Archive for March, 2008

• 

  Greymouth swings Green - by frog

  
  
  
  The Greymouth Star is running a poll on who its readers will be voting for in this year’s general election. Now that I’ve linked to it, and before you North Island Herald readers all race of to vote in it and thus distort its accuracy, let me record for posterity a snapshot of political life [...] read more
  March 31, 2008 3:33 pm - 43 Comments
• 

  Greenpeace, climate change and agriculture - by frog

  
  
  
  One of things that most strongly differentiates the Green Party’s holistic approach to dealing with climate change from other parties is that it does not have a blind spot on the issue of agriculture [pdf].Greenpeace, in it’s survey of political parties policies on climate change, asked all parties whether the farming sector or taxpayers should [...] read more
  March 31, 2008 12:02 pm - 13 Comments
• 

  Greenpeace’s Politics of Climate Change - by frog

  
  
  
  Greenpeace has just released political survey: Politics of Climate Change; Where New Zealand’s Political Parties Stand on the Biggest Challenge We Face. The Greens do well in the survey getting climate friendly rankings in all of Greennpeace’s twenty criteria.  But it looks like Green MPs may be struggling to find a similarly responsible party to [...] read more
  March 31, 2008 11:31 am - 7 Comments
• 

  20 days to have your say on preferential trade with China - by frog

  
  
  
  You would probably expect me to be jumping up and down about these poll figures: Asked if they supported New Zealand signing a free trade agreement with China, 44.7 per cent of those questioned in the DigiPoll survey said they did. Just about a third – 32.4 per cent – said no, while 22.9 per [...] read more
  March 31, 2008 9:54 am - 32 Comments
• 

  For appearance’s sake - by frog

  
  
  
  The Green Party is in the unique position that 2/3rds of our MPs are women. So one of the things I really notice in the parliamentary precinct is the way those women are judged on their appearance, clothes and hair style in a way that men never are. Some of the attacks they endure are [...] read more
  March 29, 2008 7:23 pm - 28 Comments
• 

  The Herald poll - by frog

  
  
  
  Well, 3.9% is fairly depressing. It seems the Greens have lost/misplaced half a percent to either the Kiwi Party or Act (up 0.4% and 0.7% respectively). Oops. Expect to see Metiria introduce our Abolition of All Swearwords and Taxes Bill to the house next week. Seriously though, we can’t worry too much because the Herald [...] read more
  March 29, 2008 7:22 pm - 37 Comments
• 

  Tibetan Rights Are Not For Sale - by frog

  
  
  
  This video from Green Party MP Keith Locke says it all. read more
  March 28, 2008 4:03 pm - 2 Comments
• 

  Kerr is a contrarian, even with himself - by frog

  
  
  
  In a gloriously hypocritical about-face, the Business Roundtable announced today that a carbon tax would be better for business and the environment. In today’s Orwellian press release; Saving the Planet Must Not Cost the Earth, Kerr paints the Australians as having spent considerably more time than we have in evaluating their version of the ETS [...] read more
  March 28, 2008 2:21 pm - 9 Comments
• 

  The Wilkins Ice Shelf - by frog

  
  
  
  Pretty. Sad. Pretty sad. read more
  March 28, 2008 2:20 pm - 49 Comments
• 

  The price of bread - by frog

  
  
  
  National Radio had an item on the rising price of bread this morning. Much of the reason given was droughts in Australia and overseas use of crop land for biofuels. Now, bread should be something that we are able to supply relatively easily. After all it’s mostly made from things we should be able to [...] read more
  March 28, 2008 1:56 pm - 7 Comments
• 

  Monsanto is $660 poorer - by frog

  
  
  
  I alluded, in an earlier post, to the legal battle between small Canadian farmer, Percy Schmeiser, who was being sued by Monsanto for having round-up ready canola on his land without having paid for them. It seems that Schmeiser did win a law case after all. It wasn’t the 1998 case for which he became [...] read more
  March 28, 2008 8:37 am - 1 Comment
• 

  Climate change may be acquitted of frog killing charge - by frog

  
  
  
  The story that climate change may not be to blame for the widespread deaths and looming extinction of South and Central America’s harlequin frogs caught my attention for the obvious reason. But I draw it to you attention for this quote at the end of the story from Australian biologist, Ross Alford: “Arguing about whether [...] read more
  March 28, 2008 7:42 am - No Comments
• 

  A bad year for food, a good year for GE - by frog

  
  
  
  Celsias reports that the world’s non-genetically engineered food crops are rapidly being contaminated as seeds from GE crops blow around on the wind and snuggle up into plantations where they were never welcome. As a result of genetically contamination of non-GMO crops in Europe, the U.S., Mexico, Australia and South America, the biotech food industry [...] read more
  March 28, 2008 7:41 am - 1 Comment
• 

  Solid Energy trumpets its environmental performance - by frog

  
  
  
  Yesterday Solid Energy was complaining that snails and associated protests had cost it millions of dollars. Today it is celebrating it’s greenness by talking about the snails it is saving and how it’s carbon emissions were less that its offsets last year (probably thanks in part to protests by the Save Happy Valley crew which [...] read more
  March 27, 2008 4:19 pm - 6 Comments
• 

  Genetically engineered equine flu vaccine - by frog

  
  
  
  I wrote a couple weeks ago about the potential release of a live GE virus into New Zealand to cure horse flu, thinking there would be more details and discussion occurring on this issue soon thereafter. But things have gone eerily quiet. I know New Zealand’s Anti GE networks will be outraged that a live [...] read more
  March 27, 2008 2:46 pm - No Comments
• 

  How big a slice of tax cut would you like? - by frog

  
  
  
  Tax cuts. Cullen says his will be smaller but won’t negatively affect the economy or public services. English says his will be bigger but doesn’t want to play that up too much in case he gets caught in the chewing gum trap Cullen found him self in last election. Or worse, he could end up [...] read more
  March 27, 2008 1:55 pm - 7 Comments
• 

  Gone bananas - by frog

  
  
  
  Celsias examines the possibility that one of the world’s most popular foods, bananas, could become extinct.  It seems that more than 300 varieties of bananas have slowly been whittled down by world markets to just one; the uniformly familiar yellow ones we see in our supermarkets which go by the name of Cavendish.  Now the [...] read more
  March 27, 2008 11:08 am - 5 Comments
• 

  Skycity switches off outdoor lights - by frog

  
  
  
  I hear that Auckland’s Sky Tower will be turning its lights out this Saturday as part of the worldwide Earth Hour campaign. I wonder if Skycity will also be switching off the 24 hour 7 day a week pokie machines in its casino rooms? That seems like it would be a more significant gesture [pdf]. [...] read more
  March 27, 2008 10:27 am - 14 Comments
• 

  Urban chickens - by frog

  
  
  
  I’m a petless kind of urban frog. I’m not a big fan of cats, and I always feel a little sorry for big dogs in the big city. And, as you’d expect, I don’t have a lot of affinity for fish bowls and cages. But I know a lot of people do like pets, so [...] read more
  March 27, 2008 10:01 am - 5 Comments
• 

  Celebrating a loss - by frog

  
  
  
  Solid Energy is in the news blaming protesters for its loss of $2.7 million dollars for the year. If only. Actually a lot of that loss came from costs associated with its legal requirement to move the threatened Powelliphanta Augustus snail. Remember that the Department of Conservation’s original recommendation to the Minister was that the [...] read more
  March 26, 2008 1:37 pm - 14 Comments