"Sacred futurism views all these stories as powerfully interactive. Our ability to embrace uncertainty with imagination, compassion, and hope affects our role in the unfolding universal story. Joanna Macy has called this the time of the “Great Turning,” and invokes the powerful metaphor of three rivers: “Now, in our time, these three rivers—anguish for our world, scientific breakthroughs, and ancestral teachings—flow together” to help us face the unknown.1 Transformation tends to converge what we consider disparate: birth and death, old and new, despair and hope. Tension between opposites creates the warp and woof of life’s mysteries. Nature requires us to tolerate this tension, and as we learn to flow with it, we discover the essence of transformation."
https://realitysandwich.com/sacred-futurism-radical-enchantment/
“Berry and Swimme describe the tendency for all systems in the universe to generate a cascade of ever-expanding complexity through symmetry-breaking differentiation. As this cascading process continues, higher orders of increasing complexity self-organize, and new systems with new capacities emerge. Although the universe’s complexity expands in a dazzling kaleidoscopic of patterns, everything remains related, interconnected, and in deep communion—the sacred fundament of cosmic evolution.”
“In the 1960s, Buckminster Fuller gave a powerful call to the world: “We are called to be the architects of the future, not its victims.” To this he added an equally powerful and provocative challenge: “[to] make the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone.”
Just last night I was having a similar – parallel if you like – conversation with our lead process engineer, surrounded by a heavy industrial plant the very antithesis of a food forest. Yet the motivations were not a million miles apart. The crucial theme I would underscore from your comment is the idea that we all bring something of value to the table because of our differences.
This is the reason why I so vociferously resist the idea that the world is 'overpopulated'. By contrast I see each individual, each unique with their own experience and identity – as also being connected at a level we have yet to properly appreciate. Let me try an analogy (as risky as they are around here).
A child growing up has a sense of belonging to a family, but until perhaps their late adolescence or early adulthood, lacks the ability to understand the emotional, social and economic bonds that brought and held their family together. If I extend the this to the idea that humanity collectively sits on the cusp of a similar transition into early adulthood – then perhaps we are also just beginning to be able to properly conceive of how all humans – indeed all life at some level – shares an unbreakable bond.
Once that idea becomes more visible to more of us – then I suggest that finding common purpose, common will and action will come more easily to us.
"This is the reason why I so vociferously resist the idea that the world is 'overpopulated'. By contrast I see each individual, each unique with their own experience and identity – as also being connected at a level we have yet to properly appreciate. "
It's as if you accessed my mind and harvested one of my primary thoughts 🙂
If each individual is "unique with their own experience and identity – as also being connected at a level we have yet to properly appreciate", it does not follow that the world is not overpopulated.
Take some time to look around this source. Contrary to what many people still imagine the peak rate of human population growth was way back in 1968, We've been slowing down ever since.
It's my view that much environmental pessimism is rooted in a Malthusian bigotry, the extremes of which were openly shared by the Unabomber, the ChCh and El Paso terrorists. They all took the time to explain in writing that they believed overpopulation, mass immigration from poorer countries would destroy the environment. Not nice company – no matter how much you would repudiate their acts, there isn’t much daylight between your motivations.
And so, as you listen to the purveyors of doom on the television and the radio, and read apocalyptic predictions of humanity’s future on Twitter and in the newspapers, bear in mind that with every hungry mouth comes a pair of hands and a brain capable of thought, planning, and innovation.
But none of this was my primary point – that not only does each individual bring an arithmetic increment to the capacity of the human species – but when we understand our common bond and essential unity, our ability to work toward a common purpose expands exponentially.
I’m waiting, but maybe I should stop holding my breath?
As usual, you were very quick to respond and criticize my Moderation note. I gave you the opportunity to step up to the mike and all we hear is crickets.
So, how about it? Are you going to contribute to the debate or continue with your needling and one-liners, and spit the dummy and walk away when you don’t get your way?
You know your lack of selfawareness is quite breathtaking, you of the snarky little comments and what have to be deliberate missings of the point (because who could really be that dense?). You didn't notice the sly little implication that anyone claiming overpopulation is a bigot and against immigration?
Hi dipshit, you’re barking up the wrong tree here and wasting (my) time. You want to contribute to debate and respond to the comment by RedLogix @ 1.1.1.1.1 then go ahead, state your case, make your argument, and debate. This is the reason why I lifted your 3-day ban. Instead, you come here barking at me like an angry chihuahua, which makes me regret my reversal. If you’re too stupid to understand that you now have an opportunity to redeem yourself here then maybe I should put you back in the rabbit hole so you can whine to the Easter Bunny again.
Of course if I suggested you were a wankstain of the first water you'd act all offended and pontificate on how unacceptable personal abuse is, wouldn't you. Did you have a go at the selfproclaimed logical one over his illogical suggestion that lesser mortals disagreeing with him must be morally reprehensible? The fuck you did.
