blog Archive

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  Welcome to Forest & Bird’s new blog - by frog

  
  
  
  I’m not sure how I missed it, but F&B have launched a new blog. Yesterday’s post asked a very pertinent question: As rule-maker & whistle-blower, one of the first questions facing the new Minister of Fisheries – Phil Heatley – is how many sea-lions can be killed this season? Since 2003, a more information rich [...] read more
  November 20, 2008 10:33 am - No Comments
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  Open Green Map: Social Mapping - by frog

  
  
  
  Some days I would rather just surf than spend time posting. Like today, when there is a southerly winter  gale building and it’s just a bit too uncomfortable for outdoor pursuits. My first port of call is often EcoGeek, in search of the latest new toy or idea to save the world. Today the Geek [...] read more
  July 26, 2008 4:42 pm - 1 Comment
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  70% of plants now threatened species - by frog

  
  
  
  Lester Brown who wrote Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, has recently released the update (or sequel?), Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization I haven’t read 3.0, which can be downloaded for free (not that I’m advocating you print it off), but I’ve browsed through 2.0 and [...] read more
  March 20, 2008 2:04 pm - 1 Comment
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  Act’s BZP promotion - by frog

  
  
  
  I wonder if Act on Campus Auckland put electoral authorisation stamps on their cut-price party pills? read more
  March 20, 2008 12:48 pm - 11 Comments
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  Dolphins not winning with Minister of Fish - by frog

  
  
  
  The Minister of Fisheries has just congratulated the winners of the Fisheries Ministry Photograph Competition. I guess it’s lucky for the Minister that the Ministry did not enter one of its own photographs, such as this one below or the featured in the Herald today about the destruction that our current commercial fishing practices cause. [...] read more
  March 20, 2008 12:21 pm - 6 Comments
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  50 Miles Per Burrito - by frog

  
  
  
  I like to keep tabs on other green blogs and EcoGeek is one of them. Mostly it’s seriously geeky and I guess the post on 50 Miles Per Burrito: Is the Body the Most Efficient Vehicle? falls into that category. Nevertheless I just had to share it. Wander over, follow the links from the post, [...] read more
  March 16, 2008 4:52 pm - 1 Comment
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  Climate change deniers’ last gasp - by frog

  
  
  
  Muriel Newman has a comment in this morning’s Dominion Post titled ‘Climate change, we didn’t do it.‘ As though that, if that were true, it would be a good enough reason to ignore climate change. The column is not online but she makes a similar argument at the Centre for Political Research, where she alleges: [...] read more
  March 13, 2008 8:21 pm - 61 Comments
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  Cheese prices up 59.9% - by frog

  
  
  
  Food prices continue to rise according to Statistics New Zealand, 5.2% in the year to February.  Grocery food prices led that charge, increasing 9.0%. Within that the most significant upward contributions came from higher prices for fresh milk (up 20.9%), cheese (up 59.9%) and butter (up 91.2%). Oils and fats rose 29.4%.  There were also significant rises in bread, cereals, coffee, [...] read more
  March 13, 2008 1:48 pm - 16 Comments
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  The Dutch road toll - by frog

  
  
  
  I thought it might be worth talking a bit more about shared space. In the Netherlands [pdf link] there were 804 road toll fatalities in 2004 and 34,181 injuries. In New Zealand last year there were 423 deaths and 15,730 injuries. The Netherlands has a population of 16 million people and New Zealand has a [...] read more
  March 13, 2008 8:54 am - 9 Comments
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  The Mataura drain - by frog

  
  
  
  I saw this letter to the editor in the Southland Times recently and thought it was worth sharing: To save ourselves the worry and effort of cleaning up our Southland rivers, we just need to think about them in a new way. Let’s call them drains, not rivers – the Aparima drain, the Oreti drain, [...] read more
  March 13, 2008 8:22 am - 3 Comments
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  Fertilizer worse than cars - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s now fairly well known that about half of New Zealand’s carbon emissions come from our agricultural sector. Many who don’t want to face up to climate change use this as a convenient excuse: ‘well, you can’t really stop cows burping, it’s all natural, it’s not a problem that we need worry about’.Even were that [...] read more
  March 12, 2008 1:34 pm - 21 Comments
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  Ocean deserts - by frog

  
  
  
  According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) huge desert like areas in the world’s oceans have expanding dramatically in the last decade. Since 1998 large expanse of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans which have low surface plant life grew by 15% or 6.6 million square kilometers. The deserts negatively impact on many [...] read more
  March 12, 2008 12:40 pm - 1 Comment
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  It’s time to start living here as if we plan to stay - by frog

  
  
  
  Taranaki streams are struggling under the burden of dairy effluent according to the Daily News, with twice as many cases of non-compliance as last year.  However Taranaki is not the worst province in the country: In October last year, Environment Canterbury released a report on its monitoring of resource consent compliance that found 17.7 per [...] read more
  March 11, 2008 1:19 pm - 22 Comments
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  Rob Hamill launches ‘Proud to be Green’ billboards - by frog

  
  
  
  Was that Rob Hamill and Jeanette Fitzsimons I saw in a cherry-picker on Newton Road this afternoon? Hamill is probably best known for smashing the world record for the Atlantic Rowing Race in 1997.  I never knew he supported the Greens.  Seems he and Jeanette were putting the last staples into one of several ‘Proud [...] read more
  March 7, 2008 10:56 pm - 47 Comments
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  Bush leads fight against climate change, Clark following fast - by frog

  
  
  
  President Bush proclaimed yesterday that the U.S. is “in the lead” in the fight against climate change. Now, look, I understand stereotypes are hard to defeat. People get an image planted in their head, and sometimes it causes them not to listen to the facts. But America is in the lead when it comes to [...] read more
  March 6, 2008 10:09 pm - 29 Comments
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  Peak Oil – the Reserve Bank vs Deutsche Bank - by frog

  
  
  
  Deutsche Bank thinks that supply constraints could push the price of oil to $150 a barrel by 2010. The Reserve Bank’s latest Monetary Policy Statement thinks that oil prices are going to drop from their current $104 a barrel to $70 in two years; less than half that Deutsche Bank’s prediction. Deutsche Bank’s prediction is [...] read more
  March 6, 2008 5:06 pm - 42 Comments
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  Unscrew America - by frog

  
  
  
  Catchy title, no? What I really wanted to share was a link to unscrewamerica, a wonderful site that teaches about the wonders (and risks) of Compact Fluorescent Lights, or CFLs. It also has a section on LED lighting. Before you yawn and click away, follow the link. It is such a clever and cool interface [...] read more
  February 26, 2008 10:20 am - 3 Comments
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  Found: the Frog from Hell - by frog

  
  
  
  After reading Tumeke’s humourous blog about me, “The Frog Roars“, I felt that I had finally come of age as a fearsome voice in the blogosphere. (Not that my ranking on the site was ever too shabby.) Then this morning I learned that one of my ancestors has been found fossilised in Madagascar. Was he [...] read more
  February 20, 2008 9:45 am - No Comments