Chris Trotter has written a brilliant piece about the challenges New Zealand faces as catastrophic climate rapidly approaches. He singles out the parliamentary Green Party and its leaders for failing to lead on this matter.
It is a challenge for us as well.
As Rachel a stewart writes, “Virtually everything we argue about and/or discuss relates to climate change/capitalism. Both are intertwined, unchecked and deadly. .”
We must keep the issue of catastrophic climate change front and foremost in all our discussions.
We must pressure for action today.
“Saving the planet and feeding all its people long ago ceased to be a practical proposition. The amount of cultivatable land will shrink – along with the quantity of water necessary to ensure adequate harvests. As the mean global temperature increase passes 2oC, millions of human-beings will begin to starve. What is the correct moral response to famine, disease and conflict on an unprecedented scale? When the boatloads of desperate climate-change refugees start appearing off New Zealand’s coast, what should a Green New Zealand government do?
This is a long way from green technological fixes and rehabilitating four-letter words.
So, too, is deciding what to do when the big container ships and the oil-tankers stop venturing this far south. When the sheer number of super-hurricanes renders voyages too far out into the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans uninsurable. How will a Green government keep the chronically-ill provided with their life-saving pharmaceuticals; and crucial machinery supplied with spare parts; when the flow of these vital imports ceases? How will it keep the lights on and the electric cars powered-up when the snow refuses to fall and the hydro lakes are empty?
Who in today’s Green caucus has the courage to tell New Zealanders that teaching young people the skills required to keep the post-industrial communities of the future functioning is now a matter of urgency. Because in 100 years’ time Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin will be only a fraction of their present size and most of the population will be living in the countryside – where the food is. Which of today’s Greens are working with Maori to preserve the indigenous medical and pharmacological knowledge built-up over the 600 years of non-European occupation of Aotearoa?
Who will dare to tell today’s captains of industry that in 50 years the Internet will be but a memory? That the genocidal global resource wars will kick off with the destruction of the undersea communication cables. That the revolutions, civil and religious wars that roll across the sweltering continents will leave the control hubs for satellite communication unmanned for a generation. That the rocket launching pads will become nesting places for such birds as still fly through Earth’s fetid air.
These are the challenges which Green parties should be preparing us for. The challenges arising out of the fundamental transformations anticipated and demanded in the latest IPCC report. Deluding voters into thinking that somehow the scientists will come up with a way of saving us all: a way which allows capitalism, consumerism and narcissistic individualism to continue unchecked and unmodified; is not something with which any responsible Green should be associated.”
Mike Joy, a courageous and independent scientist, has also warned of us of the need to act now or face catastrophic climate change.
“How many barrels of oil does it take to power the economy? Far from the punchline of a joke, the answer outlined by Dr Mike Joy, a senior researcher at Victoria University of Wellington’s Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, in a public lecture highlights some disturbing truths about our reliance on oil, the importance of energy to the economy, and how we might “transition to a de-carbonised world”.
Starting with the dire warning from more than 20,000 scientists worldwide that “if the world doesn’t act soon, there will be catastrophic biodiversity loss and untold amounts of human misery”, Joy went on to introduce the field of Biophysical Economics and one of its key concepts—Energy return on energy invested (EROI), or “how much energy do you have to put in to get that back?”.
The energy density of our alternatives is so much lower than fossil fuels, but if we want to keep under the 1.5oC threshold, we have to reduce our emissions by 6 percent per year from today,” said Joy.
“Basically we’re going to have to get used to having a whole lot less energy than what we had before, and that’s our only future. We have to figure out how we’re going to do that.”
has also warned of us of the need to act now or face catastrophic climate change.
But isn’t this the opposite of what Trotter is saying? Joy says there is still time to act while Trotter says it’s too late and we should give up and plan for the worst case scenario.
Yet so many governments aren’t ready to face it, let alone try. Capitalism’s all been ‘pay-later’ thinking — little children preferring a definite sweet now to possible sweets later. Feast rather than the long term. Not sure that’s wrong.
As we get to the sharp end of our feast and look out on our children and grandchildren, oblivious in their present comfort to the pre-agricultural deprivation awaiting them , we must do what we can to turn the freighter.
One of the issues with climate change is that it seems so insurmountable that it has become less of a priority against the daily capitalist grind of making money or survival.
Maybe it needs to be put into smaller segments by what each industry should or could be doing for example, insurance, what are they doing (apart from putting up premiums until they refuse to cover the risks), what is dairy farming doing, what are electrical companies doing, what are councils doing, what is transport doing (in Wellington changing to diesel buses for example, FAIL) etc etc
It has to be changed from two words into the practical legislation of prevention and now.
Trotter is a yawn. He has no idea what “Green” is. He can’t understand that greenies care about ecosystems and not just people. That they want to limit the damage to the environment generally and not just say “fuck it”. Watching him try and comment with relevance on the Green Party is akin to watching a chimpanzee studying an internal combustion engine.
He has an agenda here like always. He wishes to attack the Greens as best he can. If it is the survival of working people that is at stake, then why not attack Labour Party policy? He is a stale old school leftie with zero relevance.
Giving up meat is not preparing for the scenario that Trotter is speaking of. Many of the imported vegan protein sources that you eat would not be available. Are you learning what of these crops could be grown here and where, and how to grow them sustainably? Your ignorance of permaculture that you have shown so many times here would suggest not.
I also don’t believe that you gave up meat because of climate change. This is certainly something you like to hang it off along with animal welfare, but your rigidity on the subject shows that it is a personal thing. You have refused to even consider that animals may have a part in permaculture land systems. Grazing chickens in orchards is one example i have given. Mussel farms would be another animal based culture that could both improve the environment and provide good quality protein.
I’m not doing what Trotter suggests because i am a greenie. I am rather working to limit the damage to the environment by participating in a political party with the same aims.
I am though as part of generally being a greenie landscaping and developing my half acre urban property along permaculture principles and practice.
Trotter is a lot like you Ed because basically you are both full of shit.
Is there anything that Trotter actually wrote that you disagree with? If anything I’d rate his sentiments a tad on the alarmist end of the spectrum; but not unreasonable either. So exactly why do you think all this a ‘yawn’?
Or are you just offended because Trotter has strayed on the Green’s widdling patch?
I think i’ve explained above why i find him a yawn.
Going all doom and gloom would be an idiotic strategy for the Greens in the current context. The first step to progress is to get a general consensus to address the problem. Telling people that it is too late to address the problem will not help.
OK that makes more sense; I agree totally. Doom and gloom nihilism is literally a dead-end response. And Trotter is certainly not the only one to have flirted with it either.
But hell, faced with such an overwhelming prospect you can surely have some empathy for where it comes from.
Part of the yawn is that i don’t think Trotter is being genuine but rather taking an angle to attack the Greens. As i point to above, these criticism would be better addressed to Labour as Trotter shows only concern for people and not the environment too.
I’m not going to quibble how you interpret Trotter’s motives; you’re entitled to your reading of him.
Still he isn’t the enemy either, and not every ally is going to map 100% onto your own motives and values. But that doesn’t mean we cannot reach out and work with people where there is some common ground.
When done along sustainable principles yes. Mussels filter the water and remove nitrogen and phosphorus and so can help restore our estuaries and harbours.
Ed, I posted this the other day on TS in relation to Trotter’s latest attack on the Greens…..
Trotter hates the Greens and has never really tried to understand them. He wants rid of them.
He is an unreconstructed Old Lefty and writes very well, often brilliantly, about that sector of traditional left-wing union-dominated politics. Nothing wrong with any of that BTW-all power to the unions.
But why he attacks the Greens when Labour will probably never be able to form a government without the Greens I can’t fathom.
Meanwhile the Greens are polling 7% and doing fine.
They are particularly strong on transport-it will be good when Genter comes back from maternity leave.
Since I wrote the above the Greens have had another policy gain with the retention and refurbishment of 15 electric locos that should help to get freight out of trucks and on to rail. Not all Green policies are climate change related; many have major social gains.
Actual result was Greens 6.2% while NZ first 7.2% One was up on trend the other was down .
2014 election had Greens polling on say 12.2% while election result was 10.7% and similar in 2011.
7% is not doing fine , its saying they will get much the same as now, which is a ‘setback’
“For around 5,000 years we’ve had a problem as a species. We have lived in hierarchies for most of that time. A few people at the top have control over what the rest of us do.
“And, if we’re honest with ourselves, we know this has never really worked. Because if it had, why has there generally always been poor people at the bottom? Why has there commonly been some human lives that are worth more than others?
“We consider ourselves the most advanced life form on the planet; possibly the universe. Yet throughout our history, the majority of us have willingly accepted a minority telling us what to do. When has it benefited us? And why, in 2018, is society no more truly equal than it was thousands of years ago? Even with all our academic, scientific, and technological advances?
“Today, we may be led to believe that just because we own a car, rent a house, and buy the same shopping each week that we’re ‘more equal’ to Richard Branson than Egyptian slaves were to their Pharaoh. Looks can be deceptive. Because it’s all relative. Many of us may not be physical slaves – but only the Richard Bransons truly have freedom in 21st century society.”
“Original sin
“But moreover, why do we still put up with these damaging hierarchies?
“It’s called greed and power. The first is a human desire; forged over thousands of years by hierarchies. One that tells us having more stuff makes us better than our neighbour. The second is almost a drug, that corrupts many people who have it. Those at the top push both as being in reach of those at the bottom. Together, they’re what drive benefit cuts; make people homeless; allow fracking and destroy the NHS. But now, this greed and power from the ‘one percent’ has literally put every species and the planet at risk. And we continue to be complicit in it; consciously or not.
“This has to end.”
“To put it bluntly: we’re fucked. And the only way it will change is by all of us taking drastic action now. We can’t leave it to politicians and corporations to decide. Unless someone can name one point in history when leaving power in the hands of a few has been good for the many? As in every single lifeform on this planet? And when it actually lasted.”
Yes, I would agree with you.
Unless we get rid of capitalism, we are going to see a brutal transition to a simpler sustainable future or even our extinction as a species. It’s that stark.
Our actions have already caused mass rapid extinction that may prove irreversible.
This article came out in the Guardian yesterday.
“Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.
The new estimate of the massacre of wildlife is made in a major report produced by WWF and involving 59 scientists from across the globe. It finds that the vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society ultimately depends for clean air, water and everything else.
“We are sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff” said Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF. “If there was a 60% decline in the human population, that would be equivalent to emptying North America, South America, Africa, Europe, China and Oceania. That is the scale of what we have done.”
“This is far more than just being about losing the wonders of nature, desperately sad though that is,” he said. “This is actually now jeopardising the future of people. Nature is not a ‘nice to have’ – it is our life-support system.”
And there’s more sobering, shocking news about human impacts on the planet.
It all puts the corporate media’s discussions about royal visits, All Blacks’ selections and Jono and Ben’s axing in context. Utter trivia, complete distractions.
The media is a major obstacle to humankind acting immediately to avert the oncoming catastrophe.
Unless we approach the challenge and mobilise as if it were WW3, then we can forget passing a habitable world to our grandchildren.
“Scientists in Canada have warned that massive glaciers in the Yukon territory are shrinking even faster than would be expected from a warming climate – and bringing dramatic changes to the region.
After a string of recent reports chronicling the demise of the ice fields, researchers hope that greater awareness will help the public better understand the rapid pace of climate change.
The rate of warming in the north is double that of the average global temperature increase, concluded the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in its annual Arctic Report Card, which called the warming “unprecedented”.
“The region is one of the hotspots for warming, which is something we’ve come to realize over the last 15 years,” said David Hik of Simon Fraser University. “The magnitude of the changes is dramatic.”
“But moreover, why do we still put up with these damaging hierarchies?
It is a paradox. Hierarchy arises from value. The core reason why humans do anything at all is because when we move from one condition to another, we expect the outcome to be ‘better’. And we can only measure this using values; we constantly stack up and compare, we order from best to worst, we are hardwired to create hierarchies of value.
Translating value into action demands performance. And all humans have different competency and we all perform at different levels. For instance I’m an experienced programmer and understand some of the science; but compared to the towering figures at the centre of the computing revolution, Kurt Goedel, Alan Turing and John von Neuman I’m way, way down the hierarchy of value. And of all the computer people who ever worked in the field, only a tiny fraction will make a real, novel and valuable contribution. The rest of us are mere artisans of varying degrees of skill. Something the Pareto distribution (and it’s close cousin Prices Law) describes.
Every field of human endeavour is organised in hierarchies of value; whether we formalise them or not. They are how we know what is ‘better’ and which direction to move in. Hierarchy in inherent and inevitable; it cannot be eradicated without also demolishing entire value structures. If you ‘end’ all values, precisely what will you do today? What is worth doing anymore? Or is the phrase ‘drastic action’ a code for ‘an orgy of destruction because I’m angry and too ignorant to think of anything better’?
The modern world is massively complex; and it creaks and totters in many vital organs. But the person who wrote this article has no fucking clue how to actually fix it. It amounts to thinking you can usefully improve a precision machine with a sledgehammer … and pretending there will be no consequences when it breaks.
I feel you’ve rather missed the point of the article.
Whether we like it or not, the sledgehammer is poised to strike. We’re not going to even approach the beginning of fixing climate change by tinkering at its edges.
Hence the movement’s title – Extinction Rebellion.
The old ways got us into this mess! Well, let’s be anarchists – tear it all down and see what comes out of it all.
Well, let’s be anarchists – tear it all down and see what comes out of it all.
I promise you, an even bigger mess. The original problems would only get worse, and our capacity to deal with them would eliminated. Not a smart strategy at all.
Look I’m not unsympathetic to the sentiment; I get it. The outlook is bleak and scary and the temptation to advocate for ‘something dramatic’ is real. But also profoundly irresponsible.
I agree that hierarchies of skill and value are unavoidable. People after all are not equally talented, hardworking, etc.
But I don’t believe it’s inevitable, or right, that we jump from that fact into accepting extreme hierarchies of power and reward, which are quite different things.
Yes. Although hierarchy is necessary and unavoidable; it is also prone to being captured and becoming corrupt. Hierarchy endows power which can easily be mis-directed into protecting itself and tilting the rewards unjustly.
A healthy hierarchy provides stability and direction of purpose; while at the same time is open to scrutiny, review and re-invention when the environment changes. In very general terms the right is good at operating the system according to the agreed rules and procedures; the left is good at calling it out when it becomes corrupt and needs refreshing.
No it doesn’t else Donald Trump would be living in a caravan park.
And of all the computer people who ever worked in the field, only a tiny fraction will make a real, novel and valuable contribution.
Actually, it’s probably far more likely that they’re just not properly recognised for the work that they’ve done. I recall the story of the guy who invented industrial diamonds. He spent hundred of hours working for no reward and when he accomplished it the company gave him a $10 gift voucher while stating that the discovery was theirs.
Nope. Capitalism is essentially the economic expression of the Rennaisance idea of the sovereign individual. It links the idea of the right of every individual to equality before the law and equality of opportunity, to the right to private property. It embeds the notion of human right to dignity and security with the capacity to own their body, their labour and the fruits of it.
The notion of private property is a very old one; but when it met the evolution of the modern credit money systems and legally protected in English common law … the result was the broad system we call capitalism. As an economic tool is has been incredibly successful on its own terms; as a social and environmental tool it has deep shortcomings. Capitalism as we have it right now has problems, but it’s not the problem.
You advocate throwing the tool away and hoping something better will come along; I’m arguing that we study the existing tool closely, regard what it does well, understand it’s limitations and why they arise … and carefully engineer a better version.
This is why competent economists like Steven Keen never talk about ‘the end of capitalism’. Instead he devotes time, talent and energy to understanding the system (his Minsky Model is a masterpiece), and works to train the next generation of economic leaders in more sophisticated implementations of what we already have.
Capitalism is essentially the economic expression of the Rennaisance idea of the sovereign individual. It links the idea of the right of every individual to equality before the law and equality of opportunity, to the right to private property. It embeds the notion of human right to dignity and security with the capacity to own their body, their labour and the fruits of it.
No it doesn’t. It embeds the right of the rich to own everything and thus to live the life of kings on the labour of everyone else.
As an economic tool is has been incredibly successful on its own terms; as a social and environmental tool it has deep shortcomings.
Yes, it’s made a few people very rich at everyone else’s expense.
You advocate throwing the tool away and hoping something better will come along;
No I’m not. I’m advocating dropping private ownership of houses, businesses and land. Land and houses will be state owned, city managed. Businesses will be self-owned and run as cooperatives by the people who work in them. There will be no shareholders.