Hi ‘gain, dipshit. Ignoring your fuckwittery, for the moment, are you going to add some discussion to the thread in response to RedLogix @ 1.1.1.1.1, which you seemed to be keen on? Or were you merely pretending again? Just give me a clear signal, so that we can move on from here, one way or another, thanks. Please don’t tell me I have to do the donkey work for you and enter the discussion with RedLogix about your pet peeve, whatever that is, just because you want me to. That would be an utterly ridiculously stupid thing to even think. If you have an argument to make to a commenter about their comment then fucking make it and engage in a conversation with that commenter and possibly others. Surely, even you can manage that? You’re heading for the self-martyr cliff and you know it; in your case, it may be a free-fall into the bottomless pit of oblivion. Now, let’s see how fucking stupid you can really be. BTW, you have typed more words in your last couple of utterly wasteful comments than in ages; you must be exhausted after all that mental effort and may want to give it a break before you break down and end up in tears. Just saying, as your friend.
Well, friend, my critique of the poster was pretty clear. The aspect I engaged with, which you seem to be wilfully ignoring, is his preemptive claim that disagreement with his view, ie environmental pessimism, would be due to a Malthusian bigotry, ie a moral shortcoming. Do you think that is a valid way to present an argument? I think it's an arrogant assumption of ones own moral superiority. As to the point he seems to have appropriated, that infinite population growth is infinitely good, it's nonsense for reasons of available space. Several other posters have pointed this out. Wtf d'you need that spelt out?
Oooohhh, is that what you meant when you wrote the following one-liner and for which I gave you a long weekend off?
Did you just set up a wee racist man made of straw there?
No, that was not clear, but I had forgotten to update my Mind-Reader app, sorry.
Subsequently, you wrote this, which ended up in the Trash folder because you were already having the long weekend off:
That’s a bullshit mod note and you know it. The guy equated belief in overpopulation with racism.
Therefore, I thought I’d give you a second chance, to explain and discuss, with Redlogix, which you almost blew and you’re still not completely out of the woods.
Indeed, several others have engaged with RedLogix in a constructive way although not all agreed with him. I may have missed anybody pointing out an issue with racism in his comment to which you were replying, but I take your word for it. Overall, a good discussion thread, mostly; the only ‘outlier’ appears to be you.
Now, if you could address your comments to the right person, i.e., to RedLogix instead of to me, that would be grand. It may have escaped you, but I’m actually not participating in this thread, as such, and I have no intention doing so, even though you apparently want me to do this so badly that it hurts.
I would like to draw a line under this, not waste one more word on it, and move on, especially tonight 🙂
Again spend more time with the source I linked to – all of the developed nations now have almost zero or negative population growth rates. (And this may well be nothing to celebrate in fact.) The only place on earth where growth is not project to slow down this century is Africa. Entirely because it’s the least developed of all the continents.
Secondly while humanity uses roughly half the ice-free land available, our move toward urbanisation means that we actually live on about 3% of it at far higher densities than your numbers suggest.
As agriculture becomes more efficient (we've more than halved the amount of land use per head since 1960) – we're seeing in the developed world land revert back to forest and wilderness.
And finally, as the Simon-Erlich wager so vividly demonstrated, if resources were getting more scarce their price would be increasing over time. With few exceptions – they're not.
None of this means there is no shortage of specific environmental issues that demand attention, but the idea that their solution lies in a genocidal reduction of human population – however you think it might be achieved – is bunk.
I have spent time on that resource (and others like it) and it dosnt change the exponential function (as much as you wish that it would)
Yes we are only capable of using a small portion of the worlds land mass and we are increasingly reducing that which is useful…and that only makes those numbers even worse than they appear at first glance.
Using a monetary measure for anything is a fools errand when 'money' is a human construct which is manipulated for political ends.
Finally, you once again fall back on the bogus argument that anyone who points out the logical fallacy in your position is demanding humanicide dosnt change the reality of the situation…..the world is grossly overpopulated (human)
The effects of this natural 'genocide' will be disproportionally felt by those least equipped to deal with it or enact the system change needed to mitigate it; those that are already the poorest globally. It's incumbent on those of us not in that cohort to actually do what is necessary to prevent this and not wash our hands of the responsibility to help fellow humans.
…when we understand our common bond and essential unity, our [the human species] ability to work toward a common purpose expands exponentially.
Can't wait for that expanding global human population (and so our expanding ability to work toward a common purpose) to implement fixes for anthropogenic global warming and ecosystem collapse.
It's theoretically possible that the corrosive effects of civilisation on spaceship Earth's life-support systems are due to insufficient human crew. Maybe another billion is just what the doctor ordered for that "common purpose" to 'gel' (between, say, China, India and the slighly less populous combined developed world) in time to produce sustainable solutions for our many well-established problems – time will tell.
