Archive for June, 2008

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  Pahaoa River - by frog

  
  
  
  Russel continued his campaign to clean up our waterways yesterday.  This time he popped up on Campbell Live to highlight a South Wairarapa farm that had turned some of its land beside a creek into a rubbish dump littered with also sorts of debris including containers that had once stored hazardous material.  The creek flows [...] read more
  June 19, 2008 12:19 pm - 19 Comments
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  Nandor shepherds waste bill through Parliament - by frog

  
  
  
  Nandor gave his second reading speech on the Waste Minimisation Bill last night. It retains the financial driver of the original bill – the levy on waste going to landfill. It is a blunt attempt at a pigovian tax, to internalise environmental externalities. The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development suggested that it would [...] read more
  June 19, 2008 11:40 am - 37 Comments
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  The Bike Man - by frog

  
  
  
  The Northern Advocate had a short little piece on Monday noting that cycling advocate and Civil Engineer Paul Dougherty is going to be the Green candidate for Whangarei.   Paul runs a successful cycle touring business in Northland and, according to the Advocate, is known about town as ‘the bike man’: “Never before have we needed [...] read more
  June 19, 2008 10:49 am - 10 Comments
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  A family wage - by frog

  
  
  
  The Families Commission is apparently releasing a report today on the well-being of families. I can’t find it online yet so I’m guessing it is being released later today but the Dominion Post reports news from it that many ‘Kiwi families are living on Struggle St’ A drop in the buying power of wages means [...] read more
  June 19, 2008 9:19 am - 86 Comments
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  Climate refugees - by frog

  
  
  
  The number of refugees in the world rose by 3 million people last year after a having been in a short period of decline.  And, according to the United Nations, one of the biggest causes is climate change.  Antonio Guterres, the UN high commissioner for refugees tells the Guardian: “Climate change is today one of [...] read more
  June 19, 2008 8:33 am - 5 Comments
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  Agriculture MoU (Mooo) - by Jeanette Fitzsimons

  
  
  
  Today I questioned the Government about its 2003 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the agriculture sector. The Government has claimed in the past that this MOU prevents it from bringing agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) prior to 2013, however, the answers to my questions revealed a different situation altogether: 1. I asked if [...] read more
  June 18, 2008 6:59 pm - 12 Comments
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  Stuff inflames coal miles debate - by frog

  
  
  
  In a delicious attempt at greenwash, Stuff’s article on clean Pike River coal makes for hilarious reading. It claims that because Pike River has (wisely) decided to load the trains with coal a little closer to the mine, somehow there has been a miraculous reduction in emissions associated with the coal. Here’s the byline: CLEANER [...] read more
  June 18, 2008 4:02 pm - 8 Comments
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  Splat! Global warming claims more of the Wilkins Ice Shelf - by frog

  
  
  
  The European Space Agency which is, I am led to believe, more prestigious than the New Zealand Space Agency, has dramatic pictures showing for the first time ever the Antarctic Wilkins ice shelf breaking apart in the middle of winter  – with an area of about 160 km² breaking off between 30 and 31 May. [...] read more
  June 18, 2008 2:13 pm - 33 Comments
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  Poll affirms Family Party GST policy - by frog

  
  
  
  This media release is just out from the Family Party. A research company says four out of five New Zealanders think the Government should consider lowering taxes on food and petrol. The Government has again ruled out cutting GST on petrol saying it wouldn’t make any difference, but Research New Zealand said a poll showed the [...] read more
  June 18, 2008 9:52 am - 39 Comments
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  Hurry up and get on the roll - by frog

  
  
  
   The preliminary electoral roll closes on Friday and the Electoral Commission reckons there are still 300,000 people not on the roll so far.  You’ll still be able to get on the roll after that date. In fact you can register right up until the day before the election (any word on that date yet Helen?) [...] read more
  June 18, 2008 9:06 am - No Comments
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  Herald misses return ship home - by frog

  
  
