Archive for April, 2008

• 

  Fishing spokesman hits a new low blaming dolphins for tragic drownings - by Metiria Turei

  
  
  
  Last night’s One News item, which featured a member of the recreational fishing council blaming set net bans for a tragic drowning, shows the depths to which some will sink to protect their own interests. Fishing council spokesman Keith Ingram was commenting on the WWF Colmar Brunton survey which showed overwhelming public support for a [...] read more
  April 21, 2008 10:31 am - 9 Comments
• 

  Cycling ads - by frog

  
  
  
  Over in the United States the all powerful cycling lobby is getting ads that demean cyclists pulled from the television. First the one about Jim and now this one: I actually thought it was quite funny. I know the conclusion was supposed to be “Cycling sucks, I wish I had insured my SUV so I [...] read more
  April 21, 2008 8:54 am - 10 Comments
• 

  Sir Nicholas Stern - by frog

  
  
  
  You may remember Sir Nicholas Stern as the English chap who described global warming in terms of the amount of dollars it was going to cost rather than the amount of ecological destruction it was going to cause. He said climate change could cost the world 20 percent of GDP, but that it would only [...] read more
  April 21, 2008 8:16 am - 5 Comments
• 

  Spies - by frog

  
  
  
  Solid Energy’s contracted private investigation company, Thompson and Clark Investigations (TCIL) has been caught trying to infiltrate the Save Happy Valley Coalition again. Having read Nicky Hager’s Sunday Star Times expose on the topic I was inclined to give TCIL’s Gavin Clark top marks for going about his spying in the traditional manner that we [...] read more
  April 20, 2008 8:09 pm - 3 Comments
• 

  Oil touches US$ 117 a barrel - by frog

  
  
  
  Will we touch US$120 before the end of the month? Perhaps. But only because US inventories are low going into the summer driving season and because OPEC is sitting on its hands and the Nigerians and Iraqis are having a field day blowing up pipelines. Trevor29 rightly points out that we are way above the [...] read more
  April 19, 2008 6:58 pm - 21 Comments
• 

  Minister is often asked for medical advice - by frog

  
  
  
  From last weeks NZ Doctor magazine, this little gem: … the minister often receives queries from the public as to how best they can increase their energy levels.”Clearly they have the wrong idea what the Ministry of Energy is all about. We explain our role to these people, then direct them to their family doctors.” [...] read more
  April 19, 2008 6:10 pm - 1 Comment
• 

  Save our dolphins: ban the set nets - by frog

  
  
  
  The logic is impeccable. There is no population management plan in place. We will lose both the Maui and the Hectors in a very short time unless we act right now. But the government has big plans to do absolutely nothing. Metiria Turei gives them hell during the general debate, calling for the Minister to [...] read more
  April 19, 2008 1:43 pm - 11 Comments
• 

  Up, up and away - by frog

  
  
  
  I see the government says New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions for 2006 were 77.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (Mt CO2-e). And they are ‘less than’ 1% more than our 2005 emissions, which were 3% more than our 2004 emissions. We are gently sliding further away from our Kyoto target of 61.9 Mt CO2-e. [...] read more
  April 18, 2008 3:43 pm - 17 Comments
• 

  Germany’s Green-Conservative alliance - by frog

  
  
  
  Following on from Kiwiblog’s promotional efforts on behalf of the New Zealand Greens yesterday it is interesting to note that in the port city of Hamburg Germany’s Christian Democrats and Greens have just signed regional coalition agreement. The Christian Democrats are led nationally by chancellor Angle Merkel and are Germany’s largest Conservative Party.  The Christian [...] read more
  April 18, 2008 1:53 pm - 3 Comments
• 

  ANZ National bank data heading offshore - by frog

  
  
  
  Yesterday responses to the ANZ National announcement to send hundreds of call centre jobs offshore to Bangalore focused tightly on the impact of the workers.  And rightly so. It was sick day for New Zealand workers with Fisher and Paykel and Tamahine knitwear making similar announcements. To me the ANZ National announcement is the most [...] read more
  April 18, 2008 10:02 am - 23 Comments
• 