“We, the undersigned, senior members of the world’s scientific community, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.”
Twenty five years after this original warning, a Second Notice was published in Nature magazine in 2017, signed by 15,372 scientists from 184 nations. This Second Notice looked back at the original warning and evaluated the human response by exploring the available time-series data. It pointed out that with the exception of stabilizing the stratospheric ozone layer, humanity had failed to make sufficient progress in generally solving these foreseen global ecological challenges, and alarmingly, most of them were getting far worse.
I agree entirely that overpopulation is a Malthusian myth. Humanity has the capacity and ability to feed and house the current world population plus 20-40%. As to why we don’t manage to do it currently, despite that surplus of resources? That is a matter of ideologies.
Some would say that the current incarnation of international capitalism is demonstrating its inability to adequately distribute those resources, and is therefore woefully ill equipped to lead us through the global crises that we all face; climate change.
Overconsumption is perhaps the best way we could frame the ‘overpopulation’ arguments that are based around observations of the growing and unjust inequity across humanity?
"As the nations gear up for a World Population Conference to be held in Cairo next September, a Cornell professor has given them something to talk about. He says the number of human beings, currently 5.6 billion and rising, really should be somewhere around 2 billion."
So all the empty houses and food waste do not demonstrate the wasted resources brought about by profit motives?
That food and shelter going to waste isn’t a sign of overconsumption rather than overpopulation problem?
It is a dangerous territory to frame it as such precisely because it can be used to support ideologies that devalue human lives; to oppose that, humanity should be working so that everyone has health, home, food and education. Working towards that can begin with a voluntary reduction in consumption by those of us with the privilege to, wouldn’t you agree?
No one is denying there is overconsumption or waste (misallocation) of resources but that is not the issue…the issue is what level of human population is sustainable on this planet and what is the optimal level of consumption that enables that…those that study complex systems have determined it is considerably less than current and the limits are hard real limits of water, land fertility, biodiversity and pollution (waste)….everything else is subservient to that (in the long run).
Humans have had decades to make co-operative progress on these issues and have not only failed but made things worse.
And I do not disagree with any of what you're saying either, other than the framing as 'overpopulation'. Instead, it is lack of political will and the lack of ability for the vast majority of us to do anything to mitigate the excesses of capitalism; the machinery of the world is subservient to profit motive and status quo rather than real sustainability and the systemic change that is necessary to reach that. I think as peoples needs are met they can be trusted to reduce consumption in myriad of ways, one of which is whether they have children. This is observable already.
You can blame capitalism (or any other ism) but it dosnt change the fact that the world cannot support approaching 8 billion human beings for any length of time and therefore that number will reduce…we can engage with that process or not.
How does expressing the overconsumption of the finite carrying capacity of the earth as overpopulation engage with the process then? Overpopulation has the vaguely sinister solution in the elimination of people rather than the systemic, and not solely individual change that is needed to alter the path that we are on. While nature itself might provide the 'solution' for us, I would prefer to blame that on human systems failing those people who will inevitably hit hardest, instead of potentially blaming individuals for their own existence or seeing widespread death as nature 'healing itself'. Those are misanthropic and unhelpful views.
We are barely managing to feed the population we have; and while we could no doubt distribute food more fairly, and/or change our diet to allow for the production of more calories from our existing resources, the difficulties seem to indicate overpopulation.
There are vast food surpluses in the developed world, as well as unoccupied houses, it really is a matter of redistribution, but that aside, okay, we've done it, we diagnose earth with overpopulation; now what is the next step following that declaration?
What is the next step?….one would expect some sort of population planning (incorporating the necessary distribution) a la the Paris accord on climate….of course what is needed and what eventuates are likely two very different things, much like Paris.(indeed it could be incorporated)
So much for the increased capacity of numbers to problem solve.
'Population planning' may rub up against the UN Declaration of Human Rights and reproductive freedoms, but that aside, this planning entails what? Something akin the One Child policy? How is this enforced and by whom?
I dont think im likely to be called on to write a population strategy for the world but Im quite sure there would be plenty capable ….as to how its implemented and enforced…how are any global treaties enacted and enforced?
There comes to mind a vast number of actions and solutions to our overconsumption and distribution problems, and many have written widely about these, the global productivity and transport networks already exist.
The actions and solutions to overpopulation come to mind too, but throughout history these have been inflicted on the powerless, and IMO inaction to prevent 'nature' from 'solving it for us' is similarly inexcusable.
