate Science Communications Plan that we developed during our workshop last Friday,” Walker wrote. The workshop had involved senior executives from fossil fuel companies, including the oil multinationals Exxon – later part of ExxonMobil – and Chevron, and the gas and coal utility Southern Company, and a handful of rightwing thinktanks
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/10/vested-interests-public-against-climate-science-fossil-fuel-lobby
Our Wild birds are like the canary in A mine the lack of birds in country's should be taken as a sign that the environment is in sharp decline. We must look after our Papatuanuku environment and all her wildlife. We must plant billions of trees to protect our futures environment.
Two-thirds of bird species in North America are at risk of extinction because of the climate crisis, according to a new report from researchers at the Audubon Society, a leading US conservation group.
Record numbers of Australia's wildlife species face 'imminent extinction'
The continent could lose 389 of the 604 types of birds studied. The species face threats to their habitats from rising temperatures, higher seas, heavy rains and urbanization.
Those at risk include the wood thrush, a well-known songbird, and the Baltimore oriole, the mascot of Maryland’s baseball team. The recognizable common loon could disappear, as could the vibrant mountain bluebird.
“Birds are indicators of the health of our environment, so if they disappear, we’re certainly going to see a lot of changes in the landscape,” said Brooke Bateman, the senior researcher who wrote the report. “If there are things changing with birds we have to understand that the environment is changing for us as well.”
Bateman said birds are an excellent lens for viewing environmental destruction, because they are visible and respond quickly. In the 1970s, humans realized the pesticide DDT was dangerous when birds were unable to successfully breed, she noted
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/10/bird-species-extinction-north-america-climate-crisis
Kia Ora 1 News.
Everyone was warned that pool games could be cancelled because of bad weather.
Condolences to Blairs whanau for their loss.
Did you see Tawhirimate crying rents are spiking still he is still trying to make Aotearoa a utopia for his wealth m8. But no Aotearoa has changed for the better.
Awsome that the council concent process is going to be streamline for prefabricated House as I have just said rents are still spiking in 2 years rental av will be $800.00
Every living thing needs a habitatable environment to live in full stop
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
That's great our government investment of $7 million more help disabled people with sports
Ka pai to Lloyd logging hard mahi is good for the health and wairua.
Kormaru sestanable Maori business is good. Yes Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa Culture Mana is growing Papatuanuku wide.
Kia Kaha to Niue for treasureing their te reo and passing it on to their mokopuna I have seen some cultures that nearly lost their Te Reo. Thanks to our Tipuna our culture is Mana
Ka kite Ano
Aotearoa has quite a few easy changes The low hangingffruit in our cities to lower our carbon footprint it looks like capping Nelson cities rubbish dump captureing the methane gas using it to generate energy will have a major influence on reducing the citys carbon footprint.
A United Nations-accredited climate specialist from Central Otago has been named as the person charged with bringing Nelson City Council up to speed on climate change.
Chris Cameron will take up the role of "climate change champion", a position established four months ago after the council declared a climate emergency.
Council spokesperson Paul Shattock said Cameron was a "UN-accredited expert inventory reviewer on greenhouse gas emissions", who was part of New Zealand's delegation to meetings of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in Europe and Indonesia in 2007 and 2008.
Cameron led Wellington City Council's climate change office before undertaking a PhD in climate science four years ago.
Council undertook a baseline survey of its greenhouse gas emissions last year, and expected to release a detailed action plan for reducing them next year
Eighty per cent of its emissions were identified as coming from the York Valley landfill, which services both Nelson and Tasman
It was taking an "adaptive pathways" approach to helping communities adapt to climate change, and was due to start engaging with communities to work out which action to take when certain impacts occurred Ka kite Ano link below.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/116426907/nelson-names-champion-to-get-council-up-to-speed-on-climate-action
Looks like it's is best to divert organic waste from our rubbish dumps and compost it. Minimise our waste recycling everything we can. This problem is one of the biggest Elephants in the Papatuanuku that no one is really highlighting. Its one of the biggest industries greenhouse gas producers in the Papatuanuku that no one is taking about.
LANDFILLS HAVE A HUGE GREENHOUSE GAS PROBLEM. HERE’S WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT.
Food and yard waste make trash a prolific producer of methane — but fixes exist
October 25, 2016 — We take out our trash and feel lighter and cleaner. But at the landfill, the food and yard waste that trash contains is decomposing and releasing methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Landfill gas also contributes to smog, worsening health problems like asthma.
Globally, trash released nearly 800 million metric tons (882 million tons) of CO2 equivalent in 2010 — about 11 percent of all methane generated by humans. The United States had the highest total quantity of methane emissions from landfills in 2010: almost 130 million metric tons (143 million tons) of CO2 equivalent. China was a distant second, with 47 million (52 million), then Mexico, Russia, Turkey, Indonesia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil and India, according to the Global Methane Initiative, an international partnership of government and private groups working to reduce methane emissions.
A more direct — and likely more successful — way to reduce landfill methane would be to reduce the amount of methane-generating materials going into landfills in the first place
With some 40 percent of all food wasted in the United States, reducing food waste offers big opportunities. Last year the EPA and U.S. Department of Agriculture set a target to reduce food waste by 50 percent by 2030, with programs for public education and commercial policies. “Let’s feed people, not landfills,” said EPA administrator Gina McCarthy in announcing the initiative. “By reducing wasted food in landfills, we cut harmful methane emissions that fuel climate change, conserve our natural resources, and protect our planet for future generations.”
Composting can help reduce the landfill methane problem by keeping some organic material out of the trash. Photo © iStockphoto.com/cjp
After reducing food waste, the next best step is turning what remains, along with yard waste, into compost rather than sending it to landfills, says Neil Seldman, cofounder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit that helps communities fight landfills and waste incinerators and institute composting, recycling and zero-waste programs.
Ka kite Ano link below.
https://ensia.com/features/methane-landfills/
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute.
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute.
Kia Ora TV 1 News
If the ruling class oil barons had not covered up the effects of Global Warming in the 50s we could have already had a green Papatuanuku economy and slowed global warming.
I went shopping in Repco I seen some cockroches.
Aotearoa economy will be fine no matter what happens in Britain.
Abiy Ahmed congratulations on the winning of the Noble Peace Prize.
Billy is a funny bugger kia kaha.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Kia Pai to Robert Bongillies being honoured for your mahi when you were young fella your mahi made Tangata Whenua O Aotearoa famous.
That's how Te Maori of old are respectful humble and taonga Maori.
Ma Te Wa Hone Tamahiri green is the way to go.
Tennis is a great game for Maori tamariki to join one can see other minority cultures climbing up to the top rungs in that sport.
Ka kite Ano