Last week we were swimming in the sea, it was so hot here. This morning it’s freezing, fresh dusting of snow on the mountains and hills, which will melt fast once the sun hits it, but it is unusual weather for this time of year. Hot/Cold weather = earthquakes.
Climate change is very really and our whole human existence depends on it, it’s nuts how little coverage media gives it, seeing they talk about the weather every hour on the wireless.
Thanks for the links Paul, will check them out.
I am typing this to you from a location deep in the sub-Arctic. Temperatures are in the -10 to -15 degC range. Instead of -25 to 35 degC range they should be right now.
In other words about 10 to 15 degC warmer than they should be. The local Innuit people I work with all say the same thing; the change over recent seasons is perfectly obvious to them.
Weren’t we told the point of no return into irreversible global immolation was several years ago? Why then do people persist in what must be a futile attempt to reverse something that can’t be changed for the better?
And what is your view about what is going on in the Arctic?
Have you read Peter Wadham’s ‘A Farewell to Ice? Scientist with over 30 years experience in the Arctic.
James Renwick is discussing Arctic ice on Kathryn Ryan this morning btw.
Shhhhh don’t mention the Arctic, global warming is good for business, new shipping routes take less time, less cost, less danger, less ice. Money first is the right wing way, profit over the planet, look at the current government, shocking.
Paul – James Renwick will not be mentioning Guy McPherson
If you really want to draw attention to the very real concern of AGW, please do not continue to drag in this alarmist, because he undermines the real science with his outlandish claims. There are very few Climate scientists who support his claims. Yes the threat of AGW is real and the impending catastrophic outcomes may be far more horrific than most people are aware. However to over egg the threat is just as damaging as under estimating.
So now you think we should only listen to Climate Change scientists who operate at an acceptable severity rating? It’s bad, but not too bad. It’s still hopeful but not 100% hopeful. We still have time to act and change, not too much time, but just enough time, still.
That’s delusional thinking IMO.
McPherson is the only person I know who has put the big picture together with the absolute latest in literature from across multiple fields.
For instance, you can’t object to McPherson saying that there are now multiple positive feedback loops in full swing, making human action to reduce CO2 emissions largely irrelevant.
So whether McPherson is right about the ten year time frame or it is in fact going to be twenty years or thirty years is a bit beside the point – climate change is most probably unstoppable at this stage and it will be catastrophic for the habitat that the human race needs to survive.
But if he’s wrong and the timeframe is fifty years, and we can stop it in thirty, then he’s doing humanity a disservice by throwing his hands in the air and preaching the futility of effort.
We should listen to the bulk of scientists, not the extreme fringes. The fringes can occasionally be coincidentally correct, but usually the most accurate assessment based on information available at the time comes from within the scientific consensus.
1) Nothing is going to be ‘stopped in 30 years.’ Non-man controllable positive feed back loops are already in full swing. And even ignoring them, if we ended the burning of fossil fuels tonight, additional warming from current record levels of GHGs would continue for another 50-100 years, taking us well beyond 2 deg C warming.
2) McPherson is closer to where the mainstream scientific position would be if scientists did not have to worry about looking and sounding respectable to get their next government grant and their next peer reviewed paper published.
The bulk of scientists have to worry about appearing respectable, trying to get tenure, sounding like they are mainstream enough to get their papers through peer review boards, and appearing optimistic enough to get the next round of research grants.
Governments aren’t interested in funding people with relentlessly bad news.
The bulk of scientists have to worry about appearing respectable,
lol
trying to get tenure,
It is a struggle – best achieved by coming up with research outputs that change conventional thinking or at least add to the sum of human knowledge (in those countries where tenure still exists, of course)
sounding like they are mainstream enough to get their papers through peer review boards,
That’s not how peer review works. Look at the EM drive.
and appearing optimistic enough to get the next round of research grants.
Scott Johnson
Is a geoscience educator, hydrogeologist, and freelance science writer contributing at Ars Technica. He is also Science Editor for Climate Feedback.
and then there is Michael Tobas here: http://planet3.org/2014/03/13/mcphersons-evidence-that-doom-doom-doom/
On McPhersons so called “multiplicative feedbacks”.
Michael Tobis, is editor-in-chief of Planet3.0 and site cofounder, he has always been interested in the interface between science and public policy. He holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences where he developed a 3-D ocean model on a custom computing platform. He has been involved in sustainability conversations on the internet since 1992,
Methane feedbacks in the Arctic are going to be important for future climate change, just like the direct emissions from humans. This includes substantial regions of shallow permafrost in the Arctic, which is already going appreciable change. Much larger changes involving hydrate may be important longer-term. Nonetheless, these feedbacks need to be kept in context and should be thought of as one of the many other carbon cycle feedbacks, and dynamic responses, that supplement the increasing anthropogenic CO2 burden to the atmosphere. There is no evidence that methane will run out of control and initiate any sudden, catastrophic effects. There’s certainly no runaway greenhouse. Instead, chronic methane releases will supplement the primary role of CO2. Eventually some of this methane oxidizes into CO2, so if the injection is large enough, it can add extra CO2 forcing onto the very long term evolution of global climate, over hundreds to thousands of years.
The recent US election has prompted cries that the decision on Earth’s climate has now been irrevocably made, that the US has unilaterally decided to scrap the peak warming target from the Paris agreement of 1.5 oC. What do the numbers say? Is Earth’s climate now irrevocably fracked?
The short answer is that, strictly speaking, the future of global climate would have been fracked even had the election gone the other way, unless stronger action to cut CO2 emissions is taken, very soon.
Thanks for that antidote to the alarmist stuff Macro. It seems very important to me that we have such responses that are grounded and evenhanded and based in knowledge, including when people react against what you say and misinterpret it.
(Me, I just want to call McPherson a traitor but am biting my tongue as much as I can).
No no you don’t understand this is a great, not good, result for the left, here let me explain it for you
See if you look at the poll you’ll see John Key has dropped, yes dropped, in his popularity which shows that the people of NZ now see him how the left see him (evil in case you were wondering)
Also you must, I say must, add Winston Peters into the left block because as we all know Winston Peters will go with the left block because his ego is such that he would have no problems being the third wheel behind Labour and the Greens as opposed to being the tail wagging the dog with National
So its actually a great result and besides the only poll that counts is on election day and Trump and Brexit shows that the polls don’t count and will sweep Labour into victory and Jesus will love us
On the bright side it keeps Labour focused on opposing harmful policies instead of kicking the poor in the teeth, and National implementing Labour’s good ideas.
Your Christmas gift to The Standard! It would be fun to write a little serial while you are away about how you’ll spend your Christmas break: painstakingly drafting John’s Christmas card then hand writing the craven thing using a drop of blood squeezed ecstatically from a prick to your finger tip, wrapping up the print-outs from all your trolling and posting that into HQ for the archives, opening the brown-paper packet they send back to you as “thanks” for your efforts through the year, sitting beneath the portrait of your Dear Leader, tossing back egg nog after egg nog in an ongoing toast to his brilliance, giving the bright blue sock hanging above the fireplace a furtive squeeze (will he remember me this year?) before standing expectantly under the mistletoe for half an hour or so, then trotting upstairs to bed, to dream, to sleep the sleep of the just…do you think I’d have an audience for that sort of gripping stuff? You know I mean this in the kindest way, Pucky, it being the Season of Goodwill (nearly). In any case, looking forward to your break almost as much as you are 🙂
Waits for Little to pull out another poll showing Labour is on track to win.
Seriously though, with the next election less than a year away and with Labour still struggling to get any traction (despite all the work done on their Future of Work) do they have anything significant to pull out of their hat which will win-over voters?
So it’s Centre-left 11%, Centre-right 28%, Nationalists 10%, Bumbling right wing incompetents 50%, sundry parasites with electorate seats 1%.