"From a biophysical perspective, human civilisation is a non-equilibrium thermodynamic or dissipative system that must maintain a minimum level of available exergy to avoid entropic decay and a yet higher level to permit physical growth [4]. From the ecological economics perspective, it can be viewed as an ‘economic superorganism’ that seeks to maximise energy consumption through self-organisation at a large scale [1], or the ‘megamachine’ driven to ever greater size and scope by the enhancing feedbacks of capital accumulation [5]. The Earth System is, however, finite in spatial extent, energetic capacity and overall complexity, and the ongoing expansion of human endeavours has and will continue to result in the Earth System’s limits being exceeded and the system being moved out of equilibrium. The Earth System (characterised as ‘Gaia’) is a self-regulating mechanism [6], and observable shifts in the behaviour of Earth Systems may be manifestations of balancing feedbacks resulting from the strong and growing perturbation from human activities. These may have the potential to fundamentally undermine the agriculture-based civilisation that has flourished in benign Holocene conditions."
I don't find much to agree with you Redlogix but absolutely with you 100% on this one. The best cure for any tendency towards overpopulation is to raise standards of living and increase access to free education. Its easy as that.
I was not expressing an opinion as to whether the world is or is not overpopulated, but merely pointing out a non sequitur. However, our capacity to feed the the current world population seems to depend on the use of synthetic fertilizers; and, according to a recent article in New Scientist, such use seems to be upsetting nature's nitrogen balance, and will eventually lead to disaster.
I wonder if it is that any announcer saying "Russia" instead of "Russian Olympic Committee" will be sacked?
The farce of letting the Russians, drug cheats, compete but by punishing them hideously by saying they must be called the "Russian Olympic Committee" should be unbelievable. It isn't though.
What chance some small country would have been accorded the same treatment if they'd done the same as the Russians?
The stuff article is a good one. Well done to Ian Anderson for the research.
Oh dear – how sad especially for farmers whose plight was the original motivation when a NZ Government looked after the country ahead of the plunderers.
The answer would have been NZ's own shipping company as was established under the Kirk Government to prevent such problems.
Yes – undone by Roger Douglas! No doubt his mates did well out of the deal!
All eyes on NSW's bugled lockdown and a premier who is economical with the truth, a federal treasurer suggesting they'll cause a recession and a PM who's not even bothered reprimanding his own consirapacy – anti vaxxing colleagues.
Covid doesn't care and appears to have grasped the opportunity. Epic leadership failure from the ‘blue light’ state.
They have as predicted, brought in the army and hefty fines. Time is ticking. Their neighbour, QLD has closed their border and is terrified of the renegades who sneak across this huge borderline between the states.
"The fortunes of the two classes; the securely housed and the others, are intimately connected. The solution is not to rant simplistically that more supply is the only answer, or to hanker after a capital gains tax. The horse has bolted. We need to use the resources in housing more intelligently.
From an economics perspective the current situation has resulted in a gross misallocation of resources and a sharply divided society in which we are gifting the rich and their children a
reason not to contribute through useful paid work. Upgrading the family home to a mansion is a highly tax advantaged way to accumulate wealth. Developers have an incentive to produce new builds for the investor class, who can avoid the recent demand-side impositions. All these activities divert scarce building resources away from providing basic housing for low- income New Zealanders."
Thanks, pat. I enjoy reading Susan St Johns contributions.
I don't know if I agree with her solution, but she does eloquently state the problem – and why it is such a problem. Many media articles limit the housing issue to "I/We/My kids can't afford to buy a house", when we are housing many children in motels or worse. "Carring" them instead of caring.
"Conversion practices have no place in modern New Zealand. They are based on the false belief that any person's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression is broken and in need of fixing.
"Health professionals, religious leaders and human rights advocates here and overseas have spoken out against these practices as harmful and having the potential to perpetuate prejudice, discrimination and abuse towards members of rainbow communities."
Though there doesn't seem to be much room for historical redress, at least those injured by being force-fed the poisoned chalice of self hatred will be better able to seek treatment. It is weird talking to Leitis about the exorcisms trusted community leaders convinced their families to subject them to as children. Plural Leitis!
Proviso: As long as appropriate counselling and support services for children presenting with body and gender dysphoria does not fall under this large umbrella.
I'm concerned this particular law change may have long-term consequences for children if clumsily applied. (Which on reflection, probably makes it a bad law change made with good intent.)
Having lived with a national-level rower I give huge respect to the 24-7 dedication that New Zealand rowers have done for 12 years to get to this point.
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What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
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Sacred futurism.