Money to be created by the government and spent into the economy via productive works, 0% interest loans to businesses and a UBI. It won’t be created by private banks whenever they make a loan.
In other words, the system would be very similar to what we have now but without the bludging of shareholders and other forms of unearned income that is detrimental to society.
I’m advocating dropping private ownership of houses, businesses and land. Land and houses will be state owned, city managed. Businesses will be self-owned and run as cooperatives by the people who work in them. There will be no shareholders.
In other words you are saying that your version of communism would be less catastrophic than all the ones tried already. I’m not sure whether to admire your optimistic naivety, or call out the dangerous hubris.
it’s made a few people very rich at everyone else’s expense.
You come back to this point so often I have to conclude Orwell was right; you don’t care so much about the poor as you simply hate the rich. It’s not a promising starting point.
In other words you are saying that your version of communism would be less catastrophic than all the ones tried already.
Communism hasn’t been tried. All we’ve had is other forms of hierarchy which failed as hierarchies always do.
you don’t care so much about the poor as you simply hate the rich.
The present system fails. It has always failed and always will. Eliminating the capitalists will, as a matter of fact, ensure that everyone will get the value that they produce rather than having it syphoned off to bludging shareholders and other rentiers.
The poor will actually be better off as they’ll no longer be paying taxes to the rich.
I first read Gulag Archipelago in my 20’s; it remains one of four or five deeply influential books I’ve ever read.
It’s a chilling and cautionary narrative of one of the most horrible episodes of the 20th century. When I was in Russia about 20 years back I made a point of travelling to the only gulag left in Perm, and just last year a work project took me to Kolyma, the area in Eastern Siberia where the most brutal gulags were located.
And I’ve driven on the “Highway of Bones”. Here are some pics of the region from a random linky:
Yet the there is a deep lesson in Solzhenysen’s work; the entire evil edifice only functioned because the mass of people stopped speaking truth. Everyone knew about it, no-one could speak the truth of it. Yes we are all capable of being utter arseholes, and reading this book permanently convinced me of my own capacity for evil.
Most of us mistake merely being harmless with actively choosing good. Most of us never find ourselves in a situation where we can indulge in being evil with no immediate chance of being caught and sanctioned. Most of the time we don’t do bad things because it’s the easiest thing to do. But faced with the gulags, or concentration camps, or orders to commit genocide … how many of us have the courage to actively choose to be good over evil?
This is what the Archepelago explores. I can barely listen to it now in more than 30 minute segments.
One of the points that Marx raises is the capitalists working people to death. And we still see it happening today. Pike River Mine, logging deaths and more. That’s in NZ. In other countries we see actual murder to keep the capitalists in power.
Do you seriously think, when climate catastrophe strikes, as strike it will, all the norms of society will not be thrown into confusion?
We cannot, simply cannot ‘profit’ our way out of what is coming. We need to already be thinking outside the box, and that will probably mean a complete rethink of the institutions of government.
We simply cannot envisage what shit may happen as a result of catastrophic climate change. But what I do believe is – we can’t solve any of the looming problems by ‘capitalistic’ tinkering.
But frankly any and all suggestions that we have to tear down the global economy in order to deal with this are fucking idiotic. Lets do that, lets stop everything, shut down the economies of the world tomorrow and stop every skerrick of activity that might possibly cause climate change.
Have you any idea how murderous this would be? The resulting chaos, social disruption, violence and famine would put at direct risk the lives of billions; immediately.
And any possible chance to address the problem without a mass die-off would be lost … deliberately. Maybe this is what you want; it’s hard to tell.
RL, I can’t see into the future any more than you can – but, if the entire tropical band north and south of the equator becomes too hot for human life, do you seriously think there won’t be chaos?
Millions, perhaps as many as a billion, of people will be forced to migrate to more equatable climatic areas – at the same time as the grain-lands of Europe and North America will be coming under climate stress. Already some governments in Europe are digging in their toes about accepting more migrants. And the exodus hasn’t even started yet.
Seriously, the decades from 2020 to 2040 could be a clusterfuck of disruption. Hundreds of millions of people will probably die and the institutions of government will struggle to cope with the catastrophe.
I sure as hell don’t know how we’re going to get through to the other side, but I repeat, I think we should be thinking outside the box already.
But perhaps I’m being too pessimistic? Perhaps capitalism will rise to the challenge, solve the climate change problem and make money at the same time!
Of course I understand everything you say above is a real possibility. I’m not neglecting or discounting that at all. But I do know that plunging the global economy into an immediate crisis is a certain route to an even worse outcome.
Every time we use climate change as the end to justify the means of ‘ending capitalism’ we achieve nothing except amplify and confirm the suspicions of most of the population. Most people are not communists or hard radical left. They don’t want a bar of it. Provoking them with useless talk makes an already monumentally difficult task harder.
There is no single silver bullet solution to this; it’s multi-dimensional and complex. No single person, or organisation, or nation on it’s own stands any chance of succeeding.
But 7 billion people can together do it. The trick is getting us together. Learn to be competent and persuasive; find something you can do, however small, and get good at it. Then people will come flocking to offer you bigger opportunities.
I don’t know the future either; but I do know there is only one strategy which optimises our chances of getting through this without too much devastation. Stop tilting at windmills, learn to use the already powerful tools around media, technology and money to make your case positively. The box of ideas and possible tech to get us through this mess is already huge, you don’t need to invent anything original or unique. Surround yourself with people who know what they are doing and ally yourself with them, even when at first brush you don’t agree with them.
The challenge could turn out even more monstrous than either of us imagine. But we’ve lost already unless we face it skillfully. I don’t intend to be mean here, but recycled neo-marxist tosh will not cut mustard.
I’m posting this for those involved in any manner with Canterbury re drought. Please pass this on. The methods as outlined here involve restoration of eroded outlets and installation of ‘dams’ that retain water to be infiltrated into the land. Plantings are also essential for the shade and infiltration aspects provided, including the build up of organic matter which increases a soils capacity for holding water, and decreasing evaporation.
Get cracking showing how it works on a model farm in the drought area. (You do have a decent hydrologist/ecologist/permie designer in your ranks??) Within a couple of years other farmers will be lined up to get their land rehydrated.
The drainage systems covering our country can be converted to retaining water (and draining excess) easily. Simple floodgate control at storm culverts will enable rehydration of the land.
It’s not a far stretch to show how with similar methods you can also turn riparian scrub into highly productive aquaculture/silviculture re: the late Charles Mitchell’s farm. I know his system, too.
Refill the aquifers, restore the landscape. Consultation available. Time wasters will be shredded by my Aspie ire.
Sounds like the opposite of where NZ is going and taking the water out of the aquifers and not being vigilant against ground water pollution, instead these farmers are tying to restore natural water systems, pre colonial times, against drought.
I watched this last night. It is a prime example of exactly the kind of competent and effective response we truly need to beat this bastard.
Quit the bickering and bitching; watch this and be impressed. Be inspired, and then look around at your own life, look for what is immediately in front of you and fix that first.
My partner has a wry joke that goes “If you’re going to learn cross-country skiing, start with a small country first”.
Then come back here, tell us your success story and help others.
Humankind spawned “this bastard” – the mystery is why we continue to nuture it in spite of known threats.
Maybe partly to do with the fact the many (some more than most) have done very well from ‘it’, at least in the short term.
“The current economic system being utilized and internalized relies on perpetual growth. It has long operated counter to the reality that we are confined to a finite planet with finite resources. Yet, this system continues to be practiced and promoted globally. As the environmental and social repercussions of disbelief in limits become increasingly clear, so does our need for a new economic system —one that is not wedded to growth. Neither growth in the number of consumers nor growth in the amount consumed.”
“So far the politicians and economists are so wedded to growth that they insist that economic growth is itself the main characteristic of sustainable development.” – a fine example of magical thinking; our leaders have so many constraints on their imaginations.
Yes I largely agree with this DK; but to most people the idea of de-growth is deeply unattractive. There are profound psychological reasons why; and it would make a great tangential discussion to explore them.
Look most people have a fair clue that the current setup is a bit fucked. And there are many, many people at least a little open to the idea of changing the way we organise our economies if we can present a competent, credible alternative plan.
No-one wants to go back to medieval living standards; they just won’t voluntarily go there. And there are tens of thousands of people out there right now working on ways to solve the problem. Not all of them will work, but some will. They need our help and encouragement. They need us to be good at this; they don’t need us sitting about renting sackcloth.
And don’t discount the possibility that an entire raft of new tech, some of it very close to coming online, like solid state lithium batteries, perovskite enhanced PV’s, a whole generation of graphene based materials and techniques, HVDC global grids and on to whole rafts of research I’ve never heard of … all have the potential to transform our resource intensity dramatically. We have to bet on this.
And I understand that at core, it is the human heart that will prove most stubborn to change. But at least it can and will change with zero carbon footprint 🙂
Has Jacinda Ardern spoken out about this yet? And if not, why not?
… The protests were launched to demand the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees to their villages and towns in what is now Israel, and to call for an end to Israel’s blockade. They culminated on 14 May, on the day of the US embassy’s move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, when Palestinians commemorate the displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands in 1948-9 during the conflict following the creation of the state of Israel. On that day alone, Israeli forces killed 59 Palestinians, in a horrifying example of use of excessive force and live ammunition against protesters who did not pose an imminent threat to life.
The organizers of the “Great March of Return” have repeatedly stated that the protests are intended to be peaceful, and they have largely involved demonstrators protesting near the fence that separates the Gaza Strip from Israel. Despite this, the Israeli army reinforced its forces – deploying tanks, military vehicles and soldiers, including snipers, along the Gaza/Israel fence – and gave orders to shoot anyone within several hundred metres of the fence.
While some protesters have engaged in some forms of violence including by burning tyres, flying incendiary kites or throwing stones and Molotov cocktails in the direction of Israeli soldiers, social media videos, as well as eyewitness testimonies gathered by Amnesty International, Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups show that Israeli soldiers shot unarmed protesters, bystanders, journalists and medical staff approximately 150-400m from the fence, where they did not pose any threat. ….
Wierd scenes eh Morrissey in the wake of the shooting in the states of the jews in the synagog …maybe my hearings not the best …but i didnt hear a single news outlet explore the possibility thet the reason they got shot might have been something to do with the fact israel shoots palistinians with total impunity on a regular basis .Nope according to the worlds reporters its ANTI SEMITISM .
“As Facebook and Twitter are purging alternative media outlets, a neoconservative operative at a US government-funded think tank says more censorship is on its way. Max Blumenthal and Jeb Sprague discuss how scaremongering over Russia and China is being exploited to silence dissent on social media.”
This Russian fantasy nonsense, lazily recycling Hillary Clinton’s campaign crap, is just as rabid here. Two of the very worst are John Campbell and Bernard Hickey. And then there’s THIS ignoramus….
Very funny, Gabbieva. But seriously, now, listening to the likes of Campbell and Mulligan channel British and U.S. black propaganda is a hard listen, isn’t it.
The major problem with hydrogen is storing it effectively. The damn molecule is so small that most metals and materials are like tissue paper to it; it just migrates out of the vessel and is lost at a rate that is very hard to engineer around.
The good news is that graphene (apart from being a bloody wonder material in so many other respects) looks like it has some real potential to solve this key problem:
About time Phil woke up to save the electric rail system as he was previously “sidelined by false reports coming out of MBIE old “cherry picked” documents National had made up to show rail was not worth saving or ‘viable’ so twyford thought rail was dead. Thank christ he has come to his senses not a minute to soon.
Our letter to Minister of transport Phil twyford last week;
Protecting our environment & health.
In association with other Community Groups, NHTCF and all Government Agencies since 2001.
• Health and wellbeing.
• East Coast Transport Project.
TO;
Hon Phil Twyford – Minister of Transport.
Hon’ Jacinda Ardern PM.
Hon Winston Peters. Deputy PM.
Hon’ Shane Jones. Minister of Regional Development.
Hon’ Grant Robertson. Minister of Finance.
Hon’ Stuart Nash. MP For Napier Wairoa/ Matawai regions.
Hon’ Megan Woods. Minister of Energy.
URGENT PRESS RELEASE; – ACTION NEEDED HERE BY – Transport Minister Twyford.
26th October 2018.
Dear Ministers, Local civic authorities & rail stakeholders,
Here is an important study paper from October 11, 2018 by Cody Januszko, Carnegie Mellon University Department of Engineering and Public Policy Transporting freight by road accounts for around seven percent of the world’s total energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Recognizing that heavy road freight is particularly hard to decarbonize, says the paper here.
But the report also claims roads are subsidised by us for truck freight so we need to level the playing field now in favour of “encouraging more rail freight services in all our exporting regions now and not delay the move back to rail freight any more.
QUOTE; “In the U.S., railroads own their own tracks, so they have to build their own infrastructure,” says Vaishnav, an assistant research professor in EPP. “Trucking uses public infrastructure, but does not bear the full cost of the damage heavy trucks do to roads and other infrastructure and indeed to the environment.”
Here attached above are the electronic copies of four of the studies on the benefits of rail we advocate, and Gisborne District Council has produced called “The socio-economic & environmental loss of rail for the Gisborne District” -2012 and we strongly endorse this study report.
We now want all Government agencies to have a copy so distribute anywhere as they need to be mentioned to Government and others as evidence for our cal to restore the Gisborne Napier- Wellington rail service again.
* 6-249607-Socio-economic_&_environmental_impacts_of_loss_of_rail_-on May_2012 (2) *BERL Report November/Dec 2012.
*”The value of rail in NZ produced 2016 by national and kept hidden and released by Labour Minister of transport Phil Twyford Feb 2018. (Plus press release promising regional rail.) (Twyford) then kiwi rail press cover of rail study.
*Bolland report produced for Ministry of Transport 2010 but kept hidden by National and never released. Shows rail saved NZ lots of money and without rail how much a year it costs us.
The electric wire catenary system is only ever going to be partial – it will never replace the need for a diesel fleet, because it is never going to stretch all the way from Whangarei to Bluff to Nightcaps to Whanganui – or indeed to Gisborne.
If Twyford gets a really good case from NZTA and Kiwirail to replace the entire fleet to a new carbon efficient system, that is good for the country. On all sorts of policy dimensions.
The rebuilt of the old electric trains only buys them a decade of future operation if they are lucky. That buys them a bit of time.
There is a good case to replace the entire rail engine system, rip out the electric system completely, and have a major national mode that needs neither electricity generation nor petroleum as its main energy base. Nothing like a good strong innovation case for a further massive step-change in rail.
The rebuilt of the old electric trains only buys them a decade of future operation if they are lucky.
The EF class is around 32 years old, but it can be considered mid-life with a decent electrical overhaul. The fantastic old DFB’s and DX’s date back to the 60’s and 70’s and mechanically are still trucking along fine.
Ah yes there is a tiny little bit of unreconstructed railfan in me 🙂
I am interested in any information on the use of regenerative braking on central north island electric locos gooogle seems not to be my friend today (ie i havent found the right question yet) any links anyone on this subject.
“The locomotives are supplied electricity from 25 kV AC overhead lines. These lines draw electricity from New Zealand’s national grid at four locations along the electrified section: Bunnythorpe, Tangiwai, Taumarunui, and Hamilton. The locomotives are fitted with regenerative braking as well as regular air brakes, so the traction motors can be turned into generators when the locomotive is coasting downhill and feed electricity back into the overhead lines and the national grid.”
“Key global locomotive manufacturers such as GE, EMD, and Vossloh have embraced the notion of the hybrid diesel locomotive while Siemens, Alstom, Bombardier, Mitsubishi, and Kawasaki have committed to the electrical systems approach with their offerings. All of these manufacturers have commercialized vehicles and systems which are now finding their way onto the global stage”.
thanks cleangreen, i had found the wikipedia claim that they “feed electricity back into the overhead lines and the national grid.” and so I have always believed, but so far I cannot find any confirmation of this claim or technical details which concerns me given that power is supplied as 25Kv 50hz. of course as they are being given an electrical upgrade in 2018 achieving this is very do-able but I would like to be confident that is is and will be done.
I can confirm that this happens at least in some locations. Reinjected power is at 55 kV. I wouldn’t say the quantity of electricity reinjected was huge, but no doubt every little helps.
My understanding the power generated during braking is dumped as heat by large resisters on the locos.
