frogblog

The folks at Forest and Bird have put together a lovely video of a rafting trip down the Mokihinui River. I commend them and their efforts to save the Mokihinui from destruction.

Should we damn the river and its environs by building a dam? Is building hydro power a reversible decision? I think everyone knows my […]

Here’s a few Friday links. The US Congress has just approved a US$290 billion Farm Bill that gives lucrative subsidies to farmers and cuts international aid programmes.
By diverting subsidies and benefits to powerful agricultural industries such as sugar, dairy, timber and salmon, authors of the bill ensured support from both Republicans and Democrats.
Paul Kredosky […]

It seems some combination of the price falling out of the heroin market and rapidly rising world food prices means that Afghan farmer are converting from poppy growing to wheat. Poor old United States with its multi billion dollar ‘war on drugs’ - all it had to do the whole time was raise the […]

Housing New Zealand owns and maintains about 68,600 houses throughout New Zealand.  Many of these properties were built before 1978, prior to insulation becoming mandatory. Many of these homes have poor or no insulation and inefficient heating such as open fires.
Housing New Zealand has been running a programme to progressively retrofit uninsulated state homes with energy […]

Every once in while someone comes up with a nifty new idea that’s going to save us from facing up to global warming and solving it the old fashioned ‘hard work’ way.  Last week we had Helen Clark’s Emissions Trading Scheme that exempts most major polluters.  Previously some of you may remember proposals for giant […]

Is there anyone out there that wants to start manufacturing some of these Magic Wheels in New Zealand?  I think you might have a few pre-sales here on the 8th floor of Bowen House. 
Imagine the traffic jams I could leave in my wake going along Jervois Quay.

Hat tip – Treehugger

What started off as merely a flawed and highly complex system is getting progressively worse. After weeks of intensive hearings the implications are crystallising and the flaws becoming more apparent. At the same time the Government is engaged in a process of pandering to vested interests and watering down the scheme, notifying the select committee […]

Phew, it seems like everyone money to lose is joining the Prime Minister in her fleet-footed race from facing up to the costs of implementing the Emissions Trading Scheme. (I wonder where Rio Tinto got the impression it could bully the Prime Minister into backtracking on climate change legislation?)
So what is the biggest cost associated with […]

De Smog Blog has just commented on the issue that many climate change campaigners have been too scared to traverse.  Weather events are random, and you can’t pin any particular one to climate change.  There was some muted media discussion on hurricane Katrina and its links to climate change before the focus moved to the US […]

Many conservationists feel there is something viscerally wrong with animal circuses.  Why do they call all their elephants ‘Jumbo’ for instance?  On the other hand people also allege that parliament is like a circus - with question time akin to a public viewing of feeding time.  There are certainly the occasional politicians a bit like […]