That’s basically appalling, and it does look like New Zealand is going to vote for more self-flagellation and failure next year.
James – you hang around The Standard like a human botfly inserting your eggs into the body of the discussion where ever you can – does this bring you some sort of parasitical joy? Or is it that you are driven by your DNA to infest for the sake of reproduction? Are there more of you gestating? Should the moderators stock up on swats?
I’ve always felt you’re more perceptive then most and more able to look past the political leanings of the poster and consider the argument on its own merits 🙂
The polls! The polls! I’m picturing the viscera-readers of ancient times, huddled over the newly-slaughtered beast, peering into the mass of glistening organs, seeing futures in the slippery goop – it’s not the seers who make me laugh, theirs is a lucrative pursuit, it’s the slack-jawed, wall-eyed crowd standing anxiously about, hanging on their every word.
James… Dude, the outgoing PM is downward trending in the polls, and he is very uncomfortable about it. Should have seen him on TVNZ this morning, he was making every excuse imaginable to explain why he is consistently declining in the polls.
Key is just going to become another Toady (Tony) Blair. Still trying to be relevant and justify his bad decisions years down the track.
Blair like Key just gamed everything to make himself look good on the world stage and be powerful – until one day – he wasn’t and will soon become too scared to travel incase one day he is picked up and tried at the Hague.
Yesah, Swordfish sure did a great job, lots of numbers clearly demonstrating the downward trend.
I’m not interested in other political parties atm, i’m interested in the trends of the outgoing government.
You know what… why have some of you Tories got the meows with me? Did I touch a nerve?
Nessalt it is not the slowest drop in the history of politics, that’s a lie. And with MMP who knows what’s going to happen next election, it’s not a two party race anymore and hasn’t been for a long time. Long live MMP
How’s his support partners doing?
By crikey Maori Party has fallen to 1%,
ACT and Dunne don’t even get a mention, no one chose them when rung about the poll.
As well 13% of people are undecided voters
National would not be able to govern alone
it’s the slowest drop in the history of politics. The trend line that shows you that John Key’s personal pm preference ratings as dropping, also shows that he’ll be in power for two more elections. He’ll be at about 30% by the election next year. andrew little on the other hand will at around 2%.
“the outgoing PM is downward trending in the polls, and he is very uncomfortable about it. Should have seen him on TVNZ this morning”
Yeah, I had to laugh at John’s relatively cynical attempt to discredit the Colmar Brunton’s Preferred PM figures by feigning bewilderment at the fact that the collective ratings for the 3 main leaders added up to only 52%.
Key:
My main point was really going to be the … (slight stutter / pause) … that counts for 52%. So I don’t know what happens – in your poll – what happens to the other 48% (his voice here characteristically rises at end of sentence – teenage New Zealander-style – looking for some sort of tacit endorsement from the interviewer). Coz, if you add up – you had all the leaders going down but the whole 3 of us added up to 52%. I don’t know where the other 48% is but (pauses and throws his arms up in the air to suggest genuine, innocent bewilderment at what he hints is dubious methodology, albeit betrayed by a somewhat guilty / embarrassed / sheepish-looking smile that suggests he’s fully aware that Tame knows he’s talking bollocks) … I don’t know, you’d have to ask your Pollsters but …
As Jonathan Wedgewood Key knows full well, the Colmar Brunton’s – like the Reid Research Polls – include the Don’t knows and None-of-the-Aboves in their Preferred PM figures. Always have.
Arguably, a far more accurate measure of Leader popularity than the (now defunct) Herald-Digi – which excluded the Don’t knows and hence massively exaggerated Key’s (and everyone else’s) popularity, generating headlines and misleading voters into believing that two-thirds or more of the public wanted Key as PM.
Most of the “missing” 48% whose personal welfare John agonized over in the interview are accounted for by:
9% preferring various other minor leaders / politicians as PM.
Good topic savenz. Does anyone know if its illegal to skip dive in supermarket bins here? ive seen a couple of tv shows recently that had people skip diving outside supermarkets in aussie and the uk, seemed legal there.
I’d like to see supermarkets be forced to give their best before food to food banks to be given for free to anyone who needs food. It is a crime that people may be hungry in this country when we are a food producer and apparently Kiwis are the fourth richest country per capita in the world. Not to mention the problems when the food is going into land fill!
Yeah fully agree with you there. We might need (god forbid!) a socialist in charge to get some common sense happening though.
The Hugh’s War on Waste doco opened my eyes to food wastage. It focused a lot on produce not meeting cosmetic standards and then being thrown away… We need a better model.
Good people doing good work. Flaxmere residents pulling the community out of its nosedive.
“It’s 7.30am in the Hastings suburb of Flaxmere. Half a dozen children, some as young as 5, are already at Kimi Ora Community School tucking into spaghetti on toast.
Over the next half-hour, other hungry mouths arrive. No parents come with them.
“We might see five parents a day who walk their kids to school. Our kids walk to school and walk home by themselves,” says principal Matt O’Dowda.
White-bearded caretaker Wayne Reading, who serves the breakfast every school day, usually feeds about 25 of the school’s 130 pupils – or 70 on Fridays, when he serves a full cooked breakfast.
At lunchtimes almost all students cram into the dining room for $1 lunches prepared by a mum and her partner.”
“It’s not the black eyes, it’s more children that have had a lack of sleep because there’s been a party going on at home. Or not being picked up on time, or not being brought to school.”
O’Dowda says the partying and overcrowding put children at risk.
“We have just done a pubertal change unit with the seniors [Years 6-8, aged about 10-12],” he says.
“For our girls, their major concern was how do you protect yourself from men, because they know there are parties and there’s lots of people around. So we have now got a two-day self-defence programme coming in this term just for our Year 6-8 girls.”
Dr Sandra Jessop, a general practitioner in Flaxmere since 1988, cries when she speaks of women who disclose childhood abuse when she asks gently about injuries she can see when she does cervical smears.
“Sometimes you get depression in the mums when their girls start to go through puberty, because of what happened to them,” she says.””
Excellent piece of writing from veteran ‘tell it like it is’ journalist Simon Collins.
If New Zealand’s inherent dottiness and glaring contradictions were ever a local secret, this year they have been paraded for all the world to see.
We often made the overseas news – whether it was because of the poor living in cars and garages in a supposedly egalitarian society, our heavily polluted rivers (and drinking water) in a land we tout as being environmentally 100% Pure, or our high domestic violence rates in a country we like to think of as family friendly.
There were the Panama Papers, reported extensively around the world, that suggested we are a tax haven – an unfortunate impression that is at odds with our longstanding reputation for honesty, transparency and incorruptibility. John Key firmly rejected the “tax haven” tag but we were exposed in the Australian Financial Review, for one, as having been involved in questionable transactions – including setting up accounts for Maltese politicians that some of the world’s dodgiest banks (in Miami, the Caribbean and Panama) wouldn’t touch because of strict disclosure laws for money-laundering politicians.
We’ve got to own up to our faults and change them. This will not happen with the present corrupt government because these faults suit them and their backers as it makes them richer.
The Government has been warned not to cave in and make it easier for Chinese investors to buy strategically important land and businesses just to secure better access to China’s market.
In a country where homelessness is rising maybe it is time we think that “strategically” means “all land” not being sold offshore. Land should be for citizens only. And being a citizen of NZ should also be a lot harder to achieve – not just a left over choice for those that can’t get into Canada or OZ.
The Qatari dictatorship’s official TV station does not
miss a chance to ridicule and demean the late Fidel Castro
Al Jazeera 10 a.m. News, Monday 28 November 2016
Al Jazeera is again featuring ugly demonstrations of gloating by the extreme right fringe of the Cuban-American community after the death of Fidel Castro. Interestingly, Al Jazeera three years ago did not feature any of the similar gloating that occurred in some of the similarly rabid pockets of South Africa when Castro’s great friend and supporter Nelson Mandela died.