Thats apart from the brakes themselves for lower speeds.
and objectives,
a solution that will return maximum return to investors/shareholders may well be different to one that provides best cost benefit to users/public
so the question becomes who do they take their advice from.
Since rail is a publicly owned system the investment framework for it is through the NLTP. That’s where it gets reconciled however imperfectly. Next NLTP version will be smoother.
>It’s always the benefit horizons that bedevil rail investment compared to road.
Are you saying that rail doesn’t typically tend to stand up over a standard length CBA (20-30 yrs) but pays off over a longer term (Say 50 yrs), and that this holds in this particular case too?
Interesting that the NZTA was assuming top ‘principal position as transport advisor to Government on transport” but “NZTA is only a road controlling authority” (RTA).
Ministry of transport (MoT) is the “key principal advisor to Government” for all forms of transport” – not NZTA!!!!!!
So Labour/NZF need to amend this anomaly and fund equally Ministry of Transport (MoT) as they do NZTA in future.
About the Ministry of Transport
Last updated on: 14/08/2018
The Ministry of Transport is the government’s principal transport adviser. The majority of our work is in providing policy advice and support to Ministers.
Through our advice we aim to:
improve the overall performance of the transport system
improve the performance of transport Crown entities
achieve better value for money for the government from its investment in the transport system.
We help the government give effect to its policy by supporting the development of legislation, regulations and rules. We also manage and account for funds invested in transport.
The Ministry represents New Zealand’s interests internationally, particularly in aviation and maritime.
We work with Crown entities
We assist the government in its relationship with the transport Crown entities to ensure they are effectively governed, and are accountable for their performance and monitoring arrangements for transport sector Crown entities.
Visit the Transport Sector Functions page for more information
We work with local government authorities
Local government authorities own, maintain and develop New Zealand’s local road network and perform important regulatory functions. Regional councils (and unitary authorities) are required to develop regional land transport strategies that guide the decision-making of local councils. In the Auckland region, the Auckland Transport carries out these functions. Some local authorities own seaports and airports, or share ownership with the Crown.
> So Labour/NZF need to amend this anomaly and fund equally Ministry of Transport (MoT) as they do NZTA in future.
Sorry but you have no idea. NZTA needs billions of dollars per year to fund the country’s land transport network. MOT is just a few bureaucrats – bums on seats.
Significant increases in commercial truck loadings across the Saskatchewan road network have resulted in accelerated damage to the provincial highway system. This accelerated damage has decreased the expected performance life of many of these roads and also increased maintenance and rehabilitation requirements and costs.
Unquote;
Antoine; – It is because truck freight who are responsible wholly for totally wrecking our roads and causing the road maintenance to accelerate to such high levels now we need to change road freight companies the full cost of their damages now.
You need to learn the real truth here.
Here is an important study paper from October 11, 2018 by Cody Januszko, at the Carnegie Mellon University Department of Engineering and Public Policy Transporting freight by road accounts for around seven percent of the world’s total energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Recognizing that heavy road freight is particularly hard to decarbonize, says the paper here.
But the report also claims roads are subsidised by us for truck freight so we need to level the playing field now in favour of “encouraging more rail freight services in all our exporting regions now and not delay the move back to rail freight any more.
QUOTE; “In the U.S., railroads own their own tracks, so they have to build their own infrastructure,” says Vaishnav, an assistant research professor in EPP. “Trucking uses public infrastructure, but does not bear the full cost of the damage heavy trucks do to roads and other infrastructure and indeed to the environment.”
Clearly NZTA must not be used to make rail studies up as they are principally geared to funding truck freight activities for private companies some which are foreign owned. Stop subsidising the trucks.
yes Hydrogen is a detour off the highway to reducing carbon.
The easiest/cheapest way to ‘make’ the hydrogen is from natural gas- they hide that fact with waffle as ‘only a backup method’ or CO2 sequestration – is if they would pay for that.
It wouldn’t hurt to be looking seriously at highspeed rail.
The energy equation is not much different to conventional, but the speed allows it to compete favourably with carbon heavy domestic air services.
TransTasman traffic could probably run on something similar to the Busan Shimonoseki ferries, again with substantial carbon savings.
These things might take years to scope out – better to begin that sooner than later.
Hydrogen is a bit like fusion – a wonderful tech with no working prototypes. If we were determined to embrace the new, maglev at least has working prototypes.
This is interesting. The UK has had enough of Facebook etc not paying taxes and has gone it alone with a digital services tax, albeit not very tough.
Interesting thing here is that it breaks all the normal tax rules because it is based on turnover not profit and the tax authorities will make other assumptions as to company structure rather than rely on what it is being told by Facebook etc.
Sorry I wasn’t thinking about GST which is actually a tax added to turnover not part of it. But you can see the point of the digital services post I hope?
I think the map we use has a lot to do with some euro western feelings of superiority – like they’re better than everyone else or they are the sum total of what’s gone before – you know, the white superiority stuff.
“As most of us know, the world map we grew up with isn’t exactly the most accurate vision of the world. Currently, the Mercator projection—which was created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569—is the standard map projection. Though we’ve known for quite some time that this projection significantly distorts the size of landmasses, for nearly 450 years nothing better has become the standard.
More than just a cartography error, many critics have said that the Mercator projection is a visual representation of Eurocentricity and historic colonialism, as Africa and South America appear much smaller than they actually are.”
Who actually uses Mercator these days? My atlas doesn’t; nor does Google Maps (which is my main go-to for maps nowadays); nor, I would think, do most maps in NZ classrooms.
“Parker described it as a “momentous” day for New Zealand and world trade, and said the CPTPP had become even more vital now the World Trade Organisation was in such a parlous state.
The CPTPP represented 13 per cent of the worlds GDP, and its member countries had a combined annual gdp of just under $15 trillion New Zealand dollars.”
Yes. Through every single party’s votes in the New Zealand Parliament except the Greens. For the formation and passage of legislation, that is the very definition of democracy.
So yes, by an overwhelming democratic majority, it has that support.
“I still haven’t seen majority support for it from the people.”
Thats because a minority of a minority party – Greens- are opposed and cant sleep at night over the possibility of an investor sueing the government. They are sleepless I tell you.
only 27.4 per cent support TPP on the basis it would be good for New Zealand’s economic well-being, although that is up 4.5 points from September when just 22.9 per cent supported it.
Almost the same number, 25.8 per cent oppose it on the basis of the investor-state dispute settlement provisions, down 5.5 points from the same questions asked in September.
But 45.9 per cent formed no view on it, the same as September.
Thats means 73% have no view or support it . They are sleeping well at night.
Likely the revised investor -state dispute provisions – which mean local operating companies that have overseas owners have to go through local courts- means only a rump oppose it totally now.
Every time President Donald Trump mentions the $110 billion arms deal he negotiated with Saudi Arabia last year, he quickly follows up, saying “It’s 500,000 jobs.”
But if he means new U.S. defense jobs, an internal document seen by Reuters from Lockheed Martin forecasts fewer than 1,000 positions would be created by the defense contractor, which could potentially deliver around $28 billion of goods in the deal.
Lockheed instead predicts the deal could create nearly 10,000 new jobs in Saudi Arabia, while keeping up to 18,000 existing U.S. workers busy if the whole package comes together – an outcome experts say is unlikely.
A person familiar with Raytheon’s planning said if the Saudi order were executed it could help to sustain about 10,000 U.S. jobs, but the number of new jobs created would be a small percentage of that figure.
So, it’s really just another deal to boost the profits for the bludging shareholders of the military-industrial complex.
Kathryn Ryan, who’s incapable of recognizing bullshit
when it’s rubbed in her face, needs to talk to more children. Nine to Noon, RNZ National, Wednesday 31 October 2018, 11:32 a.m.
During a discussion with Young Adult fiction author Melanie Rodriga, the host affected her most serious voice and intoned….
KATHRYN RYAN:[talking very slowly, enunciating her words very carefully to show how serious she is] Children’s BS detectors are so acute, aren’t they. More so than adults….
Melanie Rodriga, who seemed to be a bright person, was too polite to acknowledge the clanging, jangling irony of that statement.
So that first link – you cut and paste from here onto your blog and then post back here to direct people to your blog where a copy of the conversation from here is. Did enjoy seeing some old and long gone quality commenters there ta.
Thanks, Marty. That blog of mine I started many years ago, but only put two items on it and forgot about it until late last year. I’m paranoid about sites closing down and everything getting lost, as happened with the old Planet Rugby chat site, and the willful destruction of Google Groups. I have been trying to harvest everything I’ve done online since 2003.
Often I’ll link straight to The Standard or wherever I first posted, but since so much of my stuff is now on the blog, it’s often more convenient.
The poor wee devotees of liberalism will struggle with this one. It shows up just how far down the rabbit hole the fubar ideology has gone. Plus funny as.
+1 Adam – some of the best videos there are on foreign policy. Probably explains why our defence force now is expected to defend foreign and domestic corporations rather defend NZ people and sovereignty. Thanks neoliberalism.
meanwhile Pence turns up in Pittsburgh with a ‘fake rabbi’ to offer prayers – In the name of Jesus – I kid you not!
“As he began his prayer, it became immediately clear that the rabbi, Loren Jacobs of Congregation Shema Yisrael in suburban Detroit, would not be considered a Jew by any of the four major denominations of Judaism. In his prayer, he mentioned the “saving power” of the Lord and concluded, “In the name of Jesus, amen.”
Clintons are all now confirmed as stool pigeons for the Global elite of course. They are still funded by George Soros the convicted criminal and attend “the Bilderberg Group” secret meetings.
Kia ora The Am Show Its good that thousands of new houses built are on the market in Auckland .
Is it a coincidence that there was a housing crisis in America Britain Canada NZ Banks love houses a safe bet they can most time’s claw there money back if thing go wrong Banks caused it with there lending policy’s I see one made a cool 2 billion .
Becoming a Republic do we need more political fighting for the head of states job do we want to have politics like they have in America at the minute I think not.
Maori and Pacific people won’t go for that we have other reason to if it aint broke don’t fix it one will end up with a big mess.
There you go all shonkys m8 are making billions banks retailers a lot of business profits at least % 30 higher after 9 years of national then bill decided to kick our youth.
Ka kite ano
I believe there is a God and Heaven we are living in Heaven now its just people don’t treat Te Papatuanuku / Mother Earth like a Heavenly thing and respect her and her creatures .
Men are chasing money and destroying our planet in 3 small life times we will only have % 10 of the wild creatures left this is why Eco Maori pushes for more wahine to become world leaders as MAN IS TURNING OUR HEAVEN INTO HELL we need wahine to kick there ASSES out and back to reality.
If one keeps shitting in one own back yard you end up in the SHIT not much logic needed to work that out.
The Maori view is that we are related to all the creatures and what do you know hundreds of years later scientist prove that thought to be fact the matrix genealogy .
The Maori view on our connection with Papatuanuku and her creatures is a common view of most indigenous cultures around Papatuanuku .
The neo liberals capitalist are running this heaven into hell all for there greed of prophet over everything else in the world change COMPANY Constitutional needed to have clauses in them to put our earth and decedents well being before profit .
Its a crying shame what man is doing to the world at the minute.
Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.
The new estimate of the massacre of wildlife is made in a major report produced by WWF and involving 59 scientists from across the globe. It finds that the vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society ultimately depends for clean air, water and everything else. Ana to kai ka kite ano link below
Some music for my other post its cool that some are getting the big picture we need all the common people to stand up and fight with there votes if we all vote the pollies will BUCKLE and start making laws that benefit all creatures.
Man does not own the Earth we are just caretakers for the next generations wake up
History shows that, when presented with unpalatable evidence of the undesirable effects of our decisions, we either bury our collective heads in the sand, or order the problems we face in terms of their tractability. Where they are judged to be intractable, as in this instance, they are relegated for later attention. We cannot continue to delude ourselves that the transition to near-zero fossil fuel use is possible without global mandation.
The overriding message located between the lines of the IPCC report is that we must lead our lives within the planet’s means. In all conscience, we are currently locked into a process that will inevitably result in passing on a dying planet to our children and their successors. Should this not be at the absolute top of the international debating agenda? Ka kite ano
The go oil party are big cheats taking minority people right to Democracy right to vote with corrupt laws. The federally-recognized Spirit Lake Tribe filed a complaint Tuesday against North Dakota Secretary of State Alvin Jaeger that reads: “Jaeger’s implementation of the residential address requirement has imposed severe—sometimes insurmountable—burdens on the right to vote for many voters on reservations.”
Every time the secretary of state’s Alvin Jaeger is asked a question that indicates deceit on his and his office behalf he showed Eco Maori he was lying the eyes are A direct view into ones true intentions the mouth can lie but the eyes reveal those LIES .
Kia kaha wahine and fight for the right of our childrens future. link is below ka kite ano
Just five countries hold 70% of the world’s remaining untouched wilderness areas and urgent international action is needed to protect them, according to new research.The UQ and WCS study, published in the journal Nature, identifies Australia, the US, Brazil, Russia and Canada as the five countries that hold the vast majority of the world’s remaining wilderness. Link is below Ka kite ano.
Kia ora Newshub The banks have been shutting down banks in rural places leaving people with banking services .I see shonky have his bull line in the herald to he made the problem and is throwing up a smokescreen he should go play golf with trump.
There you go those Saudi sisters have lost there lives it doesn’t look good for the Saudis they will never become a major place for all people to visit if they carry on treating wahine and the lower class people like dirt .
That’s cool the goverment has a new housing development plan’s for Porirua . I say the Law commission or whom ever is advocating law changes should worry more about the common poor person not getting a fair go from New Zealand laws 6 times the system has underarm bowled Eco Maori cheated me
Carbon based fuel is going to be a thing of the past the faster the better the fuel company’s should invest in green energy that’s the future or else you are pushing up hill.
No comment on the police pay I seen two following me at the supermarket with uniform I gave them a ki ora they could not even look at me I blasted the Rock radio music and drove off respectfully on Tuesday.
Ka kite ano
Ki ora James & Storm from The Crowd Goes Wild
The coach has confidences in his players who are playing Japan test team the Japan team have there Kiwi connection coaching staff .
That was a good game of T20 cricket for the Kiwis and Pakistan.
Hope the white ferns have a good run at there T20 cricket matches kia kaha ladys.
The wife loves her horrors not me comedy science and doco’s .
Josh rafting with the Aussies nice tat one should know that if they are encouraging you to sit some ware its a set up.
Money makes the soccer ball go around Qutar wining the football world cup.
Ka kite ano .
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by Philip Ferguson Last month B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, reported: “In 2019, Israeli security forces killed 133 Palestinians, including 28 minors. Of the casualties, 104 were killed in the Gaza Strip, 26 in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and three within ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Arms (Firearms Prohibition Orders) Amendment Bill (No 2) (Brett Hudson)Its basicly more "tough on crime" nonsense (its already illegal for unlicensed people to own guns) designed to wedge NZ First against its arsehole base. ...
In 2015 the world agreed to the Paris Agreement to fight climate change. Each country would offer a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) "that it intends to achieve", and "pursue domestic mitigation measures, with the aim of achieving [it]". And every five years, they'd improve on it, ratcheting up ambition until ...
In theory, the emissions trading scheme should reduce emissions. Making polluters pay for permits to pollute lets them save money by reducing pollution, giving them a financial incentive to do the right thing. But right from the start the ETS was broken with a system of free allocation, so polluters ...
Irish voters went to the polls on Saturday in parliamentary elections, and perhaps delivered a political revolution. Since independence, Irish politics has been dominated by two parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Basicly patronage networks with indistinguishable policies, their cleavage isn't ideology, but who killed whose father or grandfather in ...
Once again the Aotearoa Bike Challenge is on us, and once again I’m participating. In principle this is not hard because it does not represent a significant switch in behavior for me. I already bike nearly every day. The Bicycle The fascinating thing about cycling is the realisation that this ...
Lately there has been a great deal of misinformation regarding the origins and purpose of Skeptical Science. As John Cook wrote nearly a decade ago, Skeptical Science is primarily a website that debunks climate misinformation with peer-reviewed science. Despite the ever-worsening impacts from climate change, with record after record being broken in ...
Under Attack: By sacking not only RNZ Concert’s presenters, but also its producers and librarians, and reducing the station to an automated purveyor of classical music in-between parliamentary broadcasts, RNZ’s CEO, Paul Thompson, wasn’t simply announcing an operational shake-up, he was declaring war on one of the most important guardians of ...
Story of the Week... Editorial of the Week... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Reviews... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... Australian smoke plume sets recordsThe recent wildfires in Australia sent one of ...
