by frog
George Bush leads the way
US President George Bush has announced an ‘ambitious‘ climate change programme to stop increasing carbon emission in 2025. And, after that, the US is going to start reducing emissions. That’s only 17 years and somewhat more than 100 billion metric tonnes of CO². We’ll probably be onto our 3rd Bush president by then.
The Easterlin paradox
New research in the United States is challenging the Easterlin paradox which argues that rich people tend to be much happier than poor people but that , rich societies tend not to be happier than poor societies. I’ve written about the Easterlin paradox before, and it is no surprise that it would be the subject of controversy with proponents of unsustainable economic growth.
PR in the PRC
Open Democracy has an article on the world’s perception of Chinese human rights abuses and whether that perception could be improved by China presenting itself differently with a ‘better public relations response’.
The tragicomic Olympic-torch tour presents the world with a serious problem. While the west has focused on the chaotic and even amusing aspects (French police on roller-blades, Chinese torch-guards in dark shades on a cloudy day), in China the iconic image is of the young female paralympic fencer Jin Jing struggling to hold the torch from her wheelchair while a grimacing free-Tibet protestor attempts to wrest it from her grasp. As with the Tibetan protests generally, people in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the world at large see the events of the torch tour in radically different ways.
Bamboo bikes
Righto. All you carbon emitting cyclists, here’s the next step in on the path to carbon neutrality – bamboo bikes:
Today Calfee Design, based in La Selva Beach, Calif., sells the bamboo bikes, whose frames weigh just four pounds, for $2,695 each. They account for more than a quarter of its $1 million in annual sales.
“Serious bikers like them because they’re high-performance frames,” says Calfee, 45. “Environmentally conscious people like them because making them burns less carbon.”
I wonder if he makes bamboo skateboards?
Gossip
The Green Party has finally made it into a gossip column! And it’s about saving dolphins rather than hairdos or affairs with TV presenters.
Published in Society & Culture by frog on Fri, April 18th, 2008
Tags: Bamboo, Bicycles, China, climate change, CO², dolphins, Easterlin paradox, George Bush, gossip, Olympic Flame, Tiet, United States
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Frog
Let me get this right, you don’t like the Chinese spin yet you test tour prospective candidates on their ability to spin a story in favour of the Greens.?
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i like this upping of the news ante on frogblog..
one of those ’round-ups’ wouldn’t go amiss most days..
the ‘quality’ raw material is out there..
(i find it every day..
eh..?..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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big bro, I wasn’t making a judgement, I was just posting some issues I thought people might like to talk about. The story about China I thought had some bits I agreed with (e.g. more press freedom, more shared cultural understanding from both sides) and other bits I disagreed with (like the spinning).
As for spinning as Toad said over at Kiwiblog, the green candidates’ written exercise was “a test of ability to analyse and summarise, under pressure and without resources” similar to that which they would sometimes encounter in Parliament. (But I’m happy to admit that communicating your view effectively sits somewhere on the same spectrum as ‘spinning’).
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and gee..!..frog..just on that ‘news’ front..
did you see the other day that after only three years..and 15.774 stories/links..
farrar at kiwiblog gave me a ‘het-tip’…
when doyareckon you might get around to considering doing something along those lines..?
and just to make it easier for you..
the ‘green’ story category has some 2,300 stories/links..
the nz politics has over 6,000 stories/links..
and..(especially for nandor..eh..?..)..many hundreds of stories in the vegan category..
(your welcome..!..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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make that ‘hat-tip’..(heh..!..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Bamboo bikes sound great, but I wonder how sustainably the bamboo is going to be harvested? I mean, China already has big enough problems with disposable chopsticks.
And considering how often I’ve had less intelligent neighbours throw my bike around damaging it in some childish hissy fit over parking space, I think I’d rather not go buying a bike which could be set on fire….
And China PR? Nah, it ain’t gonna happen. I fear we’re stuck with two sides shouting and nobody listening.
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I like the bamboo bikes i was looking into wind turbines made from bamboo since i don’t believe you can call the current wind turbines sustainable since aren’t they made from fosil fuel derived products?
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Off-topic, but what are the results of your “Buy New Zealand” campaign?
What was the ROI on the $10 million? Or was it $15m?
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“What was the ROI on the $10 million? Or was it $15m?”
You wanna know the return?… it goes something like this “six votes in favour”
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Yes, but I want to know the value to the taxpayer
The Greens wanted to play at being marketers. So when will they report the data and campaign analysis?
Who is accountable?
Anyone?
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BluePeter and big bro, not quite sure what the question is but it seems the %11.5 million Buy Kiwi Made programme is going quite well. And it seems Business NZ is quite happy with it too.
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Thanks, but has the extra awareness (201,792) translated into purchases? What is the value of those extra purchases vs the marketing spend?
>>Business NZ is quite happy with it too.
Well of course Business NZ is happy about it. You’re subsidizing their marketing spend.
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I wonder if you could make a time machine out of bamboo?
Then you could find out if George WWW managed to stick to his plan.
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Does George W. have a son or are we talking about Americas first female President?
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What is with all these Chinese students in London protesting the media bias of the BBC. I mean come on the BBC. I ran into them outside of westminster today since i’m in London sightseeing for the weekend.
Why don’t they complain about China’s lack of free press.
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So “Buy Kiwi Made” has no ROI measurement in place?
If not, then it has been – yet another – poorly thought out, titanic waste of taxpayers money.
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Good point BluePeter about Buy NZ made.
I wonder if the increased awareness has a bit to do with the increased awareness of dangerous products coming from China too.
I look at where things come from more now, and find it very hard to actually find anything that isn’t made in China.
The buy NZ made research sounds similar to the NZ wood research, where they used an opinion survey about what people thought, rather than actual proof of whether NZ forestry is truely sustainable.
It’s very easy to talk about the benefits of doing something like buying NZ made, but most of us just can’t afford it, and going into a shop thinking about where the products come from, just makes you feel worse when you come out with a bag full of stuff labled “Made in China”
Just out of interest, where are the little “Buy NZ made” labels made?
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lol even when oil is used to make an asset it gets called “fuel”.
there’s the tragedy – that we’re burning a valuable construction material as fuel instead of making stuff that lasts with it.
seen as a raw material for manufacturing & construction, oil is no less sustainable than any other – there’s no infinite supply of stone on the planet.
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