food

Blues from an airplane

by Gareth January 4, 2008

Two Otago University physicists, Inga Smith and Craig Rodger, have calculated the CO2 equivalent emissions generated by international tourist visits to NZ, and find that in 2005 the return flights accounted for almost 8 million tonnes of CO2e – about the same as emissions by the country’s entire power sector – around 10 percent of [...]

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Tomorrow? The world!

by Gareth December 11, 2007

Guess who’s gone to Bali? Distinguished scientist and IPPC expert reviewer (aka home-grown climate crank) Vincent Gray. He’s hobnobbing with the upper crust cranks like Christopher, Viscount Monckton. It appears – thanks to digging by Tim Lambert over at Deltoid – that the NZ C”S”C now forms the core of a supposedly international organisation, the [...]

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Something 4 The Weekend

by Gareth December 9, 2007

Bali continues to make headlines. The rough positions are becoming clear. China’s playing hardball – no mandatory cuts, West has to cut first and most deeply. The New York Times‘ Andy Revkin has a couple of good Bali posts on his blog: the first suggests that the IPCC may have to revise its goal for [...]

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They would say that, wouldn’t they…

by Gareth November 8, 2007

This week it’s the turn of the Greenhouse Policy Coalition to trumpet a report urging a go-slow on emissions trading. The GPC, of course, are the nation’s big emitters (NZ Aluminium Smelters, Holcim, Solid Energy, Fonterra etc), and they are lobbying hard on behalf of their members. The usual suspects (Business Roundtable, Business NZ) weighed [...]

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Formerly the weekend roundup

by Gareth October 30, 2007

Saturday’s promised omnibus extension never arrived, in part because of the arrival of a big cat on my computer, so here’s a Tuesday update.

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Let’s not blow the chance to lead change

by Gareth October 29, 2007

More feedback on the NZ Insitute’s “fast follower” proposal, this time from business commentator Rod Oram in yesterday’s Sunday Star Times. Rod’s take is very similar to mine, though from a different perspective, and so I’m very pleased to welcome Rod as our third guest blogger – and reproduce that SST column in full. It’s [...]

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Fast follow-up

by Gareth October 26, 2007

My critique of the NZI’s “fast follower” report – described as “spirited” by Nevil Gibson in the NBR – has received a swift response from the NZI. We’re Right Behind You was written by NZI chief executive David Skilling and researcher Danielle Boven. Danielle interviewed me about climate issues earlier this year, and has taken [...]

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Whole Foods, big challenges

by Gareth August 7, 2007

Good piece by Rod Oram in the Sunday Star Times last weekend, describing some of the challenges facing NZ exporters in the UK. I could quibble with the way he frames some of the six issues he outlines (I think he’s wrong about Air NZ and possums, for example), but in the main his analysis [...]

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NZ’s low carbon cows: global warming heroes?

by Gareth July 29, 2007

A new report from Lincoln University´s Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit finds that New Zealand’s dairy industry has a smaller global warming footprint than the UK’s, even after taking into account the emissions resulting from shipping products half way round the world. From Lincoln’s press release: The Lincoln study´s central finding is that the UK [...]

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Pet food or power?

by Gareth June 1, 2007

This week’s Economist has an excellent special report on business and climate change. The leader discussing the issue reminds me just how incisive the magazine can be: There’s scope for new investment. In 2003, the most recent year for which figures are available, America’s power-generation business, arguably the world’s biggest single polluter, spent a rather [...]

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