The Global Protest to #FightInequality was powerful – thankyou and what next? Dear allies, We started the decade with a huge protest to #FightInequality that was heard around the world, including the 1% at Davos. Watch and share the highlights on facebook and twitter. A huge thank you. Together we ...
The Ministry of Health have announced a package that might ensure NZ will never experience another measles epidemic. While at the time of writing the details are still limited it appears that the important limitations in our current programme have been acknowledged and the intent is to address them. Great ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Prof Michael BakerIn this blog we briefly summarise our assessment of the highly uncertain new coronavirus threat. Given its potential to become a severe and prolonged global pandemic, a precautionary response now means activating all components of our pandemic plan, with a particular focus on ‘keep ...
When Labour was running for election, Jacinda Ardern famously said that climate change was "my generation's nuclear free moment". The implication was that her government would take the problem seriously, and act swiftly to reduce emissions. The reality:New Zealand will emit a million more tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2020 ...
James Renwick is Professor of Physical Geography at Victoria University of Wellington. He studied at Canterbury and the University of Washington and has worked on diverse aspects of climate science, including global atmospheric circulation and Antarctic sea ice. In December 2019 he was appointed to the New Zealand Climate Change ...
by Philip Ferguson Exit polls are showing a three-way virtual tie between the main parties in the south of Ireland. Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are all on just over 22%. FG on 22.4, SF on 22.3, FF on 22.2. Exit polls indicate that over 30% of 18-24 ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week, i.e., Sun, Feb 2, 2020 through Sat, Feb 8, 2020 Editor's Pick New Report Details How Fossil Fuel Industry's Climate Destruction Also Exacerbates Human Rights Abuses"Even in the face of the ...
In a previous post I described briefly when and how the Starlink satellite chains – recent launches by Space-X in a scheme to bring 5G internet connectivity to the whole globe – could be seen from New Zealand with the naked eye. Here I provide an update and predictions for ...
Keeping The Faith: This Government’s broad, new, heavily moderated, progressive faith does not require a prime minister with the powers of a medieval pope. Jacinda’s regime has no need of subterranean torture chambers to ensure compliance. A gift for diplomacy and the ability to inspire her fellow human-beings is all ...
Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian has penned a column which chastises the left wing of the Labour party for daring to retain principles and ideals, qualities - it seems - that should be jettisoned in pursuit of power.Never mind that Freedland was an ardent Remainer, that is to say, one ...
Tonight’s news suggests the coronavirus outbreak may have originated from pangolins. Details are very sketchy, almost nothing at all beyond a claim of high similarity. My impression is this claim comes from a press release by South China Agricultural University. Initial discussion online suggests this is a more likely candidate ...
by Susanne Kemp The Fire and Emergency service (FENZ) has recently asked firefighters in Auckland Areas 3, 4 and 5 to take on an additional duty that has rather ominous implications. Namely, to collect names and addresses of everyone on the premises of fires they attend. The firefighters’ union, the ...
Part of the story of the Nazis' rise to power in Germany was the willingness of mainstream right-wing parties to work with them to keep out the left. Because of this, one of the fundamental rules of postwar German politics has been "do not work with Nazis". As a result, ...
There has long been a truism in public broadcasting: don't mess with Concert FM. The theory was that although the station has been in a long-term audience decline, and that audience is steadily ageing out, it has powerful establishment support – and any threat to it would provoke a fury.As ...
This is a re-post from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The heat absorbed in Earth’s oceans reached a new record in 2019, found a recent study published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. Despite the fact that this has been the case for almost every year over the past decade, this information ...
We are confronted with the spectre of Simon Bridges making clear he cannot, will not, trust Winston Peters – the oft-cited “King Maker” in New Zealand politics.Supporters are lauding it as a master stroke, naturally, because in their eyes, it prevents him being the tail that wags the dog. ...
by Don Franks Under a government claiming empathy with the fine arts, Radio New Zealand ( RNZ) is poised to cut back its classical music station, RNZ Concert. The plan is replacing it on FM radio with music “for a younger audience” as part of a new multimedia music brand. ...
More Thwaites This past week we heard disturbing news about Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier. Helping to fill in the longer term history of Thwaites' behavior and especially helpful in interpreting results of the recent drilling project and what it may say about the future of this unstable mass of ice is Revealing the ...
Inaccuracies are very common in scientific paper abstracts. Image credit:Science in the Abstract: Don’t Judge a Study by its Cover I have come to accept anti-fluoride campaigners will never stop cherry-picking research and findings ...
“The scene is set, the players met…”. And what players they are in this farce of an Election coming up in the United States this year. There is a multi-faceted anger in the broader situation the world finds itself in, in which the false promises of so-called “moderates” find themselves ...
A few years ago, a company lowballed a contract to dispose of toxic waste from the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter. So, they dumped it in a disused paper mill in Mataura, then went into liquidation - effectively dumping the problem on local councils. The waste is dangerous - it releases ...
Unhappy with the demonisation of Iran in Western media, I was fortunate to have the Australian Institute of International Affairs invite me to write an alternative analysis for their on-line journal Australian Outlook. I did, and they serialised it into two parts. The essays are short, so I did not ...
Over on The Good Society, Max Rashbrooke suggests that its time to start directly taxing wealth:A wealth tax would be levied on net wealth – that is, the value of people’s assets once their debts have been subtracted. Such a tax would be highly redistributive. Levied at 1% on wealth ...
The quarterly labour market statistics have been released, and unemployment has dropped to 4%. There are now 111,000 unemployed - 15,000 fewer than when Labour took office. Its not the performance we had under Clark (when unemployment was ~3.3%), but its still a reasonable improvement over prevailing conditions under National. ...
Prof Michael Baker, Prof Nick Wilson, Louise Delany, Prof Richard Edwards, Prof Philippa Howden-ChapmanThe current national measles epidemic in New Zealand is amongst the largest we have experienced in the last 40 years. It can be linked to the problems created by long-term erosion and fragmentation of national public health ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones was on RNZ’s Morning Report talking about the recent droughts in the Northland region and what the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is doing to alleviate its impact. The PGF recently announced a funding of $2 million for temporary water supplies to Kaikohe and Kaitaia, ...
Speaking to The Country’s Jamie Mackay, New Zealand First MP and Cabinet Minister Shane Jones talks water storage, plant-based meat imitation, and superstar Hollywood director James Cameron. While water storage may have its critics, Minister Jones defended the scheme by saying: “unless we invest and continue to invest” in this ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones is accusing northern iwi leaders of selling out Māori by voting for ideologically-driven court cases rather than practical steps to increase water supply. “I just think that iwi leaders who think that water issues are going to be solved by perpetually fighting in the ...
A dairy owner in St Kilda, Dunedin was delighted to hear that an attempted robbery of his establishment was foiled by a government-funded security system. Sean Lee was delighted at how well the anti-theft smoke system worked. When a knife-wielding man entered the store, the shop assistant immediately pressed a ...
Customs says it stopped more than three tonnes of illegal drugs coming into New Zealand last year. This includes 1,180kg of methamphetamine, 329kg of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine precursors, which could have been converted into 246kg of methamphetamine, 739kg and 6469 pills of MDMA or Ecstasy and 60kg of cocaine. Offshore, ...
Hon. Shane Jones, Minister for Regional Economic Development Up to $2 million will be allocated from the Provincial Growth Fund to set up temporary water supplies in Kaikohe and Kaitaia where drought is biting hard, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Drought conditions in Northland have led to ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Law and Order New Zealand First welcomes the deployment of an Eagle Police helicopter in Christchurch in what is a step towards fulfilling its long-standing goal to increase the use of police helicopters for the front line, particularly in addressing the scourge of fleeing drivers. Christchurch leads ...
It may have been the first sitting week of 2020, but our Government is already in full-swing - managing a strong economy, investing in infrastructure, and working to break the cycle of homelessness. Read below for all that, and more... ...
In a heated debate in Parliament, National's Deputy Leader Paula Bennett claimed that “nearly 1600 patched gang members have been added” since the Coalition Government took power. To illustrate her point, she altered a chart used by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to show her government’s progress in housing to instead ...
Speech by the Rt Hon Winston Peters at Parliament’s Opening 2020 "We all need insurance" This year New Zealanders are going to have a clear choice to make That choice is between: Optimism versus pessimism; More progress versus back to the future; Investment versus divestment; Unity versus division. New Zealand ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has slammed the Board of Auckland Airport following the airport's runway closing twice within two weeks due to maintenance. Around 2,000 passengers were affected by last week’s runway closures, according to 1NEWS. Another maintenance closure on January 24 saw two international flights and three domestic flights ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Broadcasting New Zealand First supports the commissioning of a business case to assess the viability of a new public media entity. “A strong media environment is critical for a healthy democracy. New Zealand First is a strong supporter of a diverse, independent media,” New Zealand First broadcasting spokesperson ...
Pounamou and technology industries in the West Coast region are set to receive more than $2 million in Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) funding. This was announced by the Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau during Waitangi Day commemorations in Hokitika. He said $800,000 would be given to Development West ...
Clayton Mitchell MP, New Zealand First spokesperson for Labour and Industrial Relations Unemployment and wage growth numbers released by Stats NZ today demonstrate a labour market in good shape with unemployment falling to 4.0%, the underutilisation rate falling to an 11 year low, and wage growth at a 10-year high ...
Hon. Ron Mark, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence New Zealand First Spokesperson for Defence Ron Mark, welcomes the official opening of Te Rau Aroha, a new museum at Waitangi Treaty Grounds as part of our Coalition Agreement. “It is a great honour to be part of an effective Government ...
Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, Deputy Prime MinisterGood morning,Let us start with important acknowledgements.First, this special day, in remembrance of the 28th Maori Battalion, is also to honour all those men and women who have risked their lives in the service of our country.Second, special guest Robert ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand will look to build on its relationship with the United Kingdom and recommit to the European Union, after the country officially left the continental union recently. The Minister said New Zealand already cooperates closely with Britain on defence and security issues and has ...
Up to 110 new EV chargers nationwide in cities and regions 50 electric vehicles for ride-sharing The Government is helping deliver more infrastructure and options for low emissions transport through new projects, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods says. Tauranga, Nelson, Levin, New Plymouth and Oamaru are just some ...
New Zealanders are increasingly better off under this Government as wages rise and families have more disposable income, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. Stats NZ reported today that average household disposable incomes after housing costs rose 4.9% in 2019. This was the highest rise in four years and came as ...
All New Zealanders need to have their voices heard at work to ensure we have an inclusive and productive economy. Today we introduce a Bill to do this for workers in the New Zealand screen industry, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “The Screen Industry Workers Bill will ...
The Government has announced further help for the Southland and Otago regions to speed up recovery efforts from the floods. “I’ve approved Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG), making $500,000 available to help with the clean-up in Fiordland, Southland, and the Clutha district in Otago,” Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said. ...
Following the announcement that more than 340 schools will be funded to run events promoting vocational education, the Government has announced it will fund a further 257 events to be run by employers and industry. “These industry-run events will allow more than 30,000 students to connect with more than 2,000 ...
Today the Government is making progress on a fairer and more secure rental market for renters and landlords with the introduction of the Residential Tenancies Amendment Bill in Parliament. “This Bill includes a series of reforms to improve the wellbeing of the 609,700 households that live in rented homes, and ...
A Government programme to wipe out pea weevil has achieved a world first, with Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor today announcing the successful eradication of the noxious pest from Wairarapa. This means the nearly four-year ban on pea plants and pea straw was lifted today. Commercial and home gardeners can again grow ...
Southland residents hit by flooding caused by heavy rainfall can now access help finding temporary accommodation with the Government activating the Temporary Accommodation Service, Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare announced today. “The Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) has been activated by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to help ...
“Is that it?” That’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s response to Simon Bridges’ much-hyped economic speech today. “Simon Bridges just gave the most over-hyped and under-delivered speech that I can remember during my time in politics,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s not surprising. Simon Bridges literally said on the radio this morning ...
A trial deployment of the Police Eagle helicopter in Christchurch will test whether the aircraft would make a significant difference to crime prevention and community safety. “The Bell 429 helicopter will be based in Christchurch for five weeks, from 17 February to 20 March,” said Police Minister Stuart Nash. “The ...
The Government has kept up the pace of its work to promote New Zealand’s trade interests and diversify our export markets, with visits to Fiji and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker. Building momentum to bring the PACER Plus trade and development agreement ...
The Coalition Government’s investment in a strong border and disrupting transnational organised crime produced record results for stopping drugs in 2019, says Minister of Customs Jenny Salesa. The illegal drugs were seized at the New Zealand border by Customs, and overseas by Customs’ international border partners before the drugs could ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off construction of a separated cycleway alongside Tamaki Drive. A two-way separated cycleway will be built along the northern side of Tamaki Drive, between the Quay Street Cycleway extension and Ngapipi Road. There will be a separate walking path alongside. Phil Twyford said giving ...
Owner-occupiers of unit and apartments living in earthquake-prone buildings will have certainty about the financial support they’ll be eligible for with the release of criteria for an upcoming assistance scheme, Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa says. The Residential Earthquake-Prone Building Financial Assistance Scheme will help unit owners facing ...
Temporary restrictions on travel from China will remain in place as a precautionary measure to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The restrictions which prevent foreign nationals travelling from, or transiting through, mainland China from entering New Zealand have been extended for a further 8 days. This position ...
Employment Minister Willie Jackson announced today that Tairāwhiti rangatahi will benefit from an investment made by the Government’s He Poutama Rangatahi (HPR) scheme. The funding will go to the Tautua Village, Kauneke programme and the Matapuna Supported Employment Programme which will fund 120 rangatahi over two years. “Both programmes work ...
All parents and caregivers need to ensure that their children go to school unless they are sick, Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin said today. “The school attendance results for 2019 show, across the board, a drop in the number of students going to school regularly,” the Minister says. “Apart from ...
A Deed of Settlement agreeing redress for historical Treaty claims has been signed by the Crown and Moriori at Kōpinga Marae on Rēkohu (Chatham Islands) today, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little has announced. Moriori have a tradition of peace that extends back over 600 years. This settlement ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today with Māori King Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII officially opened the country’s newest road, the $384 million Huntly section of the Waikato Expressway. The 15km four-lane highway with side and central safety barriers takes State Highway 1 east of Huntly town, across lowlands and streams ...
The rapid uptake of life-saving new hepatitis C medicine Maviret since it was funded by PHARMAC a year ago means the elimination of the deadly disease from this country is a realistic goal, Health Minister David Clark says. Hepatitis C is a blood-borne virus which attacks the liver, proving fatal ...
Kaupapa Māori will underpin the Government’s new plan to deal with homelessness announced by the Prime Minister in Auckland this morning. “Māori are massively overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness, so, to achieve different outcomes for Māori, we have to do things very differently,” says the Minister of Māori Development ...
1000 new transitional housing places delivered by end of year to reduce demand for emergency motel accommodation. Introduce 25% of income payment, after 7 days, for those in emergency motel accommodation to bring in line with other forms of accommodation support. Over $70m extra to programmes that prevents those at ...
Clear requirements for ensuring customers are treated fairly by banks, insurers and other financial service providers are included in new financial conduct legislation that passed its first reading today. “The recent reviews, by the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and Reserve Bank of New Zealand, into the conduct of banks and ...
Applications are now open for the fifth round of the Regional Culture and Heritage Fund Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Grant Robertson announced today. “I am delighted to open this year’s fund which has some $7 million available to support performing arts venues, galleries, museums and whare ...
The Minister of Māori Development, Hon Nanaia Mahuta today congratulated Associate Professor Amokura Kawharu on her appointment as the next President of the Law Commission. “Amokura Kawharu will be a standout in her new role, leading in an innovative and forward looking approach to the law reform process. She will ...
Auckland University legal academic Amokura Kawharu has been appointed as the next President of the Law Commission, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Associate Professor Kawharu will take up her new appointment on 11 May 2020. “I would like to congratulate Associate Professor Kawharu on her appointment,” Andrew ...
A programme for employers to help them engage effectively with younger employees was launched today by Minister of Employment, Willie Jackson. The Youth Ready Employer Programme contains a range of on-line templates that employers can easily access to help with employing and retaining young people in their businesses. The programme ...
Budget 2020 will be delivered on Thursday 14 May, Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced today. “This year’s Budget will continue the Coalition Government’s focus on tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand while also preparing the economy for the future. “Those challenges and opportunities cannot be resolved in one budget, ...