"Sacred futurism views all these stories as powerfully interactive. Our ability to embrace uncertainty with imagination, compassion, and hope affects our role in the unfolding universal story. Joanna Macy has called this the time of the “Great Turning,” and invokes the powerful metaphor of three rivers: “Now, in our time, these three rivers—anguish for our world, scientific breakthroughs, and ancestral teachings—flow together” to help us face the unknown.1 Transformation tends to converge what we consider disparate: birth and death, old and new, despair and hope. Tension between opposites creates the warp and woof of life’s mysteries. Nature requires us to tolerate this tension, and as we learn to flow with it, we discover the essence of transformation."
https://realitysandwich.com/sacred-futurism-radical-enchantment/
“Berry and Swimme describe the tendency for all systems in the universe to generate a cascade of ever-expanding complexity through symmetry-breaking differentiation. As this cascading process continues, higher orders of increasing complexity self-organize, and new systems with new capacities emerge. Although the universe’s complexity expands in a dazzling kaleidoscopic of patterns, everything remains related, interconnected, and in deep communion—the sacred fundament of cosmic evolution.”
“In the 1960s, Buckminster Fuller gave a powerful call to the world: “We are called to be the architects of the future, not its victims.” To this he added an equally powerful and provocative challenge: “[to] make the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone.”
Just last night I was having a similar – parallel if you like – conversation with our lead process engineer, surrounded by a heavy industrial plant the very antithesis of a food forest. Yet the motivations were not a million miles apart. The crucial theme I would underscore from your comment is the idea that we all bring something of value to the table because of our differences.
This is the reason why I so vociferously resist the idea that the world is 'overpopulated'. By contrast I see each individual, each unique with their own experience and identity – as also being connected at a level we have yet to properly appreciate. Let me try an analogy (as risky as they are around here).
A child growing up has a sense of belonging to a family, but until perhaps their late adolescence or early adulthood, lacks the ability to understand the emotional, social and economic bonds that brought and held their family together. If I extend the this to the idea that humanity collectively sits on the cusp of a similar transition into early adulthood – then perhaps we are also just beginning to be able to properly conceive of how all humans – indeed all life at some level – shares an unbreakable bond.
Once that idea becomes more visible to more of us – then I suggest that finding common purpose, common will and action will come more easily to us.
"This is the reason why I so vociferously resist the idea that the world is 'overpopulated'. By contrast I see each individual, each unique with their own experience and identity – as also being connected at a level we have yet to properly appreciate. "
It's as if you accessed my mind and harvested one of my primary thoughts 🙂
If each individual is "unique with their own experience and identity – as also being connected at a level we have yet to properly appreciate", it does not follow that the world is not overpopulated.
I'll indulge your little derail this far:
But none of this was my primary point – that not only does each individual bring an arithmetic increment to the capacity of the human species – but when we understand our common bond and essential unity, our ability to work toward a common purpose expands exponentially.
Those are awesome websites. Thanks
Did you just set up a wee racist man made of straw there?
[Take a long weekend off for your ongoing needling here with your dimwitted one liners that add nothing to (the) debate – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 11:07 am.
Ok, you want to debate? Debate then. Make it work or have a break!
I’m waiting, but maybe I should stop holding my breath?
As usual, you were very quick to respond and criticize my Moderation note. I gave you the opportunity to step up to the mike and all we hear is crickets.
So, how about it? Are you going to contribute to the debate or continue with your needling and one-liners, and spit the dummy and walk away when you don’t get your way?
You know your lack of selfawareness is quite breathtaking, you of the snarky little comments and what have to be deliberate missings of the point (because who could really be that dense?). You didn't notice the sly little implication that anyone claiming overpopulation is a bigot and against immigration?
Hi dipshit, you’re barking up the wrong tree here and wasting (my) time. You want to contribute to debate and respond to the comment by RedLogix @ 1.1.1.1.1 then go ahead, state your case, make your argument, and debate. This is the reason why I lifted your 3-day ban. Instead, you come here barking at me like an angry chihuahua, which makes me regret my reversal. If you’re too stupid to understand that you now have an opportunity to redeem yourself here then maybe I should put you back in the rabbit hole so you can whine to the Easter Bunny again.
Of course if I suggested you were a wankstain of the first water you'd act all offended and pontificate on how unacceptable personal abuse is, wouldn't you. Did you have a go at the selfproclaimed logical one over his illogical suggestion that lesser mortals disagreeing with him must be morally reprehensible? The fuck you did.
Hi ‘gain, dipshit. Ignoring your fuckwittery, for the moment, are you going to add some discussion to the thread in response to RedLogix @ 1.1.1.1.1, which you seemed to be keen on? Or were you merely pretending again? Just give me a clear signal, so that we can move on from here, one way or another, thanks. Please don’t tell me I have to do the donkey work for you and enter the discussion with RedLogix about your pet peeve, whatever that is, just because you want me to. That would be an utterly ridiculously stupid thing to even think. If you have an argument to make to a commenter about their comment then fucking make it and engage in a conversation with that commenter and possibly others. Surely, even you can manage that? You’re heading for the self-martyr cliff and you know it; in your case, it may be a free-fall into the bottomless pit of oblivion. Now, let’s see how fucking stupid you can really be. BTW, you have typed more words in your last couple of utterly wasteful comments than in ages; you must be exhausted after all that mental effort and may want to give it a break before you break down and end up in tears. Just saying, as your friend.