Yet even the most grievous propaganda channel will sometimes, perhaps accidentally, provide access to more balanced, representative views. This morning that balanced representation came in the form of 22 year old Elian Gonzalez. In 1999, five-year-old Elian Gonzalez was kidnapped by some of these so-called “exile” fanatics. After a momentous legal battle, he was eventually returned to his father in Cuba. Today Elian Gonzalez, now 22 years old, appeared on Al Jazeera, praising the late Cuban leader.
This moment of sanity was soon relegated, however. To “balance” the testimony of Elian Gonzalez, the host interviewed one Peter Hakim, who rejoices in the splendid title of “president emeritus and senior fellow” of the Inter-American Dialogue. For a couple of minutes, Hakim released, pompously and slowly, a stream of anti-Castro propaganda, and absurdly lied that Castro had been opposed to the democratic developments in Latin America. To hear Peter Hakim telling this lie was especially galling, in view of the fact that in 1994, Hakim stated with equal pomposity, that the U.S. should not be concerned with either human rights or democracy in Haiti, and in fact the democratically elected President Aristide should be deposed, in the usual brutal manner.
RT: Chris Hedges ‘On Contact’ Standing Rock protest special
Documentary special by Chris Hedges, veteran war correspondent, as part of his ‘On Contact’ series on RT.
He follows the Water Protectors standing in the way of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Warning this is Chris Hedges on RT – ‘fake news ‘ – the news and the viewpoints that the establishment media doesn’t want you to know and will not cover themselves.
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You can be all negative about these charter schools if you want, but I’m here to accentuate the positive. You can get all worked up, if you want to, by the contradiction of Luxon saying We’re going to make sure that every school in the country is teaching exactly the same ...
Losing The Room: One can only speculate about what has persuaded the Coalition Government that it will pay no electoral price for unreasonably pushing ahead with policies that are so clearly against the national interest. They seem quite oblivious to the risk that by doing so they will convince an increasing ...
Name suppression decisions can be tough sometimes. No matter your views on free speech, you have to be hard-hearted not to be torn by the tug of the competing arguments. I think you can feel the Supreme Court wrestling with that in M v The King. The case for ...
The Merchants of Menace: The Coalition Government has convinced itself that the “Brahmins’” emollient functions have become much too irksome and expensive. Those who see themselves as the best hope of rebuilding New Zealand’s ailing capitalist system, appear to have convinced themselves that a little bit of blunt trauma is what their mollycoddled ...
When National first proposed its Muldoonist "fast-track" law, they were warned that it would inevitably lead to corruption. And that is exactly what has happened, with Resources Minister Shane Jones taking secret meetings with potential applicants:On Tuesday, in a Newsroom story, questions were raised about a dinner Jones ...
Buzz from the Beehive One day – hopefully – we will push that Russian rascal, Vladimir Putin, beyond breaking point. Perhaps it will happen today, when he learns that Foreign Minister Winston Peters is again tightening the thumbscrews. Peters announced further sanctions, this time on 28 individuals and 14 entities ...
How Labour’s and National’s failure to move beyond neoliberalism has brought New Zealand to the brink of economic and cultural chaos.TO START LOSING, so soon after you won, requires a special kind of political incompetence. At the heart of this Coalition Government’s failure to retain, and build upon, the public ...
“Members of Parliament don’t work for us, they represent us, an entirely different thing. As with so much that has turned out badly, the re-organising of MPs’ responsibilities began with the Fourth Labour Government. That’s when they began to be treated like employees – public servants – whose diaries had ...
It’s becoming a classic case study for why lobbying deals with politicians need greater scrutiny. Former National Minister Steven Joyce runs a lobbying company with a major client – the University of Waikato. The University desperately wants $300m+ of taxpayer funding to establish a third medical school in New Zealand, ...
Time To Choose: Like it or not, the Kiwis are either going into AUKUS’s “Pillar 2” – or they are going to China.HAD ZHENG HE’S FLEET sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks ...
Henry Ergas writes – When in Randall Jarrell’s Pictures from an Institution, a college president is accused of being a hypocrite, the novel’s narrator retorts that the description is grossly unfair. After all, the man is still far from the stage of moral development at which the charge ...
David Farrar writes – Radio NZ reports: The Education Review Office says too many new teachers feel poorly prepared for their jobs. In a report published on Monday, the review office said 60 percent of the principals it interviewed said their new teachers were not ready. ...
New Zealand’s economic performance and the PM’s vision Michael Reddell writes – When I wrote yesterday morning’s post, highlighting how poorly both New Zealand and its Anglo peer countries have been doing in respect of productivity in recent times (ie, in the case of New ...
Hi all,Firstly - thank you! You guys are awesome. The response I’ve received to last night’s mail has been quite overwhelming. It’s a ghastly day outside, but there are no clouds in here.In case you didn’t read my email and are wondering what on earth I’m talking about you can ...
If there was still any doubt as to who is actually running this government – and it isn’t the buffoon from Botany – then this week’s announcement of a huge spend up on charter schools has settled the matter. While jobs and public services continue to be cut in the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gaye Taylor As widespread drought raises expectations for a repeat of last year’s ferocious wildfire season, response teams across Canada are grappling with the rapidly changing face of fire in a warming climate. No longer quenched by winter, nor quelled by the ...
Half of Christchurch City Holdings Ltd’s directors and its chair resigned en masse last night in protest at Christchurch City Council’s demand to front-load dividends File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The chair of Christchurch City Council’s investment company and four of its independent directors resigned in protest last ...
The University of Waikato has reworded an advertisement that begins the tender process for its new $300 million-plus medical school even though the Government still needs to approve it. However, even the reworded ad contains an architect’s visualisations of what the school might look like. ACT leader David Seymour told ...
As a follow-up to the Rings of Power trailer discussion, I thought I needed to add something. There has been some online mockery about the use of the same actor for both the Halbrand and Annatar incarnations of Sauron. The reasoning is that Halbrand with a shave and a new ...
This isn’t quite as dramatic as the title might suggest. I’m not going anywhere, but there is something I wanted to talk to you about.Let’s start with a typical day.Most days I send out a newsletter in the morning. If I’ve written a lot the previous evening it might be ...
Buzz from the Beehive The promise of tax relief loomed large in his considerations when the PM delivered a pre-Budget speech to the Auckland Business Chamber. The job back in Wellington is getting government spending back under control, he said, bandying figures which show that in per capita terms, the ...
Yesterday de facto Prime Minister David Seymour announced that his glove puppet government would be re-introducing charter schools, throwing $150 million at his pet quacks, donors and cronies and introducing an entire new government agency to oversee them (the existing Education Review Office, which actually knows how to review schools, ...
Seeing that, in order to discredit the figures and achieve moral superiority while attempting to deflect attention away from the military assault on Rafa, Israel supporters in NZ have seized on reports that casualty numbers in Gaza may be inflated … Continue reading → ...
Te Pāti Māori have launched a petition to stop the repeal of Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act. This announcement comes prior to the first reading of the Section 7AA repeal bill in Parliament today. “Section 7AA forces the Government to adhere to Te Tiriti o Waitangi with respect ...
The Government has yet again failed to do the one thing that needs to happen to ensure houses can be built – commit to ongoing funding, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Treasury officials have outlined many ways in which the Fast Track Approvals Bill is deeply flawed, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking says. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick used this year's State of the Planet to call on the Government to prioritise people and planet as the delivery of the Budget approaches. A full transcript of their speeches can be found below. ...