I move, That this House place on record its appreciation and thanks for the devoted and distinguished service to New Zealand by the late Rt Hon Michael Kenneth Moore, member of the Order of New Zealand, a member of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, an Honorary Member of the ...
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has today classified the drought conditions in Northland as an adverse event for the primary sector, unlocking $80,000 in Government support. “This is recognition that the extreme and prolonged nature of this dry spell is taking its toll on our farmers and growers and additional support ...
The Minister of Police says an operation to smash a trans national drug smuggling ring today will make a significant impact on the methamphetamine trade fuelling harm in our communities. Police have announced 10 arrests and the seizure of up to five million dollars’ worth of illicit drugs after an ...
The Government’s books are in a strong position to withstand global headwinds, with the accounts in surplus and expenses close to forecast, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. The Treasury today released the Crown accounts for the six months to December. The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) was above ...
Race courses can improve safety with this year’s second round of funding from the Racing Safety Development Fund. Minister for Racing Winston Peters has announced the second funding round of 2019/20 is open with $347,875 available for distribution. “The racing industry is integral to the economic and social fabric of ...
Hundreds of thousands of young adults will be offered measles vaccinations in a new campaign to strengthen New Zealand’s immunisation system, Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter said at its launch in Auckland today. “About 300,000 young adults aged between 15 and 29 are not fully protected against measles, and ...
The Government is committing $300,000 to fund research to update behavioural information to make sure HIV and STI prevention services are targeted appropriately in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson made the announcement at today’s Big Gay Out in Auckland. “There is much talk about ...
The Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media has announced work will begin on a business case to assess the viability of forming a new public media entity. “The Government must ensure New Zealanders have a strong independent public media service for decades to come, which means ensuring public ...
Minister of Civil Defence Hon Peeni Henare announced today that the Government will contribute $100,000 to the Southland regional Mayoral Relief Fund, to support communities impacted by the recent flooding in Southland. Mr Henare says this week’s flooding has caused significant disruption to communities in the lower South Island. ...
Heritage buildings throughout New Zealand will benefit from the $1.1 million in Heritage EQUIP funding grants announced today. “These grants for seismic strengthening projects help private building owners get the advice they need to start building work or to get the work completed,” Grant Robertson says. “Timaru’s Grosvenor Hotel has ...
A new survey has found New Zealand’s game development sector has grown beyond expectations and is on track to becoming a billion dollar industry in 2025, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford says. “New Zealand’s interactive media sector grew by 42 per cent in last financial year to $203.4 million, according ...
Te Tii, the lower marae at Waitangi, is among more than 70 marae now connected to broadband internet thanks to the Provincial Growth Fund’s marae connectivity scheme, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones said today. In February 2019, the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) allocated $21 million to connect rural towns ...
Netflix’s new release Horse Girl promised a quirky indie dramedy from its trailer. In reality, it’s a nightmarish time-warped look into the mind of a mental illness sufferer, writes Alice Webb-Liddall.There was a horse girl in every primary school classroom. The one with ballet flats and low ponytails and books ...
You may not be punching strangers’ seats, but there’s plenty of other behaviour that is guaranteed to make your fellow passengers seethe with rage. Here’s how to travel by plane without making people hate you.You’ve probably seen the video: a woman leans back in her reclined seat as a man ...
Earmarked for big things since she left high school, the ‘Nothing to Regret’ singer has been dealing with the weight of expectations for a while now. With her debut EP just released, she’s OK with where she’s at.Given the circumstances, Robinson is surprisingly relaxed. It’s early afternoon on a swelteringly ...
By Meriba Tulo in Port Moresby Over the past month, the Autonomous Bougainville Government has made known its intention to put forward several proposed amendments to the Bougainville House of Representatives. These amendments include a provision to allow for a president to serve for more than two terms – ...
New Zealand’s Catholic bishops are concerned that unborn babies will lose their existing tenuous legal rights if Parliament passes the Abortion Legislation Bill in the form proposed by a select committee. And unborn babies with a fetal disability ...
Younger voters are being encouraged to take time now to make sure they are enrolled and ready to vote in this year’s election and referendums. The Electoral Commission’s enrolment teams will be at orientation events at universities, polytechnics and wānanga ...
FIRST Union’s Real Work Real Jobs campaign is expanding its focus to include ‘gig economy’ workers like Uber drivers and dependent contractors, with the public release of the union’s submission on the Government’s Better Protections for Contractors ...
Linda Burgess climbs the eternal staircase at the Opera House in Wellington to watch the virtuoso actor. At the interval her legs are aching. But in the second half, magic happens.There’s one person wearing a face mask, just the one, and it turns his face into a disposable nappy with ...
National Party leader Simon Bridges says the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the New Zealand First Foundation adds weight to calls for Winston Peters to be stood down. ...
Tutors at Northtec have begun strike action this week, action that will be disruptive for the institution and students. “Tutors never want to affect their students in negative ways, but they want their employer to show respect and put a decent pay ...
Dairy prices have fallen again in the latest global dairy auction, as the coronavirus outbreak takes its toll on trade. The average price at the overnight auction fell by almost 3 percent to $US3176 a tonne. Following a 4.7 percent fall at the previous auction two weeks ago, it was ...
Motorists are now able to offset their carbon emissions when they fuel up at Z Energy stations. A new feature in the Z app called Carbon Count will show drivers the carbon impact of each fill, then give them the option to offset that. There will be a per-fill option ...
Growth in bank sector profits stalled last year after years of seemingly unstoppable development. Business advisory firm KPMG's annual sector report showed the industry's collective profits fell just under 1 percent to $5.7 billion, with a growth in lending, while margins were squeezed slightly, costs rose markedly, and bad debts ...
After years of swearword-emblazoned book covers, are readers all out of fucks to give about bad language?Since Adam Mansbuch’s 2011 bestseller, Go the Fuck to Sleep, book titles have been swearing profusely to grab audience attention. The author followed up on the winning formula with You Have to Fucking Eat ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters will keep his Ministerial portfolios as the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigates the New Zealand First Foundation. ...
Here's how the Government could force you to sell your house for state housing; and impact of drought, coronavirus could lead to recession - economist. ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentNZ First donations scandal Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Jacinda Ardern right to let Winston Peters’ keep his head over donations ...
The Council of Licenced Firearms Owners is calling on Police Minister Stuart Nash to front up and explain, after releasing new figures showing that since 2011, Police employees have been caught 244 times for unauthorised use of confidential and sensitive ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Director, Health Program, Grattan Institute Young Australians are abandoning private health insurance in droves. And the overall decline in the percentage of the population with private coverage is continuing. New data for the three months to the end of 2019, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Doctor of Botany, University of Melbourne As the brutal reality of climate change dawned this summer, you may have asked yourself a hard question: am I well-prepared to live in a warmer world? There are many ways we can ready ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eva Plaganyi, Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Currents are strong around the Torres Strait Islands, lying between Australia’s northern-most tip and Papua New Guinea. When the tidal conditions are right and the waters relatively still, though, up to 230 islanders – a sizeable ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Fahey, PhD Candidate, Department of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University General Motors has announced the Holden brand will be “retired” in 2021. This week’s announcement has been a long time coming. The Holden brand has been in a state of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra An “unholy coalition” is attacking the planned increase in the superannuation guarantee, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese says in his latest “vision statement”, pledging to resist any attempt to stop the legislated rise to 12% going ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University China’s ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, let the cat out of the bag this week when he lambasted Canberra over its decision to exclude Huawei from the build-out of Australia’s 5G network. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thami Croeser, Research Officer, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University The idea that we should decentralise our population has come up many times in Australia. Recently, the National Farmers’ Federation president pushed the notion, calling for a shift to the regions. And ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Fresh developments around in the political donations saga, the Chinese ambassador speaks out, and some troubling poll numbers for advocates of cannabis law reform.The Serious Fraud Office is formally investigating the operations of the NZ First Foundation. The confirmation came in ...
ReadingRoom literary editor Steve Braunias interviews Dr Gwendoline Smith about how terrible it is to think too much.Certainly I overthink things, in the sense that I worry and fret and angst, but not in the sense that I actually think very deeply or intelligently. It’s more ...
A major report by the Auditor-General on how New Zealand's drinking, storm and waste waters are managed finds a conflicting, disorganised and stagnant system ill-prepared for climate change. Dileepa Fonseka reports. ...
Manchester City and the Houston Astros are latest inductees into the sports hall of shame. Dirty, rotten cheats. Calculated, cynical, premeditated, habitual, recidivist, despicable cheats. Committed cheats. Add Manchester City and the Houston Astros to a gallery of shame occupied for all eternity by Lance Armstrong, Marion Jones, Ben Johnson, ...
The 10-year-old girl from Tawa who cherished a cricket bat signed by her 2000 World Cup heroes, now wants to spur a new crop of cricketers through her own swashbuckling deeds. In a recent column looking ahead to the T20 World Cup starting in Australia this week, Sophie Devine wrote that she “hoped to inspire ...
Transforming diseases into foes and therapies into battles isn’t the best way to face contagion. Annemarie Jutel asks: When did panic and catastrophe help anyone organise anything? Public anxiety and nations’ responses to coronavirus (COVID-19) have been shaped by the hyperbolic metaphors surrounding its discussion. Even the usually sedate and measured ...
Overworked and stressed teachers, overcrowded classrooms and substandard nutrition have ECE at crisis point. ECE teacher Susan Bates explains why everyone should care. If you want to know what NZ society might look like in the future, look into the eyes of the young children in your neighbourhood. Ask yourself ...
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The National Party leader Simon Bridges says it came as a surprise to him that the Serious Fraud Office prosecution relates to two $100,000 donations to the party. ...
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Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.New Zealand Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand.Today’s contentNZ First donations scandal Guyon Espiner and Kate Newton (RNZ): NZ First Foundation trustee was lobbying for donor Bryce ...
Open Mike 31/10/2018 
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Chris Trotter has written a brilliant piece about the challenges New Zealand faces as catastrophic climate rapidly approaches. He singles out the parliamentary Green Party and its leaders for failing to lead on this matter.
It is a challenge for us as well.
As Rachel a stewart writes, “Virtually everything we argue about and/or discuss relates to climate change/capitalism. Both are intertwined, unchecked and deadly. .”
We must keep the issue of catastrophic climate change front and foremost in all our discussions.
We must pressure for action today.
“Saving the planet and feeding all its people long ago ceased to be a practical proposition. The amount of cultivatable land will shrink – along with the quantity of water necessary to ensure adequate harvests. As the mean global temperature increase passes 2oC, millions of human-beings will begin to starve. What is the correct moral response to famine, disease and conflict on an unprecedented scale? When the boatloads of desperate climate-change refugees start appearing off New Zealand’s coast, what should a Green New Zealand government do?
This is a long way from green technological fixes and rehabilitating four-letter words.
So, too, is deciding what to do when the big container ships and the oil-tankers stop venturing this far south. When the sheer number of super-hurricanes renders voyages too far out into the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans uninsurable. How will a Green government keep the chronically-ill provided with their life-saving pharmaceuticals; and crucial machinery supplied with spare parts; when the flow of these vital imports ceases? How will it keep the lights on and the electric cars powered-up when the snow refuses to fall and the hydro lakes are empty?
Who in today’s Green caucus has the courage to tell New Zealanders that teaching young people the skills required to keep the post-industrial communities of the future functioning is now a matter of urgency. Because in 100 years’ time Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin will be only a fraction of their present size and most of the population will be living in the countryside – where the food is. Which of today’s Greens are working with Maori to preserve the indigenous medical and pharmacological knowledge built-up over the 600 years of non-European occupation of Aotearoa?
Who will dare to tell today’s captains of industry that in 50 years the Internet will be but a memory? That the genocidal global resource wars will kick off with the destruction of the undersea communication cables. That the revolutions, civil and religious wars that roll across the sweltering continents will leave the control hubs for satellite communication unmanned for a generation. That the rocket launching pads will become nesting places for such birds as still fly through Earth’s fetid air.
These are the challenges which Green parties should be preparing us for. The challenges arising out of the fundamental transformations anticipated and demanded in the latest IPCC report. Deluding voters into thinking that somehow the scientists will come up with a way of saving us all: a way which allows capitalism, consumerism and narcissistic individualism to continue unchecked and unmodified; is not something with which any responsible Green should be associated.”
The whole article is here.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-long-term-green-advantage-of.html
Mike Joy, a courageous and independent scientist, has also warned of us of the need to act now or face catastrophic climate change.
“How many barrels of oil does it take to power the economy? Far from the punchline of a joke, the answer outlined by Dr Mike Joy, a senior researcher at Victoria University of Wellington’s Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, in a public lecture highlights some disturbing truths about our reliance on oil, the importance of energy to the economy, and how we might “transition to a de-carbonised world”.
Starting with the dire warning from more than 20,000 scientists worldwide that “if the world doesn’t act soon, there will be catastrophic biodiversity loss and untold amounts of human misery”, Joy went on to introduce the field of Biophysical Economics and one of its key concepts—Energy return on energy invested (EROI), or “how much energy do you have to put in to get that back?”.
The energy density of our alternatives is so much lower than fossil fuels, but if we want to keep under the 1.5oC threshold, we have to reduce our emissions by 6 percent per year from today,” said Joy.
“Basically we’re going to have to get used to having a whole lot less energy than what we had before, and that’s our only future. We have to figure out how we’re going to do that.”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/@future-learning/2018/10/29/297393/energy-makes-the-economy-go-round
Do either articles reference the impact of military and war inc on climate?
Influence of atmospheric damage created through ‘experimental activity’?
To ignore or pretend they are not a major causal element is foolhardy at best…
has also warned of us of the need to act now or face catastrophic climate change.
But isn’t this the opposite of what Trotter is saying? Joy says there is still time to act while Trotter says it’s too late and we should give up and plan for the worst case scenario.
Yet so many governments aren’t ready to face it, let alone try. Capitalism’s all been ‘pay-later’ thinking — little children preferring a definite sweet now to possible sweets later. Feast rather than the long term. Not sure that’s wrong.
As we get to the sharp end of our feast and look out on our children and grandchildren, oblivious in their present comfort to the pre-agricultural deprivation awaiting them , we must do what we can to turn the freighter.
Yawn. So what is Trotter doing about it? What skills is he acquiring?
He’s a lot like you really Ed.
Do you think climate change is a yawn?
Wow…..
If you had been paying attention on this site, you will know I stopped eating meat because of climate change.
What are you doing?
Apart from emailing snide comments?
Woosh!
One of the issues with climate change is that it seems so insurmountable that it has become less of a priority against the daily capitalist grind of making money or survival.
Maybe it needs to be put into smaller segments by what each industry should or could be doing for example, insurance, what are they doing (apart from putting up premiums until they refuse to cover the risks), what is dairy farming doing, what are electrical companies doing, what are councils doing, what is transport doing (in Wellington changing to diesel buses for example, FAIL) etc etc
It has to be changed from two words into the practical legislation of prevention and now.
Trotter is a yawn. He has no idea what “Green” is. He can’t understand that greenies care about ecosystems and not just people. That they want to limit the damage to the environment generally and not just say “fuck it”. Watching him try and comment with relevance on the Green Party is akin to watching a chimpanzee studying an internal combustion engine.
He has an agenda here like always. He wishes to attack the Greens as best he can. If it is the survival of working people that is at stake, then why not attack Labour Party policy? He is a stale old school leftie with zero relevance.
Giving up meat is not preparing for the scenario that Trotter is speaking of. Many of the imported vegan protein sources that you eat would not be available. Are you learning what of these crops could be grown here and where, and how to grow them sustainably? Your ignorance of permaculture that you have shown so many times here would suggest not.
I also don’t believe that you gave up meat because of climate change. This is certainly something you like to hang it off along with animal welfare, but your rigidity on the subject shows that it is a personal thing. You have refused to even consider that animals may have a part in permaculture land systems. Grazing chickens in orchards is one example i have given. Mussel farms would be another animal based culture that could both improve the environment and provide good quality protein.
I’m not doing what Trotter suggests because i am a greenie. I am rather working to limit the damage to the environment by participating in a political party with the same aims.
I am though as part of generally being a greenie landscaping and developing my half acre urban property along permaculture principles and practice.
Trotter is a lot like you Ed because basically you are both full of shit.
Is there anything that Trotter actually wrote that you disagree with? If anything I’d rate his sentiments a tad on the alarmist end of the spectrum; but not unreasonable either. So exactly why do you think all this a ‘yawn’?