Well, friend, my critique of the poster was pretty clear. The aspect I engaged with, which you seem to be wilfully ignoring, is his preemptive claim that disagreement with his view, ie environmental pessimism, would be due to a Malthusian bigotry, ie a moral shortcoming. Do you think that is a valid way to present an argument? I think it's an arrogant assumption of ones own moral superiority. As to the point he seems to have appropriated, that infinite population growth is infinitely good, it's nonsense for reasons of available space. Several other posters have pointed this out. Wtf d'you need that spelt out?
Oooohhh, is that what you meant when you wrote the following one-liner and for which I gave you a long weekend off?
No, that was not clear, but I had forgotten to update my Mind-Reader app, sorry.
Subsequently, you wrote this, which ended up in the Trash folder because you were already having the long weekend off:
Therefore, I thought I’d give you a second chance, to explain and discuss, with Redlogix, which you almost blew and you’re still not completely out of the woods.
Indeed, several others have engaged with RedLogix in a constructive way although not all agreed with him. I may have missed anybody pointing out an issue with racism in his comment to which you were replying, but I take your word for it. Overall, a good discussion thread, mostly; the only ‘outlier’ appears to be you.
Now, if you could address your comments to the right person, i.e., to RedLogix instead of to me, that would be grand. It may have escaped you, but I’m actually not participating in this thread, as such, and I have no intention doing so, even though you apparently want me to do this so badly that it hurts.
I would like to draw a line under this, not waste one more word on it, and move on, especially tonight 🙂
Which all ignores the exponential function….until such time as population growth turns negative any growth rate is problematic.
1968 growth rate 2.09%…additional annual population 73 million
2020 growth rate 1.05%…additional annual population 81 million
but even more apparent…
Population density 1968 24 people per km2
Population density 2020 52 people per km2
A mere 50 years
And co-operation goes out the window when theres a dearth of resources
Again spend more time with the source I linked to – all of the developed nations now have almost zero or negative population growth rates. (And this may well be nothing to celebrate in fact.) The only place on earth where growth is not project to slow down this century is Africa. Entirely because it’s the least developed of all the continents.
Secondly while humanity uses roughly half the ice-free land available, our move toward urbanisation means that we actually live on about 3% of it at far higher densities than your numbers suggest.
As agriculture becomes more efficient (we've more than halved the amount of land use per head since 1960) – we're seeing in the developed world land revert back to forest and wilderness.
And finally, as the Simon-Erlich wager so vividly demonstrated, if resources were getting more scarce their price would be increasing over time. With few exceptions – they're not.
None of this means there is no shortage of specific environmental issues that demand attention, but the idea that their solution lies in a genocidal reduction of human population – however you think it might be achieved – is bunk.
I have spent time on that resource (and others like it) and it dosnt change the exponential function (as much as you wish that it would)
Yes we are only capable of using a small portion of the worlds land mass and we are increasingly reducing that which is useful…and that only makes those numbers even worse than they appear at first glance.
Using a monetary measure for anything is a fools errand when 'money' is a human construct which is manipulated for political ends.
Finally, you once again fall back on the bogus argument that anyone who points out the logical fallacy in your position is demanding humanicide dosnt change the reality of the situation…..the world is grossly overpopulated (human)
We don't have to resort to genocide. Nature will accomplish that for us.
something some appear unwilling to understand
The effects of this natural 'genocide' will be disproportionally felt by those least equipped to deal with it or enact the system change needed to mitigate it; those that are already the poorest globally. It's incumbent on those of us not in that cohort to actually do what is necessary to prevent this and not wash our hands of the responsibility to help fellow humans.
Can't wait for that expanding global human population (and so our expanding ability to work toward a common purpose) to implement fixes for anthropogenic global warming and ecosystem collapse.
It's theoretically possible that the corrosive effects of civilisation on spaceship Earth's life-support systems are due to insufficient human crew. Maybe another billion is just what the doctor ordered for that "common purpose" to 'gel' (between, say, China, India and the slighly less populous combined developed world) in time to produce sustainable solutions for our many well-established problems – time will tell.
I agree entirely that overpopulation is a Malthusian myth. Humanity has the capacity and ability to feed and house the current world population plus 20-40%. As to why we don’t manage to do it currently, despite that surplus of resources? That is a matter of ideologies.
Some would say that the current incarnation of international capitalism is demonstrating its inability to adequately distribute those resources, and is therefore woefully ill equipped to lead us through the global crises that we all face; climate change.