Green Party co-leaders Marama Davidson and Chlöe Swarbrick have used their State of the Planet speeches to challenge the Government to prioritise people and planet over profit as the delivery of the Budget approaches. ...
The Government’s introduction of legislation that would enable landlords to end tenancies with no reason marks a dark day for the 1.4 million people who rent their home in Aotearoa. ...
The Minister for Mental Health has found the Suicide Prevention Office and mental health support for 111 calls slipping through his fingers, says Labour spokesperson for Mental Health Ingrid Leary. ...
Today’s justification from the Minister for Children for scrapping protections for our tamariki was either a case of ignorance or deliberate deception. ...
The Green Party says the Government’s misguided policy on gangs will fail, following the announcement of the establishment of a national gang unit and district gang disruption units to target gang activities. ...
“With Police pay negotiations still unresolved after six months in Government, Mark Mitchell has today rolled the Commissioner out for a rebrand of their approach to gang crime,” Labour police spokesperson Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government bringing back 50 charter schools will not increase achievement and is a distraction from the core mission of the education system, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Te Pāti Māori is showing extreme concern over the Environment Select Committees adoption of a lucky dip draw to determine hearings for the Fast Track Approvals bill. Of the 27,000 submissions, 2,900 requested to present. All organisations will be heard; however, the remaining 2,350 submitters will be subject to a ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
The Coalition Government’s Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill, which will improve tenancy laws and help increase the supply of rental properties, has passed its first reading in Parliament says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “The Bill proposes much-needed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act 1986 that will remove barriers to increasing private ...
Standing here in Cassino War Cemetery, among the graves looking up at the beautiful Abbey of Montecassino, it is hard to imagine the utter devastation left behind by the battles which ended here in May 1944. Hundreds of thousands of shells and bombs of every description left nothing but piled ...
I present a legislative statement on the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill Mr. Speaker, I move that the Oranga Tamariki (Repeal of Section 7AA) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Social Services and Community Committee to consider the Bill. Thank you, Mr. ...
The Bill to repeal Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has had its first reading in Parliament today. The Bill reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the care and safety of children in care, says Minister for Children Karen Chhour. “When I became the Minister for Children, I made ...
Kia ora koutou, good morning, and zao shang hao. Thank you Fran for the opportunity to speak at the 2024 China Business Summit – it’s great to be here today. I’d also like to acknowledge: Simon Bridges - CEO of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. His Excellency Ambassador - Wang ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed a New Zealand Government plane will head to New Caledonia in the next hour in the first in a series of proposed flights to begin bringing New Zealanders home. “New Zealanders in New Caledonia have faced a challenging few days - and bringing them ...
The Coalition Government will introduce legislation this year that will enable roadside drug testing as part of our commitment to improve road safety and restore law and order, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Alcohol and drugs are the number one contributing factor in fatal road crashes in New Zealand. In ...
The Government has announced a series of immediate actions in response to the independent review of Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “Kāinga Ora is a large and important Crown entity, with assets of $45 billion and over $2.5 billion of expenditure each year. It ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour is pleased that Pseudoephedrine can now be purchased by the general public to protect them from winter illness, after the coalition government worked swiftly to change the law and oversaw a fast approval process by Medsafe. “Pharmacies are now putting the medicines back on their ...
Tēnā koutou katoa. Da jia hao. Good morning everyone. Prime Minister Luxon, your excellency, a great friend of New Zealand and my friend Ambassador Wang, Mayor of what he tells me is the best city in New Zealand, Wayne Brown, the highly respected Fran O’Sullivan, Champion of the Auckland business ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced that the Government will make it easier for lines firms to take action to remove vegetation from obstructing local powerlines. The change will ensure greater security of electricity supply in local communities, particularly during severe weather events. “Trees or parts of trees falling on ...
Wairarapa Moana ki Pouakani were the top winners at this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy awards recognising the best in Māori dairy farming. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka announced the winners and congratulated runners-up, Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board, at an awards celebration also attended by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister ...
"On the 27th of March, I sought assurances from the Chief Executive, Department of Internal Affairs, that the Department’s correct processes and policies had been followed in regards to a passport application which received media attention,” says Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden. “I raised my concerns after being ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins has announced the appointment of three new District Court Judges, to replace Judges who have recently retired. Peter James Davey of Auckland has been appointed a District Court Judge with a jury jurisdiction to be based at Whangarei. Mr Davey initially started work as a law clerk/solicitor with ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour is calling on the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) to put ideology to the side and focus on students’ learning, in reaction to the union holding paid teacher meetings across New Zealand about charter schools. “The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the ...
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly today announced the appointment of Craig Stobo as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Mr Stobo takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April. Mr Stobo’s appointment is for a five-year term. “The FMA plays ...
Surf Life Saving New Zealand and Coastguard New Zealand will continue to be able to keep people safe in, on, and around the water following a funding boost of $63.644 million over four years, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Associate Transport Minister Matt Doocey say. “Heading to the beach for ...
New Zealand and Tuvalu have reaffirmed their close relationship, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand is committed to working with Tuvalu on a shared vision of resilience, prosperity and security, in close concert with Australia,” says Mr Peters, who last visited Tuvalu in 2019. “It is my pleasure ...
New Zealand is gravely concerned about the situation in New Caledonia, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The escalating situation and violent protests in Nouméa are of serious concern across the Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “The immediate priority must be for all sides to take steps to de-escalate the ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met today with Samoa’s O le Ao o le Malo, Afioga Tuimalealiifano Vaaletoa Sualauvi II, who is making a State Visit to New Zealand. “His Highness and I reflected on our two countries’ extensive community links, with Samoan–New Zealanders contributing to all areas of our national ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has announced that he has approved Waiheke Island ferry operator Island Direct to be eligible for SuperGold Card funding, paving the way for a commercial agreement to bring the operator into the scheme. “Island Direct started operating in November 2023, offering an additional option for people ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters today announced further sanctions on 28 individuals and 14 entities providing military and strategic support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Russia is directly supported by its military-industrial complex in its illegal aggression against Ukraine, attacking its sovereignty and territorial integrity. New Zealand condemns all entities and ...
A year on from the tragedy at Loafers Lodge, the Government is working hard to improve building fire safety, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “I want to share my sincere condolences with the families and friends of the victims on the anniversary of the tragic fire at Loafers ...
Ka nui te mihi kia koutou. Kia ora and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for having me here in the lead up to my Government’s first Budget. Before I get started can I acknowledge: Simon Bridges – Auckland Business Chamber CEO. Steve Jurkovich – Kiwibank CEO. Kids born ...
New Zealand and Vanuatu will enhance collaboration on issues of mutual interest, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “It is important to return to Port Vila this week with a broad, high-level political delegation which demonstrates our deep commitment to New Zealand’s relationship with Vanuatu,” Mr Peters says. “This ...
Minister for Land Information, Chris Penk will travel to Peru this week to represent New Zealand at a meeting of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific region on behalf of Trade Minister Todd McClay. The annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers Responsible for Trade meeting will be held on 17-18 May ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford will head to the United Kingdom this week to participate in the 22nd Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM) and the 2024 Education World Forum (EWF). “I am looking forward to sharing this Government’s education priorities, such as introducing a knowledge-rich curriculum, implementing an evidence-based ...
Minister of Education Erica Stanford has today thanked outgoing New Zealand Qualifications Authority Chair, Hon Tracey Martin. “Tracey Martin tendered her resignation late last month in order to take up a new role,” Ms Stanford says. Ms Martin will relinquish the role of Chair on 10 May and current Deputy ...
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and President Emmanuel Macron of France today announced a new non-governmental organisation, the Christchurch Call Foundation, to coordinate the Christchurch Call’s work to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. This change gives effect to the outcomes of the November 2023 Call Leaders’ Summit, ...