Or are you just offended because Trotter has strayed on the Green’s widdling patch?
I think i’ve explained above why i find him a yawn.
Going all doom and gloom would be an idiotic strategy for the Greens in the current context. The first step to progress is to get a general consensus to address the problem. Telling people that it is too late to address the problem will not help.
OK that makes more sense; I agree totally. Doom and gloom nihilism is literally a dead-end response. And Trotter is certainly not the only one to have flirted with it either.
But hell, faced with such an overwhelming prospect you can surely have some empathy for where it comes from.
Part of the yawn is that i don’t think Trotter is being genuine but rather taking an angle to attack the Greens. As i point to above, these criticism would be better addressed to Labour as Trotter shows only concern for people and not the environment too.
I’m not going to quibble how you interpret Trotter’s motives; you’re entitled to your reading of him.
Still he isn’t the enemy either, and not every ally is going to map 100% onto your own motives and values. But that doesn’t mean we cannot reach out and work with people where there is some common ground.
Hey not ruling out working with the guy. Just responding to him attacking the people doing the actual work.
Mussel farms improve the environment? My Marlborough Sounds based relatives would strongly disagree. Maybe if the growers weren’t so greedy…
When done along sustainable principles yes. Mussels filter the water and remove nitrogen and phosphorus and so can help restore our estuaries and harbours.
100% Ed, full marks there.
You are right and others seem to ignore the warnings totally at their peril and ours too.
Phase of the day; “None so deaf as those who will not listen”
The Trotsker seems to be missing the point he is making.
He likes to pointificate.
Ed, I posted this the other day on TS in relation to Trotter’s latest attack on the Greens…..
Trotter hates the Greens and has never really tried to understand them. He wants rid of them.
He is an unreconstructed Old Lefty and writes very well, often brilliantly, about that sector of traditional left-wing union-dominated politics. Nothing wrong with any of that BTW-all power to the unions.
But why he attacks the Greens when Labour will probably never be able to form a government without the Greens I can’t fathom.
Meanwhile the Greens are polling 7% and doing fine.
They are particularly strong on transport-it will be good when Genter comes back from maternity leave.
Since I wrote the above the Greens have had another policy gain with the retention and refurbishment of 15 electric locos that should help to get freight out of trucks and on to rail. Not all Green policies are climate change related; many have major social gains.
“Meanwhile the Greens are polling 7% and doing fine”
Greens vote is ‘usually’ less than their pre election polls. There is only so much their base vote amoungst tertiary educated middle class women will do.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/NZ_opinion_polls_2014-2017-majorparties.png
Poll trend was Greens 7% +-2% and NZ First 6% +-1%
Actual result was Greens 6.2% while NZ first 7.2% One was up on trend the other was down .
2014 election had Greens polling on say 12.2% while election result was 10.7% and similar in 2011.
7% is not doing fine , its saying they will get much the same as now, which is a ‘setback’
On similar lines to Ed’s post above:
Sometimes ‘The Canary’ comes up with little gems!
Extinction Rebellion – 31st October.
“A problem thousands of years in the making
“For around 5,000 years we’ve had a problem as a species. We have lived in hierarchies for most of that time. A few people at the top have control over what the rest of us do.
“And, if we’re honest with ourselves, we know this has never really worked. Because if it had, why has there generally always been poor people at the bottom? Why has there commonly been some human lives that are worth more than others?
“We consider ourselves the most advanced life form on the planet; possibly the universe. Yet throughout our history, the majority of us have willingly accepted a minority telling us what to do. When has it benefited us? And why, in 2018, is society no more truly equal than it was thousands of years ago? Even with all our academic, scientific, and technological advances?
“Today, we may be led to believe that just because we own a car, rent a house, and buy the same shopping each week that we’re ‘more equal’ to Richard Branson than Egyptian slaves were to their Pharaoh. Looks can be deceptive. Because it’s all relative. Many of us may not be physical slaves – but only the Richard Bransons truly have freedom in 21st century society.”
“Original sin
“But moreover, why do we still put up with these damaging hierarchies?
“It’s called greed and power. The first is a human desire; forged over thousands of years by hierarchies. One that tells us having more stuff makes us better than our neighbour. The second is almost a drug, that corrupts many people who have it. Those at the top push both as being in reach of those at the bottom. Together, they’re what drive benefit cuts; make people homeless; allow fracking and destroy the NHS. But now, this greed and power from the ‘one percent’ has literally put every species and the planet at risk. And we continue to be complicit in it; consciously or not.
“This has to end.”
Read the entire article:
https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2018/10/30/our-time-is-up-weve-got-nothing-left-but-rebellion/
“To put it bluntly: we’re fucked. And the only way it will change is by all of us taking drastic action now. We can’t leave it to politicians and corporations to decide. Unless someone can name one point in history when leaving power in the hands of a few has been good for the many? As in every single lifeform on this planet? And when it actually lasted.”
Yes, I would agree with you.
Unless we get rid of capitalism, we are going to see a brutal transition to a simpler sustainable future or even our extinction as a species. It’s that stark.
Our actions have already caused mass rapid extinction that may prove irreversible.
This article came out in the Guardian yesterday.
“Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.
The new estimate of the massacre of wildlife is made in a major report produced by WWF and involving 59 scientists from across the globe. It finds that the vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society ultimately depends for clean air, water and everything else.
“We are sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff” said Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF. “If there was a 60% decline in the human population, that would be equivalent to emptying North America, South America, Africa, Europe, China and Oceania. That is the scale of what we have done.”
“This is far more than just being about losing the wonders of nature, desperately sad though that is,” he said. “This is actually now jeopardising the future of people. Nature is not a ‘nice to have’ – it is our life-support system.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/30/humanity-wiped-out-animals-since-1970-major-report-finds
And there’s more sobering, shocking news about human impacts on the planet.
It all puts the corporate media’s discussions about royal visits, All Blacks’ selections and Jono and Ben’s axing in context. Utter trivia, complete distractions.
The media is a major obstacle to humankind acting immediately to avert the oncoming catastrophe.
Unless we approach the challenge and mobilise as if it were WW3, then we can forget passing a habitable world to our grandchildren.
“Scientists in Canada have warned that massive glaciers in the Yukon territory are shrinking even faster than would be expected from a warming climate – and bringing dramatic changes to the region.
After a string of recent reports chronicling the demise of the ice fields, researchers hope that greater awareness will help the public better understand the rapid pace of climate change.
The rate of warming in the north is double that of the average global temperature increase, concluded the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in its annual Arctic Report Card, which called the warming “unprecedented”.
“The region is one of the hotspots for warming, which is something we’ve come to realize over the last 15 years,” said David Hik of Simon Fraser University. “The magnitude of the changes is dramatic.”
Whole story here.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/30/canada-glaciers-yukon-shrinking
“But moreover, why do we still put up with these damaging hierarchies?
It is a paradox. Hierarchy arises from value. The core reason why humans do anything at all is because when we move from one condition to another, we expect the outcome to be ‘better’. And we can only measure this using values; we constantly stack up and compare, we order from best to worst, we are hardwired to create hierarchies of value.
Translating value into action demands performance. And all humans have different competency and we all perform at different levels. For instance I’m an experienced programmer and understand some of the science; but compared to the towering figures at the centre of the computing revolution, Kurt Goedel, Alan Turing and John von Neuman I’m way, way down the hierarchy of value. And of all the computer people who ever worked in the field, only a tiny fraction will make a real, novel and valuable contribution. The rest of us are mere artisans of varying degrees of skill. Something the Pareto distribution (and it’s close cousin Prices Law) describes.
Every field of human endeavour is organised in hierarchies of value; whether we formalise them or not. They are how we know what is ‘better’ and which direction to move in. Hierarchy in inherent and inevitable; it cannot be eradicated without also demolishing entire value structures. If you ‘end’ all values, precisely what will you do today? What is worth doing anymore? Or is the phrase ‘drastic action’ a code for ‘an orgy of destruction because I’m angry and too ignorant to think of anything better’?
The modern world is massively complex; and it creaks and totters in many vital organs. But the person who wrote this article has no fucking clue how to actually fix it. It amounts to thinking you can usefully improve a precision machine with a sledgehammer … and pretending there will be no consequences when it breaks.
I feel you’ve rather missed the point of the article.
Whether we like it or not, the sledgehammer is poised to strike. We’re not going to even approach the beginning of fixing climate change by tinkering at its edges.
Hence the movement’s title – Extinction Rebellion.
The old ways got us into this mess! Well, let’s be anarchists – tear it all down and see what comes out of it all.
Perhaps there are no solutions, only actions.
Well, let’s be anarchists – tear it all down and see what comes out of it all.
I promise you, an even bigger mess. The original problems would only get worse, and our capacity to deal with them would eliminated. Not a smart strategy at all.
Look I’m not unsympathetic to the sentiment; I get it. The outlook is bleak and scary and the temptation to advocate for ‘something dramatic’ is real. But also profoundly irresponsible.
It has been tried before and it has failed miserably every time. It is cute you think the idea is an original one though.
I agree that hierarchies of skill and value are unavoidable. People after all are not equally talented, hardworking, etc.
But I don’t believe it’s inevitable, or right, that we jump from that fact into accepting extreme hierarchies of power and reward, which are quite different things.
Yes. Although hierarchy is necessary and unavoidable; it is also prone to being captured and becoming corrupt. Hierarchy endows power which can easily be mis-directed into protecting itself and tilting the rewards unjustly.
A healthy hierarchy provides stability and direction of purpose; while at the same time is open to scrutiny, review and re-invention when the environment changes. In very general terms the right is good at operating the system according to the agreed rules and procedures; the left is good at calling it out when it becomes corrupt and needs refreshing.
No it doesn’t else Donald Trump would be living in a caravan park.
Actually, it’s probably far more likely that they’re just not properly recognised for the work that they’ve done. I recall the story of the guy who invented industrial diamonds. He spent hundred of hours working for no reward and when he accomplished it the company gave him a $10 gift voucher while stating that the discovery was theirs.
As I’ve been saying for years: We cannot afford the rich and Capitalism is the problem.
Nope. Capitalism is essentially the economic expression of the Rennaisance idea of the sovereign individual. It links the idea of the right of every individual to equality before the law and equality of opportunity, to the right to private property. It embeds the notion of human right to dignity and security with the capacity to own their body, their labour and the fruits of it.
The notion of private property is a very old one; but when it met the evolution of the modern credit money systems and legally protected in English common law … the result was the broad system we call capitalism. As an economic tool is has been incredibly successful on its own terms; as a social and environmental tool it has deep shortcomings. Capitalism as we have it right now has problems, but it’s not the problem.
You advocate throwing the tool away and hoping something better will come along; I’m arguing that we study the existing tool closely, regard what it does well, understand it’s limitations and why they arise … and carefully engineer a better version.
This is why competent economists like Steven Keen never talk about ‘the end of capitalism’. Instead he devotes time, talent and energy to understanding the system (his Minsky Model is a masterpiece), and works to train the next generation of economic leaders in more sophisticated implementations of what we already have.
No it doesn’t. It embeds the right of the rich to own everything and thus to live the life of kings on the labour of everyone else.
Yes it is and it’s brought about the collapse of every single civilisation that took it too far. Private ownership needs to be heavily restricted to personal items. The problems begin when it’s extended into owning land, houses and business.
Yes, it’s made a few people very rich at everyone else’s expense.
No I’m not. I’m advocating dropping private ownership of houses, businesses and land. Land and houses will be state owned, city managed. Businesses will be self-owned and run as cooperatives by the people who work in them. There will be no shareholders.
Money to be created by the government and spent into the economy via productive works, 0% interest loans to businesses and a UBI. It won’t be created by private banks whenever they make a loan.
In other words, the system would be very similar to what we have now but without the bludging of shareholders and other forms of unearned income that is detrimental to society.
How come not one single state has attempted your proposed solutions, even the ones who are anti-capitalist like Cuba and North Korea?
Perhaps they simply didn’t think of it.
Why didn’t they think of it given YOU think the solution is so simple and so self evident?
I’m advocating dropping private ownership of houses, businesses and land. Land and houses will be state owned, city managed. Businesses will be self-owned and run as cooperatives by the people who work in them. There will be no shareholders.
In other words you are saying that your version of communism would be less catastrophic than all the ones tried already. I’m not sure whether to admire your optimistic naivety, or call out the dangerous hubris.
it’s made a few people very rich at everyone else’s expense.
You come back to this point so often I have to conclude Orwell was right; you don’t care so much about the poor as you simply hate the rich. It’s not a promising starting point.
Communism hasn’t been tried. All we’ve had is other forms of hierarchy which failed as hierarchies always do.
The present system fails. It has always failed and always will. Eliminating the capitalists will, as a matter of fact, ensure that everyone will get the value that they produce rather than having it syphoned off to bludging shareholders and other rentiers.
The poor will actually be better off as they’ll no longer be paying taxes to the rich.
Communism hasn’t been tried.
Oh yes it has. See below. Maybe you need your nose rubbing in it, I dare you to get past the two hour mark:
Great read it basically sayes EVERYONE is an ARSEHOLE !!!
I first read Gulag Archipelago in my 20’s; it remains one of four or five deeply influential books I’ve ever read.
It’s a chilling and cautionary narrative of one of the most horrible episodes of the 20th century. When I was in Russia about 20 years back I made a point of travelling to the only gulag left in Perm, and just last year a work project took me to Kolyma, the area in Eastern Siberia where the most brutal gulags were located.
And I’ve driven on the “Highway of Bones”. Here are some pics of the region from a random linky:
https://jumboswank.com/employing-the-highway-of-bones-in-russian-far-east-with-my-father/
Yet the there is a deep lesson in Solzhenysen’s work; the entire evil edifice only functioned because the mass of people stopped speaking truth. Everyone knew about it, no-one could speak the truth of it. Yes we are all capable of being utter arseholes, and reading this book permanently convinced me of my own capacity for evil.
Most of us mistake merely being harmless with actively choosing good. Most of us never find ourselves in a situation where we can indulge in being evil with no immediate chance of being caught and sanctioned. Most of the time we don’t do bad things because it’s the easiest thing to do. But faced with the gulags, or concentration camps, or orders to commit genocide … how many of us have the courage to actively choose to be good over evil?
This is what the Archepelago explores. I can barely listen to it now in more than 30 minute segments.
Everyone knew about it, no-one could speak the truth of it.
It’s still happening, and it’s more ruthless than ever….
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-the-u-s-state-department-deletes-the-occupation-1.6069726
https://www.wrmea.org/013-may/getting-the-words-right-israel-isnt-occupying-palestine%E2%80%94its-conquered-it.html
I’ve traveled some this road last year to get to a job. Watch just the first five minutes of this and understand why you have trouble convincing me:
One of the points that Marx raises is the capitalists working people to death. And we still see it happening today. Pike River Mine, logging deaths and more. That’s in NZ. In other countries we see actual murder to keep the capitalists in power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-union_violence
One body per metre … for 1200 km.
Nice to see some rational solutions to the problems with capitalism there, Red.
Although seriously engaging with Draco about the practicality of his ideas always seems like a bit of a trap
A.
Do you seriously think, when climate catastrophe strikes, as strike it will, all the norms of society will not be thrown into confusion?
We cannot, simply cannot ‘profit’ our way out of what is coming. We need to already be thinking outside the box, and that will probably mean a complete rethink of the institutions of government.
We simply cannot envisage what shit may happen as a result of catastrophic climate change. But what I do believe is – we can’t solve any of the looming problems by ‘capitalistic’ tinkering.
Do you seriously think, when climate catastrophe strikes, as strike it will
There are two reactions to a threat which always fail:
1. Denialism: Pretending it’s not happening OR if it is it doesn’t matter.
2. Catastrophism: Pretending that it’s so bad that either nothing can be done, OR that everything has to be impossibly changed deal with it.
There is a third reaction which will also probably fail, given the enormity of the change that is coming:
3. Blinkered thinking/she’ll be rightism. “We can get through this with only small changes to the way we make money.”
Humanity has never faced such a monumental change in such a relatively small period of time. We simply cannot afford to take this threat lightly.
Ah no. Nothing ‘she’ll be right about it’.
But frankly any and all suggestions that we have to tear down the global economy in order to deal with this are fucking idiotic. Lets do that, lets stop everything, shut down the economies of the world tomorrow and stop every skerrick of activity that might possibly cause climate change.
Have you any idea how murderous this would be? The resulting chaos, social disruption, violence and famine would put at direct risk the lives of billions; immediately.