  Some discussion points - 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 [...] read more
  April 18, 2008 9:26 am - 18 Comments
• 

  UNESCO calls for a paradigm change away from fossil fuels - by frog

  
  
  
  Now where could I have heard this before? Jamey Keaten from the Associated Press has written an interesting article about the 3 year report from UNESCO: “The status quo today is no longer an option,” Guilhem Calvo, an adviser with UNESCO’s ecological and earth sciences division, told a news conference at the release of the [...] read more
  April 18, 2008 9:25 am - 6 Comments
• 

  Free publicity for Green candidates at Kiwiblog - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s nice to see over at Kiwiblog that David Farrar is continuing to profile up and coming Green candidates, Kevin Hague, Craig Carson, Mikaere Curtis and Virginia Horrocks. I’m looking forward to seeing what other gestures of cross party cooperation he is going to share with his reading public. Luckily he has promised another post [...] read more
  April 18, 2008 8:37 am - 7 Comments
• 

  GE breaks its promise - by frog

  
  
  
  The promise of GE was that it was going to feed the starving masses. Now a UN report that 400 scientists spent four years helping to write criticises GE saying it has little role to play in helping to feed the world and that scientific time and energy time instead needs to be invested protecting [...] read more
  April 17, 2008 9:59 am - 12 Comments
• 

  Science solves global warming - by frog

  
  
  
  I’m a stereotypical Greenie so, unsurprisingly, I loved last Sunday Star Time’s 29 Reasons Not to be Complacent article about what to do to help a planet in environmental crisis. And, in particular: Scientists searching for a way to solve global warming have stumbled on the perfect solution for removing CO² from the air and [...] read more
  April 17, 2008 9:49 am - 18 Comments

• Rich nations stealing from the poor – again - by Nandor Tanczos

  
  
  
  I have just attended a panel on Maternal, Newborn and Child (MNC) mortality. It’s a terrible picture, although in the last year the number of children dying before the age of 5 dropped below 10 million. Yay. The Millenium Development Goals calls for a three pronged approach – access to reproductive health care for all [...] read more
  April 17, 2008 1:44 am - 3 Comments
• 

  PQ: Mokihinui River Hydro Plan - by frog

  
  
  
  Green MP Metiria Turei questions the Minister of Conservation, the Hon Steve Chadwick, as to whether she will oppose the consent application from Meridian energy to damn New Zealand’s seventh most important river ecosystem. (Yes, that was a pun.) Meridian’s own secret impact report, which damns the project as destructive of irreplaceable biodiversity, was tabled [...] read more
  April 16, 2008 7:17 pm - 62 Comments
• 

  EU sticks to target on biofuels - by frog

  
  
  
  The Greens have always argued that all biofuels are not created equal, and that is why we insisted on a sustainability clause in the current BSO Bill before we would support it. The clause turned out to be a bit whimpy, but it is easily fixed now that we are at the Select Committee stage [...] read more
  April 16, 2008 7:08 pm - 6 Comments
• 

  Government doesn’t care about GE Royal Commission recommendations - by frog

  
  
  
  Research organisation Sustainable Future, has just released a new report showing the Government has implemented only 20 of the 49 recommendations of the 2001 Royal Commission on Genetic Modification. The report concludes: These findings show that the New Zealand Government is not currently pursuing the strategic option of ‘preserving opportunities’ as proposed by the Commissioners [...] read more
  April 16, 2008 10:32 am - 10 Comments
• 

  Monbiot on meat - by frog

  
  
  
  George Monbiot has just taken a look at the global food crisis: Never mind the economic crisis. Focus for a moment on a more urgent threat: the great food recession which is sweeping the world faster than the credit crunch. You have probably seen the figures by now: the price of rice has risen by [...] read more
  April 16, 2008 10:01 am - 88 Comments