Distinguished public servant and former diplomat Sir Maarten Wevers will lead the independent review into the disability support services administered by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. The review was announced by Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston a fortnight ago to examine what could be done to strengthen the ...
Today’s announcement by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster of a National Gang Unit and district Gang Disruption Units will help deliver on the coalition Government’s pledge to restore law and order and crack down on criminal gangs, Police Minister Mark Mitchell says. “The National Gang Unit and Gang Disruption Units will ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today expressed regret at North Korea’s aggressive rhetoric towards New Zealand and its international partners. “New Zealand proudly stands with the international community in upholding the rules-based order through its monitoring and surveillance deployments, which it has been regularly doing alongside partners since 2018,” Mr ...
Air Vice-Marshal Tony Davies MNZM is the new Chief of Defence Force, Defence Minister Judith Collins announced today. The Chief of Defence Force commands the Navy, Army and Air Force and is the principal military advisor to the Defence Minister and other Ministers with relevant portfolio responsibilities in the defence ...
Legislation to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill’s introduction reaffirms the Coalition Government’s commitment to the safety of children in care, says Minister for Children, Karen Chhour. “While section 7AA was introduced with good intentions, it creates a conflict for Oranga ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins will this week travel to the UK and Italy to meet with her defence counterparts, and to attend Battles of Cassino commemorations. “I am humbled to be able to represent the New Zealand Government in Italy at the commemorations for the 80th anniversary of what was ...
The upcoming Budget will include funding for up to 50 charter schools to help lift declining educational performance, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced today. $153 million in new funding will be provided over four years to establish and operate up to 15 new charter schools and convert 35 state ...
“The results of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has now been received, with results indicating over 13,000 submissions were made from members of the public,” Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “We heard feedback about the extended lockdowns in ...
Foreign Minister, Defence Minister, other Members of Parliament Acting Chief of Defence Force, Secretary of Defence Distinguished Guests Defence and Diplomatic Colleagues Ladies and Gentlemen, Good afternoon, tēna koutou, apinun tru It’s a pleasure to be back in Port Moresby today, and to speak here at the Kumul Leadership ...
Health, infrastructure, renewable energy, and stability are among the themes of the current visit to Papua New Guinea by a New Zealand political delegation, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Papua New Guinea carries serious weight in the Pacific, and New Zealand deeply values our relationship with it,” Mr Peters ...
Pacific Media Watch A Māori supporter of Pacific independence movements claims the French government has “constructed the crisis” in New Caledonia by pushing the indigenous Kanak population to the edge, reports Atereano Mateariki of Waatea News. A NZ Defence Force Hercules is today evacuating about 50 New Zealanders stranded in ...
COMMENTARY:By Gordon Campbell The split opening up in Israel’s “War Cabinet” is not just between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his long-term rival Benny Gantz. It is actually a three-way split, set in motion by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant’s open criticism of Netanyahu that finally flushed ...
Reacting to today’s Budget Speech from Labour’s Finance spokesperson, Barbara Edmonds, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said: “It is encouraging to see that one of Labour’s stated priorities is to focus on creating ‘a level ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kylie Turner, System Lead, Sustainable Economies, Climateworks Centre atk work/Shutterstock In the budget last week, the government was keen to talk about its efforts to turn Australia into a renewable superpower under the umbrella of the Future Made in Australia policies. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Opposition Leader Peter Dutton might have done us a favour. As part of his budget reply speech on Thursday night he promised to stop foreigners buying existing Australian homes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Maguire, Associate Professor in Human Rights and International Law, University of Newcastle The request by Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), for arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders is a significant step in the effort to ...
RNZ Pacific A New Zealand author, journalist and media educator who has covered the Asia-Pacific region since the 1970s says liberation “must come” for Kanaky/New Caledonia. Professor David Robie sailed on board Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior until it was bombed by French secret agents in New Zealand in July 1985 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alan Renwick, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Lincoln University, New Zealand Fonterra caught the business world by surprise last week with plans to sell off its consumer brands and businesses – including supermarket mainstays such as Anchor, Fresh’n Fruity and Mainland. The move ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Small, Senior lecturer, Above the Bar School of Educational Studies and Leadership, University of Canterbury With an air force plane on its way to rescue New Zealanders stranded by the violent uprising in New Caledonia, many familiar with the island’s history ...
A New Zealand government plane is heading to New Caledonia to assist with bringing New Zealanders home. Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today confirmed it was the first in a series of proposed flights. Peters said the flight would carry around 50 passengers with the most pressing needs from Nouméa ...
Regional councils must focus on building meaningful and enduring relationships with iwi and hapū to support better freshwater management, says the Auditor-General in a new report. ...
Chris Glaudel, Deputy Chief Executive of Community Housing Aotearoa, sees the announcement as a step towards addressing New Zealand’s high and rising levels of homelessness by improving our approach and system to delivering affordable homes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ali Mamouri, Research fellow, Middle East studies, Deakin University The death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash this week occurred during one of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s most challenging periods. Raisi, a prominent figure in the political elite, ...
The end of universal flu shot funding for under-12s is a step backwards for New Zealand child health, say experts from the University of Auckland and the University of Otago. New Zealand’s decision to no longer offer free influenza vaccines for all children under 12 will likely wipe out recent ...
The PSA is taking action to force the Ministry of Education to comply with its legal obligations to do everything it can to find other roles for staff it is laying off because of the Government’s spending cuts. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Waling, Senior Lecturer & Research Fellow, Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University Netflix There has been much excitement in the lead up to the first four episodes of Bridgerton’s season three, featuring leading couple Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa De Bortoli, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Council for Educational Research Taylor Flowe/Unsplash, CC BY Australian teenagers have more disruptive maths classrooms and experience bullying at greater levels than the OECD average, a new report shows. But in better news, Australian ...
Poet, editor and former bookseller Jane Arthur’s debut children’s novel Brown Bird is the story of a shy, self-conscious 11-year-old – partly based on her childhood self – venturing out of her quiet comfort zone. Children’s books are close to my heart because mostly I believe that adults are rings ...
Peter Jackson is bringing Lord of the Rings back to Wellington, producing two new Gollum films in Wellington. Madeleine Chapman (Gollum) argues with Madeleine Chapman (Smeagol) about it. First of all, I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. Of course it’s great news!I don’t know, it gives me ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a part-time media librarian and superannuitant explains how he spends and saves. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Male Age: 65 Ethnicity: EuropeanRole: Media librarian ...
The Government’s Environmental Select Committee is refusing to engage meaningfully when it matters the most over new fast tracking environmental legislation, says Ngāti Ruanui. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Marsh, Senior Research Fellow in Public Health, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Christoph Soeder/dpa New Zealand’s decision to no longer offer free influenza vaccines for all children under 12 will likely wipe out recent gains in uptake. And it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexis Anja Kallio, Deputy Director (Research), Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University Many young people in contact with the justice system come from backgrounds of extreme poverty, parental abuse or neglect, parental incarceration and disrupted education. These complex traumas often manifest as addictions ...
The agency was found to be underperforming and ‘not financially viable’, explains Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. A damning report A government-ordered ...
Asia Pacific Report For more than 76 years, Palestinians have resisted occupation, dispossession and ethnic cleansing, culminating in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Yet in the midst of this catastrophic seven months of “hell on earth”, it is a paradox that there exists an extraordinary oasis of peace and nature. ...
You’ll never set foot in one. But its emissions still effect you. Shanti Mathias reports on a campaign to make private jet owners pay for their emissions in some way. The private jet passengers saunter down the red carpet, wearing sunglasses and heels; paparazzi cameras flash. The sky is blue, ...
Quality teachers back on the front line can only be a good thing. One of the difficult things we teach in senior English classes at secondary school is the development of an idea. This involves deepening your argument, without instead “going sideways” and merely adding examples while repeating the same ...