And any possible chance to address the problem without a mass die-off would be lost … deliberately. Maybe this is what you want; it’s hard to tell.
RL, I can’t see into the future any more than you can – but, if the entire tropical band north and south of the equator becomes too hot for human life, do you seriously think there won’t be chaos?
Millions, perhaps as many as a billion, of people will be forced to migrate to more equatable climatic areas – at the same time as the grain-lands of Europe and North America will be coming under climate stress. Already some governments in Europe are digging in their toes about accepting more migrants. And the exodus hasn’t even started yet.
Seriously, the decades from 2020 to 2040 could be a clusterfuck of disruption. Hundreds of millions of people will probably die and the institutions of government will struggle to cope with the catastrophe.
I sure as hell don’t know how we’re going to get through to the other side, but I repeat, I think we should be thinking outside the box already.
But perhaps I’m being too pessimistic? Perhaps capitalism will rise to the challenge, solve the climate change problem and make money at the same time!
Of course I understand everything you say above is a real possibility. I’m not neglecting or discounting that at all. But I do know that plunging the global economy into an immediate crisis is a certain route to an even worse outcome.
Every time we use climate change as the end to justify the means of ‘ending capitalism’ we achieve nothing except amplify and confirm the suspicions of most of the population. Most people are not communists or hard radical left. They don’t want a bar of it. Provoking them with useless talk makes an already monumentally difficult task harder.
There is no single silver bullet solution to this; it’s multi-dimensional and complex. No single person, or organisation, or nation on it’s own stands any chance of succeeding.
But 7 billion people can together do it. The trick is getting us together. Learn to be competent and persuasive; find something you can do, however small, and get good at it. Then people will come flocking to offer you bigger opportunities.
I don’t know the future either; but I do know there is only one strategy which optimises our chances of getting through this without too much devastation. Stop tilting at windmills, learn to use the already powerful tools around media, technology and money to make your case positively. The box of ideas and possible tech to get us through this mess is already huge, you don’t need to invent anything original or unique. Surround yourself with people who know what they are doing and ally yourself with them, even when at first brush you don’t agree with them.
The challenge could turn out even more monstrous than either of us imagine. But we’ve lost already unless we face it skillfully. I don’t intend to be mean here, but recycled neo-marxist tosh will not cut mustard.
Agree with thiz almost 100 percent.
+ 1 draco
Dear Green Party
I’m posting this for those involved in any manner with Canterbury re drought. Please pass this on. The methods as outlined here involve restoration of eroded outlets and installation of ‘dams’ that retain water to be infiltrated into the land. Plantings are also essential for the shade and infiltration aspects provided, including the build up of organic matter which increases a soils capacity for holding water, and decreasing evaporation.
Get cracking showing how it works on a model farm in the drought area. (You do have a decent hydrologist/ecologist/permie designer in your ranks??) Within a couple of years other farmers will be lined up to get their land rehydrated.
The drainage systems covering our country can be converted to retaining water (and draining excess) easily. Simple floodgate control at storm culverts will enable rehydration of the land.
It’s not a far stretch to show how with similar methods you can also turn riparian scrub into highly productive aquaculture/silviculture re: the late Charles Mitchell’s farm. I know his system, too.
Refill the aquifers, restore the landscape. Consultation available. Time wasters will be shredded by my Aspie ire.
Thanks for that great link, WeTheBleeple
Sounds like the opposite of where NZ is going and taking the water out of the aquifers and not being vigilant against ground water pollution, instead these farmers are tying to restore natural water systems, pre colonial times, against drought.
100% support here too.
I watched this last night. It is a prime example of exactly the kind of competent and effective response we truly need to beat this bastard.
Quit the bickering and bitching; watch this and be impressed. Be inspired, and then look around at your own life, look for what is immediately in front of you and fix that first.
My partner has a wry joke that goes “If you’re going to learn cross-country skiing, start with a small country first”.
Then come back here, tell us your success story and help others.
Most people can’t afford to change, to fix what’s in front of them.
Humankind spawned “this bastard” – the mystery is why we continue to nuture it in spite of known threats.
Maybe partly to do with the fact the many (some more than most) have done very well from ‘it’, at least in the short term.
Yes I largely agree with this DK; but to most people the idea of de-growth is deeply unattractive. There are profound psychological reasons why; and it would make a great tangential discussion to explore them.
Look most people have a fair clue that the current setup is a bit fucked. And there are many, many people at least a little open to the idea of changing the way we organise our economies if we can present a competent, credible alternative plan.
No-one wants to go back to medieval living standards; they just won’t voluntarily go there. And there are tens of thousands of people out there right now working on ways to solve the problem. Not all of them will work, but some will. They need our help and encouragement. They need us to be good at this; they don’t need us sitting about renting sackcloth.
And don’t discount the possibility that an entire raft of new tech, some of it very close to coming online, like solid state lithium batteries, perovskite enhanced PV’s, a whole generation of graphene based materials and techniques, HVDC global grids and on to whole rafts of research I’ve never heard of … all have the potential to transform our resource intensity dramatically. We have to bet on this.
And I understand that at core, it is the human heart that will prove most stubborn to change. But at least it can and will change with zero carbon footprint 🙂
We are in Aus currently, and this programme has just aired on tv. Australia’s latest PM supported this idea the previous one dissed it.
It was amazing to see how the hydrated land survived 4 years drought.
It all made so much sense.
Dirty dairying is destroying this country.
SIX MONTHS ON: GAZA’S GREAT MARCH OF RETURN
Has Jacinda Ardern spoken out about this yet? And if not, why not?
Wierd scenes eh Morrissey in the wake of the shooting in the states of the jews in the synagog …maybe my hearings not the best …but i didnt hear a single news outlet explore the possibility thet the reason they got shot might have been something to do with the fact israel shoots palistinians with total impunity on a regular basis .Nope according to the worlds reporters its ANTI SEMITISM .
The shooter was targeting not Israelis but liberal, compassionate, American Jews. He had a particular hatred for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
https://www.hias.org/
“As Facebook and Twitter are purging alternative media outlets, a neoconservative operative at a US government-funded think tank says more censorship is on its way. Max Blumenthal and Jeb Sprague discuss how scaremongering over Russia and China is being exploited to silence dissent on social media.”
This Russian fantasy nonsense, lazily recycling Hillary Clinton’s campaign crap, is just as rabid here. Two of the very worst are John Campbell and Bernard Hickey. And then there’s THIS ignoramus….
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/jesse-mulligan-sometimes-when-i-read.html
Well you would say that Morrissevich.
Very funny, Gabbieva. But seriously, now, listening to the likes of Campbell and Mulligan channel British and U.S. black propaganda is a hard listen, isn’t it.
Great to see the Minister of Transport reverse the Kiwirail board decision and require them to continue with electric trains rather than diesel.
This refurbishment will keep the Hutt workshop busy for years.
Also very good to.see them considering converting the whole fleet to hydrogen rather than extending electrification.
This would pull out all their diesel and give stronger network resiliency.
They would be better off running the trains on gas turbines.
For all this talk about hydrogen, no one has actually come up with a viable hydrogen propulsion system that has been put into everyday use.
The major problem with hydrogen is storing it effectively. The damn molecule is so small that most metals and materials are like tissue paper to it; it just migrates out of the vessel and is lost at a rate that is very hard to engineer around.
The good news is that graphene (apart from being a bloody wonder material in so many other respects) looks like it has some real potential to solve this key problem:
https://www.greenoptimistic.com/graphene-hydrogen-storage-tanks-20081008/
Alston already has them operating in Germany.
About time Phil woke up to save the electric rail system as he was previously “sidelined by false reports coming out of MBIE old “cherry picked” documents National had made up to show rail was not worth saving or ‘viable’ so twyford thought rail was dead. Thank christ he has come to his senses not a minute to soon.
Our letter to Minister of transport Phil twyford last week;
Protecting our environment & health.
In association with other Community Groups, NHTCF and all Government Agencies since 2001.
• Health and wellbeing.
• East Coast Transport Project.
TO;
Hon Phil Twyford – Minister of Transport.
Hon’ Jacinda Ardern PM.
Hon Winston Peters. Deputy PM.
Hon’ Shane Jones. Minister of Regional Development.
Hon’ Grant Robertson. Minister of Finance.
Hon’ Stuart Nash. MP For Napier Wairoa/ Matawai regions.
Hon’ Megan Woods. Minister of Energy.
URGENT PRESS RELEASE; – ACTION NEEDED HERE BY – Transport Minister Twyford.
26th October 2018.
Dear Ministers, Local civic authorities & rail stakeholders,
We have written to you all multiple times since becoming our new Government requesting to restore our railway to Gisborne that was damaged after a storm in March 2012; – and caused by a lack of rail funding maintenance in 2011 on after funding was cut by Minister of transport Steven Joyce; – http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1302/S00183/kiwirail-admits-lack-of-maintenance-led-to-wash-out.htm
Here is an important study paper from October 11, 2018 by Cody Januszko, Carnegie Mellon University Department of Engineering and Public Policy Transporting freight by road accounts for around seven percent of the world’s total energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Recognizing that heavy road freight is particularly hard to decarbonize, says the paper here.
But the report also claims roads are subsidised by us for truck freight so we need to level the playing field now in favour of “encouraging more rail freight services in all our exporting regions now and not delay the move back to rail freight any more.
QUOTE; “In the U.S., railroads own their own tracks, so they have to build their own infrastructure,” says Vaishnav, an assistant research professor in EPP. “Trucking uses public infrastructure, but does not bear the full cost of the damage heavy trucks do to roads and other infrastructure and indeed to the environment.”
Here attached above are the electronic copies of four of the studies on the benefits of rail we advocate, and Gisborne District Council has produced called “The socio-economic & environmental loss of rail for the Gisborne District” -2012 and we strongly endorse this study report.
6-249607-Socio-economic_&_environmental_impacts_of_loss_of_rail_-on May_2012
We now want all Government agencies to have a copy so distribute anywhere as they need to be mentioned to Government and others as evidence for our cal to restore the Gisborne Napier- Wellington rail service again.
* 6-249607-Socio-economic_&_environmental_impacts_of_loss_of_rail_-on May_2012 (2) *BERL Report November/Dec 2012.
*”The value of rail in NZ produced 2016 by national and kept hidden and released by Labour Minister of transport Phil Twyford Feb 2018. (Plus press release promising regional rail.) (Twyford) then kiwi rail press cover of rail study.
*Bolland report produced for Ministry of Transport 2010 but kept hidden by National and never released. Shows rail saved NZ lots of money and without rail how much a year it costs us.
Your response to our call is requested
The electric wire catenary system is only ever going to be partial – it will never replace the need for a diesel fleet, because it is never going to stretch all the way from Whangarei to Bluff to Nightcaps to Whanganui – or indeed to Gisborne.
If Twyford gets a really good case from NZTA and Kiwirail to replace the entire fleet to a new carbon efficient system, that is good for the country. On all sorts of policy dimensions.
The rebuilt of the old electric trains only buys them a decade of future operation if they are lucky. That buys them a bit of time.
There is a good case to replace the entire rail engine system, rip out the electric system completely, and have a major national mode that needs neither electricity generation nor petroleum as its main energy base. Nothing like a good strong innovation case for a further massive step-change in rail.
The rebuilt of the old electric trains only buys them a decade of future operation if they are lucky.
The EF class is around 32 years old, but it can be considered mid-life with a decent electrical overhaul. The fantastic old DFB’s and DX’s date back to the 60’s and 70’s and mechanically are still trucking along fine.
Ah yes there is a tiny little bit of unreconstructed railfan in me 🙂
I am interested in any information on the use of regenerative braking on central north island electric locos gooogle seems not to be my friend today (ie i havent found the right question yet) any links anyone on this subject.
xanthe
Our electric locomotives are traction regenerative I believe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_EF_class_locomotive
“The locomotives are supplied electricity from 25 kV AC overhead lines. These lines draw electricity from New Zealand’s national grid at four locations along the electrified section: Bunnythorpe, Tangiwai, Taumarunui, and Hamilton. The locomotives are fitted with regenerative braking as well as regular air brakes, so the traction motors can be turned into generators when the locomotive is coasting downhill and feed electricity back into the overhead lines and the national grid.”
https://www.connectorsupplier.com/regenerative-braking-systems-rail-applications/
“Key global locomotive manufacturers such as GE, EMD, and Vossloh have embraced the notion of the hybrid diesel locomotive while Siemens, Alstom, Bombardier, Mitsubishi, and Kawasaki have committed to the electrical systems approach with their offerings. All of these manufacturers have commercialized vehicles and systems which are now finding their way onto the global stage”.
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=150711
thanks cleangreen, i had found the wikipedia claim that they “feed electricity back into the overhead lines and the national grid.” and so I have always believed, but so far I cannot find any confirmation of this claim or technical details which concerns me given that power is supplied as 25Kv 50hz. of course as they are being given an electrical upgrade in 2018 achieving this is very do-able but I would like to be confident that is is and will be done.
I can confirm that this happens at least in some locations. Reinjected power is at 55 kV. I wouldn’t say the quantity of electricity reinjected was huge, but no doubt every little helps.
A.
My understanding the power generated during braking is dumped as heat by large resisters on the locos.
Thats apart from the brakes themselves for lower speeds.
Proposals for NEW electric locos said they could be equipped for regeneration.
http://www.kiwirail.co.nz/uploads/Publications/Better%20Business%20Case%20NIMT%20Performance%20Improvements.pdf
Wikipedia stories on the existing EF locos have unsourced material saying they regenerate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_EF_class_locomotive
Here is a link for Ad’s story:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/10/government-scraps-national-s-plan-for-kiwirail-diesel-trains.html
Refers specifically to trains between Hamilton and Palmy. Seems sensible although I am curious about the cost/benefit overall.
A.
It’s always the benefit horizons that bedevil rail investment compared to road.
and objectives,
a solution that will return maximum return to investors/shareholders may well be different to one that provides best cost benefit to users/public
so the question becomes who do they take their advice from.
Since rail is a publicly owned system the investment framework for it is through the NLTP. That’s where it gets reconciled however imperfectly. Next NLTP version will be smoother.
“however imperfectly” – i.e. driven by the preferred transport mode of the Government of the day
A.
>It’s always the benefit horizons that bedevil rail investment compared to road.
Are you saying that rail doesn’t typically tend to stand up over a standard length CBA (20-30 yrs) but pays off over a longer term (Say 50 yrs), and that this holds in this particular case too?
A.
This particular business case hasn’t been released to the public yet.
But generally yes that’s always been the tenor of the arguments.
Should be some way of factoring it in through e.g. terminal value adjustments (though perhaps hard to quantify).
A.
Interesting that the NZTA was assuming top ‘principal position as transport advisor to Government on transport” but “NZTA is only a road controlling authority” (RTA).
Ministry of transport (MoT) is the “key principal advisor to Government” for all forms of transport” – not NZTA!!!!!!
So Labour/NZF need to amend this anomaly and fund equally Ministry of Transport (MoT) as they do NZTA in future.
https://www.transport.govt.nz/about/
Quote;
About the Ministry of Transport
Last updated on: 14/08/2018
The Ministry of Transport is the government’s principal transport adviser. The majority of our work is in providing policy advice and support to Ministers.
Through our advice we aim to:
improve the overall performance of the transport system
improve the performance of transport Crown entities
achieve better value for money for the government from its investment in the transport system.
We help the government give effect to its policy by supporting the development of legislation, regulations and rules. We also manage and account for funds invested in transport.
The Ministry represents New Zealand’s interests internationally, particularly in aviation and maritime.
We work with Crown entities
We assist the government in its relationship with the transport Crown entities to ensure they are effectively governed, and are accountable for their performance and monitoring arrangements for transport sector Crown entities.
Visit the Transport Sector Functions page for more information
We work with local government authorities
Local government authorities own, maintain and develop New Zealand’s local road network and perform important regulatory functions. Regional councils (and unitary authorities) are required to develop regional land transport strategies that guide the decision-making of local councils. In the Auckland region, the Auckland Transport carries out these functions. Some local authorities own seaports and airports, or share ownership with the Crown.
> So Labour/NZF need to amend this anomaly and fund equally Ministry of Transport (MoT) as they do NZTA in future.
Sorry but you have no idea. NZTA needs billions of dollars per year to fund the country’s land transport network. MOT is just a few bureaucrats – bums on seats.
A.