  
  Like the Japanese soldiers who apocryphally continued guarding their post long after World War 2 had finished the Herald continues steadfastly in its campaign to prove the Electoral Finance Act is an attack on democracy. First it has Bill English demonstrating for logic students, with this statement, the exact opposite of a tautology: “The worst [...] read more
  June 18, 2008 8:55 am - 20 Comments
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  Growing upwards not outwards - by frog

  
  
  
  Green Upgrader has an interesting analysis of the sustainability of vertical farms.  A vertical farm is kind of like a big tall building where each floor is a field or paddock rather than office space.  Check out this picture: Obviously by stacking your farm fields one on top of another you save space that might [...] read more
  June 18, 2008 6:38 am - 25 Comments
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  Goodbye lightbulbs - by frog

  
  
  
  With news of this story that we could be seeing the end of old style incandescent bulbs in New Zealand I thought it timely to also point to this article from TreeHugger – Six uses for old dead incandescent bulbs, which includes this little lightbulb greenhouse. Jeanette, in her role as energy efficiency and conservation [...] read more
  June 17, 2008 11:38 am - 64 Comments
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  Quick, get me a coffee! - by frog

  
  
  
  I find coffee culture a strange sort of thing.  It’s funny the way people are allowed to talk about coffee in exactly the same way that an addict to hard drugs is not – references to being ‘unable to function’ until they have had their coffee ‘hit’ or ‘fix’, getting rid of ‘the shakes’. Wellington [...] read more
  June 17, 2008 10:49 am - 9 Comments
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  Emissions Trading Scheme emerges from Select Committee - by frog

  
  
  
  There’s lots of coverage of the Emissions Trading Scheme with the most detail coming, as usual, from No Right Turn. Now that the bill is out of Select Committee the real negotiations are likely to begin. Labour’s prevarication on the the scheme has now left it the unenviable position of trying to cobble together a [...] read more
  June 17, 2008 9:27 am - 22 Comments
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  Peak oil brings down governments - by frog

  
  
  
  I love this post over at the Standard, with graphs plotting the perfect relationship between the rising price of petrol and George Bush’s falling popularity as US president.  The more petrol prices rise the more Bush’s popularity falls.  Pierson then follows up with a similar graph showing that exactly the same thing is happening for [...] read more
  June 17, 2008 8:55 am - 78 Comments
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  Dunne’s step to the right should be worrying centrist voters. - by frog

  
  
  
  Gordon Campbell’s continuing series of interviews with party leaders continued yesterday with a fascinating analysis of “the Ken Barlow of New Zealand politics� Peter Dunne. The bit I found most interesting was his discussion on taxes. Note that Dunne is offering himself forward as “reality check� on an incoming National government to prevent it “har[ing] [...] read more
  June 17, 2008 8:36 am - 10 Comments
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  The organisation of denial: Conservative think tanks and environmental scepticism - by frog

  
  
  
  This worrisome research article has appeared in a peer reviewed journal. ItÅ› not telling us anything that we didn’t already know, but it does catalogue the situation and help us steer clear of the hyperbole. Environmental scepticism denies the seriousness of environmental problems, and self-professed ‘sceptics’ claim to be unbiased analysts combating ‘junk science’. This [...] read more
  June 16, 2008 5:18 pm - 77 Comments
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  Under National, the Lights Would Already Be Out - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s a sorry statement, but true. The National Party’s schizophrenic behaviour concerning the power market is a sad indictment of their opportunism. First was their opposition to the Electricity Commission, which was put together as a plaster to fix the failures of the pseudo-market created by the National government in 1992. The Max Bradford “reforms” [...] read more
  June 16, 2008 11:14 am - 77 Comments
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  The Facebook campaign - by frog

  
  
  
  I’ve just been to have a look around Facebook this morning to see how the virtual campaign is going.  The NZ Politics application has the Greens in a close race (223 votes) leading National (219 votes) and Labour (215 votes).  Peter Dunne, who once referred to the Greens as luddites, and this month said we [...] read more
  June 16, 2008 8:58 am - 1 Comment