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Opinion: As an indication of the eye-watering sums involved for the mega-prison plans announced two weeks ago by Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell, consider that $932 million has already been spent on a separate facility due to open at Waikeria next year – that’s about $1.5 million for each of the ...
Opinion: People with certain types of health conditions are more likely than others to have their symptoms dismissed, minimised or disbelieved. These conditions are diagnosed based on the patient self-report of symptoms, where there is no definitive diagnostic test that can prove the existence of disease or demonstrate structural or ...
The intensity of it, ironically, can feel like bullying. Social media activism is reaching something of a peak with the war in Gaza, using the hashtag Blockout2024. It started at this year’s MetGala when influencer and model Haley Kalil was caught on video muttering ‘let them eat cake’ – suddenly ...
It’s 2011 and I am 43 years old. My partner, Christine, and I got together when I was 36. We had been friends for about 10 years before that. One of the first things I asked Christine was whether she wanted to have kids. I had just come out of ...
New Caledonia’s Tontouta International Airport remains closed, and Air New Zealand’s next scheduled flight is on Saturday — although it is not ruling out adding extra services. Air NZ’s Captain David Morgan said on Monday evening flights would only resume when they were assured of the security of the airport ...
Asia Pacific Report As Israel drives the Palestinians deeper into another Nakba in Gaza with its assault on Rafah, the Palestine Youth Aotearoa (PYA) and solidarity supporters in Aotearoa New Zealand tonight commemorated the original Nakba — “the Catastrophe” — of 1948. The 1948 Nakba . . . more than ...
Young people on the streets in New Caledonia are saying they will “never give up” pushing back against France’s hold on the Pacific territory, a Kanak journalist in Nouméa says. Pro-independence Radio Djiido’s Andre Qaeze told RNZ Pacific young people had said that “Paris must respect us” and what had ...
This episode of A View from Afar podcast was recorded live from 12:45pm May 20, 2024 (NZST). Political scientist Paul Buchanan and Selwyn Manning examine: The United States and how the world is engaging with it geopolitically.Specifically, Paul and Selwyn analyse what has changed in this regard in ...
Analysis - Power is not being abused, but it is not being well managed either. New Zealand democracy, unique and currently brittle, should be handled with greater care, Alexander Gillespie writes. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University Forest Conservation Victoria, CC BY-NC-ND Victoria’s native forest logging industry ended on January 1 this year. The news was met with jubilation from conservationists. But did logging really ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hannah Soong, Senior Lecturer and Socio-cultural researcher, UniSA Education Futures, University of South Australia International students have come under fire from both sides of federal politics in the past week. The Albanese government introduced legislation to parliament last Thursday to put ...
It would appear the climate is spinning out of control.
All other news seems to fade into insignificance as a result.
‘Things are getting weird in the polar regions’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/11/21/things-are-getting-weird-in-the-polar-regions/?utm_term=.37d956c3d647&wpisrc=nl_green&wpmm=1
Climate change happening ‘too fast’ for plant and animal species to adapt.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/climate-change-extinction-species-happening-too-fast-for-plant-and-animals-to-adapt-a7433111.html
Arctic ice melt could trigger uncontrollable climate change at global level
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/25/arctic-ice-melt-trigger-uncontrollable-climate-change-global-level
Starvation has killed 80,000 reindeer in Siberia because of melting sea ice
Arctic tundra warming at a faster rate than the rest of the globe
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/starvation-reindeer-siberia-melting-sea-ice-global-warming-climate-change-a7434746.html
Guy McPherson: “I can’t imagine there will be a human on the planet in 10 years” He would be worth listening to in Wellington on the 6th December.
https://guymcpherson.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/whole-tour.jpg
Here is his interview on Paul Henry.
Last week we were swimming in the sea, it was so hot here. This morning it’s freezing, fresh dusting of snow on the mountains and hills, which will melt fast once the sun hits it, but it is unusual weather for this time of year. Hot/Cold weather = earthquakes.
Climate change is very really and our whole human existence depends on it, it’s nuts how little coverage media gives it, seeing they talk about the weather every hour on the wireless.
Thanks for the links Paul, will check them out.
McPherson is visiting Christchurch as part of his tour.
Will have a listen to him later on, I’m intrigued.
“Hot/Cold weather = earthquakes.”
Wha………….. ?
No, no ,no…Earthquakes are caused by winds trapped in subterranean caves. And maybe Namazu.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/namazu-the-earthshaker/
I am typing this to you from a location deep in the sub-Arctic. Temperatures are in the -10 to -15 degC range. Instead of -25 to 35 degC range they should be right now.
In other words about 10 to 15 degC warmer than they should be. The local Innuit people I work with all say the same thing; the change over recent seasons is perfectly obvious to them.
Weren’t we told the point of no return into irreversible global immolation was several years ago? Why then do people persist in what must be a futile attempt to reverse something that can’t be changed for the better?
Guys idea is to hold hands with your clan, sing kumbaya and wait until the asteroid hits. Pretty nuts. Don’t question the cult leader though..
How much money does this chap make from these speaking tours?
if you believe doomer guy and no one would be around in 10 years why waste time and energy going to his talk – doesn’t make sense.
Just like preparing a will doesn’t make sense. You’re going to be dead anyway so who cares?
You assume someone will be there to read it don’t you otherwise why do it.
Similarly, you can go listen to McPherson and see if there are a lot of other people there who also get the message. Which there are.
And waste your time if you believe there is 10 years left.
That’s not a call for you to make for other people.
Its not a call that you can make about me making a call – feel free to explain if you have a point rather than you’re just being awkward.
Sigh ….guy macpherson is lie a photonegative of a
climate change denier.
And what is your view about what is going on in the Arctic?
Have you read Peter Wadham’s ‘A Farewell to Ice? Scientist with over 30 years experience in the Arctic.
James Renwick is discussing Arctic ice on Kathryn Ryan this morning btw.
Shhhhh don’t mention the Arctic, global warming is good for business, new shipping routes take less time, less cost, less danger, less ice. Money first is the right wing way, profit over the planet, look at the current government, shocking.
“And what is your view about what is going on in the Arctic?”
Ice melt is faster and more complete each year due to climate change.
“Have you read Peter Wadham’s ‘A Farewell to Ice? Scientist with over 30 years experience in the Arctic.”
Nope.
Paul – James Renwick will not be mentioning Guy McPherson
If you really want to draw attention to the very real concern of AGW, please do not continue to drag in this alarmist, because he undermines the real science with his outlandish claims. There are very few Climate scientists who support his claims. Yes the threat of AGW is real and the impending catastrophic outcomes may be far more horrific than most people are aware. However to over egg the threat is just as damaging as under estimating.
So now you think we should only listen to Climate Change scientists who operate at an acceptable severity rating? It’s bad, but not too bad. It’s still hopeful but not 100% hopeful. We still have time to act and change, not too much time, but just enough time, still.
That’s delusional thinking IMO.
McPherson is the only person I know who has put the big picture together with the absolute latest in literature from across multiple fields.
For instance, you can’t object to McPherson saying that there are now multiple positive feedback loops in full swing, making human action to reduce CO2 emissions largely irrelevant.
So whether McPherson is right about the ten year time frame or it is in fact going to be twenty years or thirty years is a bit beside the point – climate change is most probably unstoppable at this stage and it will be catastrophic for the habitat that the human race needs to survive.
But if he’s wrong and the timeframe is fifty years, and we can stop it in thirty, then he’s doing humanity a disservice by throwing his hands in the air and preaching the futility of effort.
We should listen to the bulk of scientists, not the extreme fringes. The fringes can occasionally be coincidentally correct, but usually the most accurate assessment based on information available at the time comes from within the scientific consensus.