Antoine;
You have no idea ‘why NZTA needs billions’ !!!!
https://trid.trb.org/view/1125281
Quantifying Incremental Pavement Damage Caused by Overweight Trucks
Quote
Significant increases in commercial truck loadings across the Saskatchewan road network have resulted in accelerated damage to the provincial highway system. This accelerated damage has decreased the expected performance life of many of these roads and also increased maintenance and rehabilitation requirements and costs.
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Antoine; – It is because truck freight who are responsible wholly for totally wrecking our roads and causing the road maintenance to accelerate to such high levels now we need to change road freight companies the full cost of their damages now.
You need to learn the real truth here.
Here is an important study paper from October 11, 2018 by Cody Januszko, at the Carnegie Mellon University Department of Engineering and Public Policy Transporting freight by road accounts for around seven percent of the world’s total energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Recognizing that heavy road freight is particularly hard to decarbonize, says the paper here.
But the report also claims roads are subsidised by us for truck freight so we need to level the playing field now in favour of “encouraging more rail freight services in all our exporting regions now and not delay the move back to rail freight any more.
QUOTE; “In the U.S., railroads own their own tracks, so they have to build their own infrastructure,” says Vaishnav, an assistant research professor in EPP. “Trucking uses public infrastructure, but does not bear the full cost of the damage heavy trucks do to roads and other infrastructure and indeed to the environment.”
Clearly NZTA must not be used to make rail studies up as they are principally geared to funding truck freight activities for private companies some which are foreign owned. Stop subsidising the trucks.
You are not making sense
A.
MoT is just a speedbump barely registering in Wellington to NZTAs actual funding and execution.
Would be better if they were reformed into a new proper transportation system regulator.
100% Ad.
And replace Steven Joyce’s well placed “tarmac lovers” sitting still inside the NZTA at the same time please.
I’m with Fred Eaglesmith on this one
Another good decision. Keep them coming Phil. Such a pleasure to see integrated planning involving communities.
Hydrogen for power is a complete waste of electricity, it takes far, far more electricity to make enough hydrogen to achieve the desired outcome.
yes Hydrogen is a detour off the highway to reducing carbon.
The easiest/cheapest way to ‘make’ the hydrogen is from natural gas- they hide that fact with waffle as ‘only a backup method’ or CO2 sequestration – is if they would pay for that.
It wouldn’t hurt to be looking seriously at highspeed rail.
The energy equation is not much different to conventional, but the speed allows it to compete favourably with carbon heavy domestic air services.
TransTasman traffic could probably run on something similar to the Busan Shimonoseki ferries, again with substantial carbon savings.
These things might take years to scope out – better to begin that sooner than later.
Hydrogen is a bit like fusion – a wonderful tech with no working prototypes. If we were determined to embrace the new, maglev at least has working prototypes.
SPORTS NEWS:
Knocking up a quick half century before lunch
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2018/10/its_about_the_policy_not_the_people.html/comment-page-1#comment-2346591
This is interesting. The UK has had enough of Facebook etc not paying taxes and has gone it alone with a digital services tax, albeit not very tough.
Interesting thing here is that it breaks all the normal tax rules because it is based on turnover not profit and the tax authorities will make other assumptions as to company structure rather than rely on what it is being told by Facebook etc.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/oct/29/uk-digital-services-tax-budget-facebook-google-amazon
Labour in the UK has called the tax a pittance….but it is a start and once in place can be upped. The Yanks have been blocking a tax for years.
The digital people are screaming. Music to my ears. Come on Jacinda lets do it.
Yes.. tax these monoliths.
GST is based on turnover !
Where did you get the idea it wasnt, as its plain and simple.
What they will do is base the tech tax on turnover like VAT but without any deductions for the tax on goods supplied.
Sorry I wasn’t thinking about GST which is actually a tax added to turnover not part of it. But you can see the point of the digital services post I hope?
BTW I’m a qualified accountant (lapsed).
I think the map we use has a lot to do with some euro western feelings of superiority – like they’re better than everyone else or they are the sum total of what’s gone before – you know, the white superiority stuff.
“As most of us know, the world map we grew up with isn’t exactly the most accurate vision of the world. Currently, the Mercator projection—which was created by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569—is the standard map projection. Though we’ve known for quite some time that this projection significantly distorts the size of landmasses, for nearly 450 years nothing better has become the standard.
More than just a cartography error, many critics have said that the Mercator projection is a visual representation of Eurocentricity and historic colonialism, as Africa and South America appear much smaller than they actually are.”
https://mymodernmet.com/world-map-accuracy/
Who actually uses Mercator these days? My atlas doesn’t; nor does Google Maps (which is my main go-to for maps nowadays); nor, I would think, do most maps in NZ classrooms.
A.
Oh hmmm
“Most people go through life perfectly happy in the knowledge that the real earth looks like it does on a standard Mercator projection map.
… The comic (link below) by Randall Munroe at XKCD looks at What your favorite map projections says about you (assuming you have one).”
https://brilliantmaps.com/xkcd/
That’s a good XKCD
My kid came home with a map centred on the South Pole which I liked.
A.
Centre it on Aoteoroa and be surprised. (Easy in google earth.)
Really, this is why we invented 3D computer graphics.
You know who didn’t need no damn Mercator projection.
http://thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/stick_charts/
You are complicit Parker as are all of labour.
“Parker described it as a “momentous” day for New Zealand and world trade, and said the CPTPP had become even more vital now the World Trade Organisation was in such a parlous state.
The CPTPP represented 13 per cent of the worlds GDP, and its member countries had a combined annual gdp of just under $15 trillion New Zealand dollars.”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/108238830/cptpp-trade-deal-over-the-line-after-final-nations-ratify-pact
One of our strongest-supported pieces of legislation in a while.
If the WTO starts failing by end of next year, such agreements may be the closest to rule-based trade that small states like us can get.
The structural entropy is accelerating.
Supported by who?
I still haven’t seen majority support for it from the people. Only the idiots in government and business.
Parliament.
Obviously.
We’re supposedly a democracy which would indicate that it needs the support of the people.
Does it have that support?
Yes. Through every single party’s votes in the New Zealand Parliament except the Greens. For the formation and passage of legislation, that is the very definition of democracy.
So yes, by an overwhelming democratic majority, it has that support.
Legislation is passed through the democratic system called parliament.
It sailed through.
It had that democratic support by the truckload.
See, that’s not actually a democracy. That’s a dictatorship no different from the feudal system.
You just pop down to parliament and give them a jolly good piece of your mind. Chant around it and see if it levitates for you.
You know how many anarcho-syndicalists does it take to change a lightbulb?
They just stand on a chair, hold the lightbulb up, and wait for the whole world revolve around them.
that’s a good ‘un
That’s awesome!
I’ve got one for you…
Q:How many kids with ADHD does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: “Do you wanna go bike riding?!”
(Maybe will have offended someone with that but I’m sure the lord will forgive me)
Dissing on ADHD Kids now …. How hypocritical You are !
“I still haven’t seen majority support for it from the people.”
Thats because a minority of a minority party – Greens- are opposed and cant sleep at night over the possibility of an investor sueing the government. They are sleepless I tell you.
What a load of bollocks.
I haven’t seen anything since that shows the support for this increasing.
That poll in 2015 wasnt the revised TPPA agreed to by Labour in 2018.
So you say you havent seen the support for TPPA increasing ?
Luckily I found something for you- but was same yr 2015
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11566580
only 27.4 per cent support TPP on the basis it would be good for New Zealand’s economic well-being, although that is up 4.5 points from September when just 22.9 per cent supported it.
Almost the same number, 25.8 per cent oppose it on the basis of the investor-state dispute settlement provisions, down 5.5 points from the same questions asked in September.
But 45.9 per cent formed no view on it, the same as September.
Thats means 73% have no view or support it . They are sleeping well at night.
Likely the revised investor -state dispute provisions – which mean local operating companies that have overseas owners have to go through local courts- means only a rump oppose it totally now.
Other polls
https://yournz.org/2016/02/28/tppa-poll/
Of course not much polling since then as its low concern to most.
So, we’re all about to get poorer – goodo.
100% Draco.
Labour sold us down the river as National did so they were both in bed to strip us of our Sovereignty.
Damn them all.
Defense firms see only hundreds of new U.S. jobs from Saudi mega deal
So, it’s really just another deal to boost the profits for the bludging shareholders of the military-industrial complex.
Kathryn Ryan, who’s incapable of recognizing bullshit
when it’s rubbed in her face, needs to talk to more children.
Nine to Noon, RNZ National, Wednesday 31 October 2018, 11:32 a.m.
During a discussion with Young Adult fiction author Melanie Rodriga, the host affected her most serious voice and intoned….
Melanie Rodriga, who seemed to be a bright person, was too polite to acknowledge the clanging, jangling irony of that statement.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/02/bradley-manning-show-trial-begins-in.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/dame-ann-leslie-arrrrgggh.html
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2018/01/is-it-possible-national-radio-is.html
So that first link – you cut and paste from here onto your blog and then post back here to direct people to your blog where a copy of the conversation from here is. Did enjoy seeing some old and long gone quality commenters there ta.
Thanks, Marty. That blog of mine I started many years ago, but only put two items on it and forgot about it until late last year. I’m paranoid about sites closing down and everything getting lost, as happened with the old Planet Rugby chat site, and the willful destruction of Google Groups. I have been trying to harvest everything I’ve done online since 2003.
Often I’ll link straight to The Standard or wherever I first posted, but since so much of my stuff is now on the blog, it’s often more convenient.
Yes your system works.
I’ve given up on my blog – a good record of the time though.
The poor wee devotees of liberalism will struggle with this one. It shows up just how far down the rabbit hole the fubar ideology has gone. Plus funny as.
+1 Adam – some of the best videos there are on foreign policy. Probably explains why our defence force now is expected to defend foreign and domestic corporations rather defend NZ people and sovereignty. Thanks neoliberalism.
“A movement, calling for ‘Blexit’ or exit of blacks from the Democratic party has been launched,..”
Not surprising really after Hillary’s latest unpleasant comment.
Lol Kanye is into it so it must be quality – nah it’s not.
Its fake news, the same as the Clinton message.
Hint she said No twice, when asked about 2020.
meanwhile Pence turns up in Pittsburgh with a ‘fake rabbi’ to offer prayers – In the name of Jesus – I kid you not!
“As he began his prayer, it became immediately clear that the rabbi, Loren Jacobs of Congregation Shema Yisrael in suburban Detroit, would not be considered a Jew by any of the four major denominations of Judaism. In his prayer, he mentioned the “saving power” of the Lord and concluded, “In the name of Jesus, amen.”
Rabbi Jacobs believes that Jesus is the Messiah, a conviction that is theologically incompatible with Judaism.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/us/mike-pence-rabbi-jacobs.html
Doesnt sound like there will be a jewish exodus from the democrats next week.
Clintons are all now confirmed as stool pigeons for the Global elite of course. They are still funded by George Soros the convicted criminal and attend “the Bilderberg Group” secret meetings.
Thank goodness we have decent gun control in NZ.
Ha!
Kia ora The Am Show Its good that thousands of new houses built are on the market in Auckland .
Is it a coincidence that there was a housing crisis in America Britain Canada NZ Banks love houses a safe bet they can most time’s claw there money back if thing go wrong Banks caused it with there lending policy’s I see one made a cool 2 billion .
Becoming a Republic do we need more political fighting for the head of states job do we want to have politics like they have in America at the minute I think not.
Maori and Pacific people won’t go for that we have other reason to if it aint broke don’t fix it one will end up with a big mess.
There you go all shonkys m8 are making billions banks retailers a lot of business profits at least % 30 higher after 9 years of national then bill decided to kick our youth.
Ka kite ano
I believe there is a God and Heaven we are living in Heaven now its just people don’t treat Te Papatuanuku / Mother Earth like a Heavenly thing and respect her and her creatures .
Men are chasing money and destroying our planet in 3 small life times we will only have % 10 of the wild creatures left this is why Eco Maori pushes for more wahine to become world leaders as MAN IS TURNING OUR HEAVEN INTO HELL we need wahine to kick there ASSES out and back to reality.
If one keeps shitting in one own back yard you end up in the SHIT not much logic needed to work that out.
The Maori view is that we are related to all the creatures and what do you know hundreds of years later scientist prove that thought to be fact the matrix genealogy .
The Maori view on our connection with Papatuanuku and her creatures is a common view of most indigenous cultures around Papatuanuku .
The neo liberals capitalist are running this heaven into hell all for there greed of prophet over everything else in the world change COMPANY Constitutional needed to have clauses in them to put our earth and decedents well being before profit .
Its a crying shame what man is doing to the world at the minute.
Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world’s foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.
The new estimate of the massacre of wildlife is made in a major report produced by WWF and involving 59 scientists from across the globe. It finds that the vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society ultimately depends for clean air, water and everything else. Ana to kai ka kite ano link below
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/30/humanity-wiped-out-animals-since-1970-major-report-finds
Some music for my other post its cool that some are getting the big picture we need all the common people to stand up and fight with there votes if we all vote the pollies will BUCKLE and start making laws that benefit all creatures.
Man does not own the Earth we are just caretakers for the next generations wake up
History shows that, when presented with unpalatable evidence of the undesirable effects of our decisions, we either bury our collective heads in the sand, or order the problems we face in terms of their tractability. Where they are judged to be intractable, as in this instance, they are relegated for later attention. We cannot continue to delude ourselves that the transition to near-zero fossil fuel use is possible without global mandation.
The overriding message located between the lines of the IPCC report is that we must lead our lives within the planet’s means. In all conscience, we are currently locked into a process that will inevitably result in passing on a dying planet to our children and their successors. Should this not be at the absolute top of the international debating agenda? Ka kite ano
My link to the story above multi tasking Ka kite ano.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/30/climate-change-action-effective-ipcc-report-fossil-fuels
The go oil party are big cheats taking minority people right to Democracy right to vote with corrupt laws. The federally-recognized Spirit Lake Tribe filed a complaint Tuesday against North Dakota Secretary of State Alvin Jaeger that reads: “Jaeger’s implementation of the residential address requirement has imposed severe—sometimes insurmountable—burdens on the right to vote for many voters on reservations.”
Every time the secretary of state’s Alvin Jaeger is asked a question that indicates deceit on his and his office behalf he showed Eco Maori he was lying the eyes are A direct view into ones true intentions the mouth can lie but the eyes reveal those LIES .
Kia kaha wahine and fight for the right of our childrens future. link is below ka kite ano
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/31/politics/native-american-tribe-suing-north-dakota-voter-id/index.html
Mana Wahine Barba Streisand has a new Album Just released Kia kaha.
Some Eco Maori Music For The Minute
Just five countries hold 70% of the world’s remaining untouched wilderness areas and urgent international action is needed to protect them, according to new research.The UQ and WCS study, published in the journal Nature, identifies Australia, the US, Brazil, Russia and Canada as the five countries that hold the vast majority of the world’s remaining wilderness. Link is below Ka kite ano.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/31/five-countries-hold-70-of-worlds-last-wildernesses-map-reveals
Kia ora Newshub The banks have been shutting down banks in rural places leaving people with banking services .I see shonky have his bull line in the herald to he made the problem and is throwing up a smokescreen he should go play golf with trump.
There you go those Saudi sisters have lost there lives it doesn’t look good for the Saudis they will never become a major place for all people to visit if they carry on treating wahine and the lower class people like dirt .
That’s cool the goverment has a new housing development plan’s for Porirua . I say the Law commission or whom ever is advocating law changes should worry more about the common poor person not getting a fair go from New Zealand laws 6 times the system has underarm bowled Eco Maori cheated me
Carbon based fuel is going to be a thing of the past the faster the better the fuel company’s should invest in green energy that’s the future or else you are pushing up hill.
No comment on the police pay I seen two following me at the supermarket with uniform I gave them a ki ora they could not even look at me I blasted the Rock radio music and drove off respectfully on Tuesday.
Ka kite ano
Ki ora James & Storm from The Crowd Goes Wild
The coach has confidences in his players who are playing Japan test team the Japan team have there Kiwi connection coaching staff .
That was a good game of T20 cricket for the Kiwis and Pakistan.
Hope the white ferns have a good run at there T20 cricket matches kia kaha ladys.
The wife loves her horrors not me comedy science and doco’s .
Josh rafting with the Aussies nice tat one should know that if they are encouraging you to sit some ware its a set up.
Money makes the soccer ball go around Qutar wining the football world cup.
Ka kite ano .
Maori TV Te Kaea I got side tracked helping my offspring .Kia kaha ka kite ano