agriculture

Telling porkies to Parliament

by Gareth March 24, 2009

The Emissions Trading Scheme Review committee has released the first batch of submissions it has received — those made by organisations and individuals who have already made their presentations to the committee. There are some heavy hitters in there: from New Zealand’s science and policy community there’s the Climate Change Centre (a joint venture between [...]

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Melting Point

by Bryan Walker March 14, 2009

Eric Dorfman is an ecologist.  He has been aware of the science of climate change since his doctoral student days in the 1990s but he credits Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth with inspiring him to make a larger contribution towards addressing the issue. Hence his book Melting Point: New Zealand and the Climate Change Crisis, published [...]

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Nice weather for ducks

by Gareth January 15, 2009

A couple of days ago, NIWA published its climate summary for 2008 — a comprehensive overview of all the weather events that went together to make last year what it was. In general, 2008 was sunny and warm for New Zealand, but with many notable extreme weather events — a “rollercoaster” of a year, according [...]

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Cloud nine (#2)

by Gareth October 23, 2008

Forty leading Australian scientists have issued an urgent call for action on climate change. Drafted by Barrie Pittock and Andrew Glickson, the statement says that there is a “window of opportunity to halt a climate crisis”, if Australia begins: Urgently cutting carbon emissions. Seizing the opportunity to fast-track utilisation of established and new clean energy [...]

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Down on the farm

by Gareth October 19, 2008

An Italian olive grove and vineyard is on its way to becoming the world’s first carbon neutral farm (they claim). According to the BBC, the Castello Monte Vibiano Vecchio estate in Umbria is converting to electric vehicles (and biofuelled mini-tractors) and has installed a “solar filling station” designed by Austrian company Cellstrom, based on an [...]

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Catch a (micro)wave

by Gareth October 1, 2008

There are some amazing people in NZ. Just when I’m tearing (what’s left of) my hair out at the idiocy of some politicians, along comes a news story to gladden the heart of anyone living in the real world. Yesterday, Blenheim-based start-up Carbonscape reported that it has just begun batch production of charcoal in a [...]

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The green green grass of home

by Gareth September 24, 2008

Back at my desk briefly (it’s a hectic week), some catching up in progress. The Going West panel session on Saturday morning was fun to do, and well received. There will be a recording available (for download, I hope) and I’ll link to that if/when it’s available. The climate change legal summit in Te Papa [...]

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In the (rural) ghetto

by Gareth September 1, 2008

It’s no secret that Federated Farmers doesn’t like the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme. But their latest press release (which almost slipped under my radar over the weekend) sets a whole new standard for ridiculous hyperbole. According to Feds president, Don Nicolson, the ETS will be so damaging that it will create “rural ghettos”. Here’s Don [...]

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Paint it, black

by Gareth July 9, 2008

Interesting to see how one opinion poll can say different things to different people. Over the weekend, Fran O’Sullivan in The Herald referred to a survey commissioned by the NZ Institute of Economic Research (they of the mostly useless recent report on the economics of the ETS). Here’s what Fran noticed: The detailed survey shows [...]

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All together now

by Gareth July 8, 2008

It’s getting hectic down here in the Waipara bunker: articles to write, truffles to harvest – stuff is piling up, not least in a multitude of tabs in my web browser, items set aside as possible subjects for posts here. So here’s one of my infrequent omnibus posts to give me some room to move [...]

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