Overconsumption is perhaps the best way we could frame the ‘overpopulation’ arguments that are based around observations of the growing and unjust inequity across humanity?
Those that study it dont agree with you
"As the nations gear up for a World Population Conference to be held in Cairo next September, a Cornell professor has given them something to talk about. He says the number of human beings, currently 5.6 billion and rising, really should be somewhere around 2 billion."
https://donellameadows.org/archives/the-most-undiscussable-topic-in-the-world/
So all the empty houses and food waste do not demonstrate the wasted resources brought about by profit motives?
That food and shelter going to waste isn’t a sign of overconsumption rather than overpopulation problem?
It is a dangerous territory to frame it as such precisely because it can be used to support ideologies that devalue human lives; to oppose that, humanity should be working so that everyone has health, home, food and education. Working towards that can begin with a voluntary reduction in consumption by those of us with the privilege to, wouldn’t you agree?
No one is denying there is overconsumption or waste (misallocation) of resources but that is not the issue…the issue is what level of human population is sustainable on this planet and what is the optimal level of consumption that enables that…those that study complex systems have determined it is considerably less than current and the limits are hard real limits of water, land fertility, biodiversity and pollution (waste)….everything else is subservient to that (in the long run).
Humans have had decades to make co-operative progress on these issues and have not only failed but made things worse.
And I do not disagree with any of what you're saying either, other than the framing as 'overpopulation'. Instead, it is lack of political will and the lack of ability for the vast majority of us to do anything to mitigate the excesses of capitalism; the machinery of the world is subservient to profit motive and status quo rather than real sustainability and the systemic change that is necessary to reach that. I think as peoples needs are met they can be trusted to reduce consumption in myriad of ways, one of which is whether they have children. This is observable already.
You can blame capitalism (or any other ism) but it dosnt change the fact that the world cannot support approaching 8 billion human beings for any length of time and therefore that number will reduce…we can engage with that process or not.
How does expressing the overconsumption of the finite carrying capacity of the earth as overpopulation engage with the process then? Overpopulation has the vaguely sinister solution in the elimination of people rather than the systemic, and not solely individual change that is needed to alter the path that we are on. While nature itself might provide the 'solution' for us, I would prefer to blame that on human systems failing those people who will inevitably hit hardest, instead of potentially blaming individuals for their own existence or seeing widespread death as nature 'healing itself'. Those are misanthropic and unhelpful views.
You may choose to take that intent of meaning from the term 'overpopulation' it dosnt mean it is there.
I would suggest it is difficult to address something if its existence is denied or it is misidentified…..as it has proven to be.
We are barely managing to feed the population we have; and while we could no doubt distribute food more fairly, and/or change our diet to allow for the production of more calories from our existing resources, the difficulties seem to indicate overpopulation.
There are vast food surpluses in the developed world, as well as unoccupied houses, it really is a matter of redistribution, but that aside, okay, we've done it, we diagnose earth with overpopulation; now what is the next step following that declaration?
What is the next step?….one would expect some sort of population planning (incorporating the necessary distribution) a la the Paris accord on climate….of course what is needed and what eventuates are likely two very different things, much like Paris.(indeed it could be incorporated)
So much for the increased capacity of numbers to problem solve.
'Population planning' may rub up against the UN Declaration of Human Rights and reproductive freedoms, but that aside, this planning entails what? Something akin the One Child policy? How is this enforced and by whom?
I dont think im likely to be called on to write a population strategy for the world but Im quite sure there would be plenty capable ….as to how its implemented and enforced…how are any global treaties enacted and enforced?
There comes to mind a vast number of actions and solutions to our overconsumption and distribution problems, and many have written widely about these, the global productivity and transport networks already exist.
The actions and solutions to overpopulation come to mind too, but throughout history these have been inflicted on the powerless, and IMO inaction to prevent 'nature' from 'solving it for us' is similarly inexcusable.
"From a biophysical perspective, human civilisation is a non-equilibrium thermodynamic or dissipative system that must maintain a minimum level of available exergy to avoid entropic decay and a yet higher level to permit physical growth [4]. From the ecological economics perspective, it can be viewed as an ‘economic superorganism’ that seeks to maximise energy consumption through self-organisation at a large scale [1], or the ‘megamachine’ driven to ever greater size and scope by the enhancing feedbacks of capital accumulation [5]. The Earth System is, however, finite in spatial extent, energetic capacity and overall complexity, and the ongoing expansion of human endeavours has and will continue to result in the Earth System’s limits being exceeded and the system being moved out of equilibrium. The Earth System (characterised as ‘Gaia’) is a self-regulating mechanism [6], and observable shifts in the behaviour of Earth Systems may be manifestations of balancing feedbacks resulting from the strong and growing perturbation from human activities. These may have the potential to fundamentally undermine the agriculture-based civilisation that has flourished in benign Holocene conditions."
https://www.interest.co.nz/sites/default/files/embedded_images/sustainability-13-08161.pdf
Lovely links cheers
I don't find much to agree with you Redlogix but absolutely with you 100% on this one. The best cure for any tendency towards overpopulation is to raise standards of living and increase access to free education. Its easy as that.