1) Nothing is going to be ‘stopped in 30 years.’ Non-man controllable positive feed back loops are already in full swing. And even ignoring them, if we ended the burning of fossil fuels tonight, additional warming from current record levels of GHGs would continue for another 50-100 years, taking us well beyond 2 deg C warming.
2) McPherson is closer to where the mainstream scientific position would be if scientists did not have to worry about looking and sounding respectable to get their next government grant and their next peer reviewed paper published.
The bulk of scientists have to worry about appearing respectable, trying to get tenure, sounding like they are mainstream enough to get their papers through peer review boards, and appearing optimistic enough to get the next round of research grants.
Governments aren’t interested in funding people with relentlessly bad news.
lol
It is a struggle – best achieved by coming up with research outputs that change conventional thinking or at least add to the sum of human knowledge (in those countries where tenure still exists, of course)
That’s not how peer review works. Look at the EM drive.
That’s not how grants work.
A more detailed analysis as to how Guy McPherson gets it wrong is available here:
https://fractalplanet.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/how-guy-mcpherson-gets-it-wrong/
Scott Johnson
Is a geoscience educator, hydrogeologist, and freelance science writer contributing at Ars Technica. He is also Science Editor for Climate Feedback.
and then there is Michael Tobas here:
http://planet3.org/2014/03/13/mcphersons-evidence-that-doom-doom-doom/
On McPhersons so called “multiplicative feedbacks”.
Michael Tobis, is editor-in-chief of Planet3.0 and site cofounder, he has always been interested in the interface between science and public policy. He holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences where he developed a 3-D ocean model on a custom computing platform. He has been involved in sustainability conversations on the internet since 1992,
As Skeptical Science puts it here
https://www.skepticalscience.com/toward-improved-discussions-methane.html
my bold
Prof. David Archer at Realclimate.
Worth reading the whole article for some perspective.
Thanks for that antidote to the alarmist stuff Macro. It seems very important to me that we have such responses that are grounded and evenhanded and based in knowledge, including when people react against what you say and misinterpret it.
(Me, I just want to call McPherson a traitor but am biting my tongue as much as I can).
Maybe start a petition against him, or protest outside his talk venues.
Is Penny Hulse Jill Stein’s doppelganger?
Latest Colmar Brunton good news for the Left… Labour 28%, Labour-lite 50%, Greens 10%
No no you don’t understand this is a great, not good, result for the left, here let me explain it for you
See if you look at the poll you’ll see John Key has dropped, yes dropped, in his popularity which shows that the people of NZ now see him how the left see him (evil in case you were wondering)
Also you must, I say must, add Winston Peters into the left block because as we all know Winston Peters will go with the left block because his ego is such that he would have no problems being the third wheel behind Labour and the Greens as opposed to being the tail wagging the dog with National
So its actually a great result and besides the only poll that counts is on election day and Trump and Brexit shows that the polls don’t count and will sweep Labour into victory and Jesus will love us
Yeah
On the bright side it keeps Labour focused on opposing harmful policies instead of kicking the poor in the teeth, and National implementing Labour’s good ideas.
That’s…not a bad point actually
When are these rogue polls going to stop?
When are these Rogue comments going to stop?
Can’t speak for anyone else but in a little under three weeks from now I’ll be knocking off for Christmas 🙂
Your Christmas gift to The Standard! It would be fun to write a little serial while you are away about how you’ll spend your Christmas break: painstakingly drafting John’s Christmas card then hand writing the craven thing using a drop of blood squeezed ecstatically from a prick to your finger tip, wrapping up the print-outs from all your trolling and posting that into HQ for the archives, opening the brown-paper packet they send back to you as “thanks” for your efforts through the year, sitting beneath the portrait of your Dear Leader, tossing back egg nog after egg nog in an ongoing toast to his brilliance, giving the bright blue sock hanging above the fireplace a furtive squeeze (will he remember me this year?) before standing expectantly under the mistletoe for half an hour or so, then trotting upstairs to bed, to dream, to sleep the sleep of the just…do you think I’d have an audience for that sort of gripping stuff? You know I mean this in the kindest way, Pucky, it being the Season of Goodwill (nearly). In any case, looking forward to your break almost as much as you are 🙂
That might in fact be the best thing I’ve seen written on here
https://imgflip.com/s/meme/Leonardo-Dicaprio-Cheers.jpg
Waits for Little to pull out another poll showing Labour is on track to win.
Seriously though, with the next election less than a year away and with Labour still struggling to get any traction (despite all the work done on their Future of Work) do they have anything significant to pull out of their hat which will win-over voters?
So far, nope.
They’re still hanging on to the failed neo-liberal ideology. The ideology that’s seen voters leave them in droves.
National’s winning because Labour’s not changing.
I often wonder when are left leaning voters and the Unions going to give up on them altogether?
The left have been waiting for years now for Labour to up their game. It seems they are incapable.
It’s time we all found another left-wing party to support.
Advice to Labour….. Don’t give him another six months.
Advice from National…please give him another six months 😉
You hit the nail on the head again
I’ve more sympathy for that poor nail than I have for either National or Labour..
So it’s Centre-left 11%, Centre-right 28%, Nationalists 10%, Bumbling right wing incompetents 50%, sundry parasites with electorate seats 1%.
That’s basically appalling, and it does look like New Zealand is going to vote for more self-flagellation and failure next year.
I am rating it 4:1 for a National win next year. And possibly with NZF support.
Has to be bogus. How cannnational still be so popular after all these years???
Cannot wait for Andrew little to come out with their own polling that shows labour doing so so so much better.
Funny isn’t it that the only poll that shows labour doing ok is the one they pay for.
Now just waiting for someone to say trump or brexit as an example of why the polls don’t matter.
Little’s excuse was that the US election distracted everybody.
Yeah… it was true. Trump even made Key look good in comparison.
Yeah – pity for Andrew Little that Trump couldn’t even make him look good.
James – you hang around The Standard like a human botfly inserting your eggs into the body of the discussion where ever you can – does this bring you some sort of parasitical joy? Or is it that you are driven by your DNA to infest for the sake of reproduction? Are there more of you gestating? Should the moderators stock up on swats?
So stating Trump makes Key = good comment, but saying that Trump dosnt make little look good makes me a human botfly.
Sorry that I dont echo the lines that you want Robert.
No s.o.h. these little RWNJ bots Robert.
At least PR and one or two others do exhibit moments of wit that makes them human rather than bots.
I’ve always felt you’re more perceptive then most and more able to look past the political leanings of the poster and consider the argument on its own merits 🙂
Ta PR. I do try – not always successfully.
The polls! The polls! I’m picturing the viscera-readers of ancient times, huddled over the newly-slaughtered beast, peering into the mass of glistening organs, seeing futures in the slippery goop – it’s not the seers who make me laugh, theirs is a lucrative pursuit, it’s the slack-jawed, wall-eyed crowd standing anxiously about, hanging on their every word.
🙂
brilliant Robert, brilliant
James… Dude, the outgoing PM is downward trending in the polls, and he is very uncomfortable about it. Should have seen him on TVNZ this morning, he was making every excuse imaginable to explain why he is consistently declining in the polls.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/blame-you-its-your-fault-john-keys-tongue-in-cheek-explanation-jack-tame-popularity-drop
Let’s not forget that Little dropped from 10% to 8%, effectively shedding 20% of his support…
Cinny…dude…at 50% party vote for National within a year of the election your “outgoing PM ” line is looking a little sick.
Cinny has been working on that meme for ages – best to just ignore – although I think we will be reading it until at least 2020.
Key is just going to become another Toady (Tony) Blair. Still trying to be relevant and justify his bad decisions years down the track.
Blair like Key just gamed everything to make himself look good on the world stage and be powerful – until one day – he wasn’t and will soon become too scared to travel incase one day he is picked up and tried at the Hague.
Cinny, swordfish explained very clearly last night that Key’s declining numbers are not associated with a corresponding increase in Labour’s.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-27112016/#comment-1266638
Yesah, Swordfish sure did a great job, lots of numbers clearly demonstrating the downward trend.
I’m not interested in other political parties atm, i’m interested in the trends of the outgoing government.
You know what… why have some of you Tories got the meows with me? Did I touch a nerve?
Nessalt it is not the slowest drop in the history of politics, that’s a lie. And with MMP who knows what’s going to happen next election, it’s not a two party race anymore and hasn’t been for a long time. Long live MMP
How’s his support partners doing?
By crikey Maori Party has fallen to 1%,
ACT and Dunne don’t even get a mention, no one chose them when rung about the poll.
As well 13% of people are undecided voters
National would not be able to govern alone
See for yourselves, graphs and everything…
http://www.colmarbrunton.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Preliminary_ONE-News-Colmar-Brunton-Poll-report-Nov-12-13-21-23.pdf
it’s the slowest drop in the history of politics. The trend line that shows you that John Key’s personal pm preference ratings as dropping, also shows that he’ll be in power for two more elections. He’ll be at about 30% by the election next year. andrew little on the other hand will at around 2%.
“the outgoing PM is downward trending in the polls, and he is very uncomfortable about it. Should have seen him on TVNZ this morning”
Yeah, I had to laugh at John’s relatively cynical attempt to discredit the Colmar Brunton’s Preferred PM figures by feigning bewilderment at the fact that the collective ratings for the 3 main leaders added up to only 52%.
Key:
As Jonathan Wedgewood Key knows full well, the Colmar Brunton’s – like the Reid Research Polls – include the Don’t knows and None-of-the-Aboves in their Preferred PM figures. Always have.
Arguably, a far more accurate measure of Leader popularity than the (now defunct) Herald-Digi – which excluded the Don’t knows and hence massively exaggerated Key’s (and everyone else’s) popularity, generating headlines and misleading voters into believing that two-thirds or more of the public wanted Key as PM.
Most of the “missing” 48% whose personal welfare John agonized over in the interview are accounted for by:
9% preferring various other minor leaders / politicians as PM.
36% choosing Don’t know or None.
Yes. I think the only inference is that if he doesn’t then his UMR polling is even worse.
And National don’t pay for the rest? hahahah
Price is what you pay, value is what you get
Isnt the North Pole and South Pole the only ones that really matter ?
Danish supermarket selling expired food opens second branch
Wefood in Copenhagen has proved a huge success as food waste becomes hot topic worldwide
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/27/food-waste-denmark-buy-expired-produce-copenhagen-wefood
Good topic savenz. Does anyone know if its illegal to skip dive in supermarket bins here? ive seen a couple of tv shows recently that had people skip diving outside supermarkets in aussie and the uk, seemed legal there.
I’d like to see supermarkets be forced to give their best before food to food banks to be given for free to anyone who needs food. It is a crime that people may be hungry in this country when we are a food producer and apparently Kiwis are the fourth richest country per capita in the world. Not to mention the problems when the food is going into land fill!
Yeah fully agree with you there. We might need (god forbid!) a socialist in charge to get some common sense happening though.
The Hugh’s War on Waste doco opened my eyes to food wastage. It focused a lot on produce not meeting cosmetic standards and then being thrown away… We need a better model.
Good people doing good work. Flaxmere residents pulling the community out of its nosedive.
“It’s 7.30am in the Hastings suburb of Flaxmere. Half a dozen children, some as young as 5, are already at Kimi Ora Community School tucking into spaghetti on toast.
Over the next half-hour, other hungry mouths arrive. No parents come with them.
“We might see five parents a day who walk their kids to school. Our kids walk to school and walk home by themselves,” says principal Matt O’Dowda.
White-bearded caretaker Wayne Reading, who serves the breakfast every school day, usually feeds about 25 of the school’s 130 pupils – or 70 on Fridays, when he serves a full cooked breakfast.
At lunchtimes almost all students cram into the dining room for $1 lunches prepared by a mum and her partner.”
“It’s not the black eyes, it’s more children that have had a lack of sleep because there’s been a party going on at home. Or not being picked up on time, or not being brought to school.”
O’Dowda says the partying and overcrowding put children at risk.
“We have just done a pubertal change unit with the seniors [Years 6-8, aged about 10-12],” he says.
“For our girls, their major concern was how do you protect yourself from men, because they know there are parties and there’s lots of people around. So we have now got a two-day self-defence programme coming in this term just for our Year 6-8 girls.”
Dr Sandra Jessop, a general practitioner in Flaxmere since 1988, cries when she speaks of women who disclose childhood abuse when she asks gently about injuries she can see when she does cervical smears.
“Sometimes you get depression in the mums when their girls start to go through puberty, because of what happened to them,” she says.””
Excellent piece of writing from veteran ‘tell it like it is’ journalist Simon Collins.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11737537
A year of living shamefully: New Zealand’s dirty secrets
We’ve got to own up to our faults and change them. This will not happen with the present corrupt government because these faults suit them and their backers as it makes them richer.
The Government has been warned not to cave in and make it easier for Chinese investors to buy strategically important land and businesses just to secure better access to China’s market.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/201825535/govt-warned-not-to-give-up-too-much-in-china-fta-upgrade-talks
In a country where homelessness is rising maybe it is time we think that “strategically” means “all land” not being sold offshore. Land should be for citizens only. And being a citizen of NZ should also be a lot harder to achieve – not just a left over choice for those that can’t get into Canada or OZ.
The Qatari dictatorship’s official TV station does not
miss a chance to ridicule and demean the late Fidel Castro
Al Jazeera 10 a.m. News, Monday 28 November 2016
Al Jazeera is again featuring ugly demonstrations of gloating by the extreme right fringe of the Cuban-American community after the death of Fidel Castro. Interestingly, Al Jazeera three years ago did not feature any of the similar gloating that occurred in some of the similarly rabid pockets of South Africa when Castro’s great friend and supporter Nelson Mandela died.
Yet even the most grievous propaganda channel will sometimes, perhaps accidentally, provide access to more balanced, representative views. This morning that balanced representation came in the form of 22 year old Elian Gonzalez. In 1999, five-year-old Elian Gonzalez was kidnapped by some of these so-called “exile” fanatics. After a momentous legal battle, he was eventually returned to his father in Cuba. Today Elian Gonzalez, now 22 years old, appeared on Al Jazeera, praising the late Cuban leader.
This moment of sanity was soon relegated, however. To “balance” the testimony of Elian Gonzalez, the host interviewed one Peter Hakim, who rejoices in the splendid title of “president emeritus and senior fellow” of the Inter-American Dialogue. For a couple of minutes, Hakim released, pompously and slowly, a stream of anti-Castro propaganda, and absurdly lied that Castro had been opposed to the democratic developments in Latin America. To hear Peter Hakim telling this lie was especially galling, in view of the fact that in 1994, Hakim stated with equal pomposity, that the U.S. should not be concerned with either human rights or democracy in Haiti, and in fact the democratically elected President Aristide should be deposed, in the usual brutal manner.
https://chomsky.info/199408__/
RT: Chris Hedges ‘On Contact’ Standing Rock protest special
Documentary special by Chris Hedges, veteran war correspondent, as part of his ‘On Contact’ series on RT.
He follows the Water Protectors standing in the way of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Warning this is Chris Hedges on RT – ‘fake news ‘ – the news and the viewpoints that the establishment media doesn’t want you to know and will not cover themselves.
Great piece, Hedges is brilliant. He also mentions that Trump will make this situation worse