[I’ll indulge your little derail this far:]
I was not expressing an opinion as to whether the world is or is not overpopulated, but merely pointing out a non sequitur. However, our capacity to feed the the current world population seems to depend on the use of synthetic fertilizers; and, according to a recent article in New Scientist, such use seems to be upsetting nature's nitrogen balance, and will eventually lead to disaster.
Tell me they are a drug cheat without saying they are a drug cheat lol
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/300365971/rowings-surprise-package-the-main-obstacle-to-emma-twiggs-olympic-redemption
I wonder if it is that any announcer saying "Russia" instead of "Russian Olympic Committee" will be sacked?
The farce of letting the Russians, drug cheats, compete but by punishing them hideously by saying they must be called the "Russian Olympic Committee" should be unbelievable. It isn't though.
What chance some small country would have been accorded the same treatment if they'd done the same as the Russians?
The stuff article is a good one. Well done to Ian Anderson for the research.
Huge shoutout to Portia Woodman and team for going deep into a 21 point hill, and still coming back with the win.
Outstanding mental toughness there team.
Incognito
My question is why does the curser go back to an already filled in space,with out pointing out the that most go to comment,tap away and hit sent
[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.]
Oh dear – how sad especially for farmers whose plight was the original motivation when a NZ Government looked after the country ahead of the plunderers.
The answer would have been NZ's own shipping company as was established under the Kirk Government to prevent such problems.
Yes – undone by Roger Douglas! No doubt his mates did well out of the deal!
What is this about? What has upset the farmers that causes this comment today?
Sorry, didn't check that the link had attached.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/125900465/pressure-ramps-up-for-nz-to-charter-its-own-ships
All eyes on NSW's bugled lockdown and a premier who is economical with the truth, a federal treasurer suggesting they'll cause a recession and a PM who's not even bothered reprimanding his own consirapacy – anti vaxxing colleagues.
Covid doesn't care and appears to have grasped the opportunity. Epic leadership failure from the ‘blue light’ state.
They have as predicted, brought in the army and hefty fines. Time is ticking. Their neighbour, QLD has closed their border and is terrified of the renegades who sneak across this huge borderline between the states.
QLD should be worried, it's got George Christiansen (one of barnaby's lot) attending rallies and whipping up the Qanon'ers etc in Mackay last weekend.
There's a t-shirt about with Barnaby's 'I don't care about melbourne' comment on it dated and attributed to him.
These are members of federal parliament ! Pretty sad.
Military on the streets of Sydney sounds like a terrible idea. Surely this will only heighten the fear and mistrust. smh.
"The fortunes of the two classes; the securely housed and the others, are intimately connected. The solution is not to rant simplistically that more supply is the only answer, or to hanker after a capital gains tax. The horse has bolted. We need to use the resources in housing more intelligently.
From an economics perspective the current situation has resulted in a gross misallocation of resources and a sharply divided society in which we are gifting the rich and their children a
reason not to contribute through useful paid work. Upgrading the family home to a mansion is a highly tax advantaged way to accumulate wealth. Developers have an incentive to produce new builds for the investor class, who can avoid the recent demand-side impositions. All these activities divert scarce building resources away from providing basic housing for low- income New Zealanders."
https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/111527/susan-st-john
An excellent piece by Susan St John that identifies the heart of the problem and offers a potential solution.
Thanks, pat. I enjoy reading Susan St Johns contributions.
I don't know if I agree with her solution, but she does eloquently state the problem – and why it is such a problem. Many media articles limit the housing issue to "I/We/My kids can't afford to buy a house", when we are housing many children in motels or worse. "Carring" them instead of caring.
Good call on criminalising gay conversion therapy! Common sense and well overdue.
+1 KSaysHi
+2
Though there doesn't seem to be much room for historical redress, at least those injured by being force-fed the poisoned chalice of self hatred will be better able to seek treatment. It is weird talking to Leitis about the exorcisms trusted community leaders convinced their families to subject them to as children. Plural Leitis!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/448077/conversion-therapy-widely-discredited-by-science-faafoi
Proviso: As long as appropriate counselling and support services for children presenting with body and gender dysphoria does not fall under this large umbrella.
I'm concerned this particular law change may have long-term consequences for children if clumsily applied. (Which on reflection, probably makes it a bad law change made with good intent.)
Having lived with a national-level rower I give huge respect to the 24-7 dedication that New Zealand rowers have done for 12 years to get to this point.
Huge well done both men and women's teams.