Bryan Walker
Inhofe’s ’Hoax’: foolish and dangerous - Hot Topic
Mar 03, 2012 •
I decided to take a look at Senator Inhofe’s newly published book The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future, thinking I might get a better understanding of what impels a politician like him into aggressive denial of climate science and opposition to any moves to tackle the climate crisis. It wasn’t [...]
The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars - Hot Topic
Feb 21, 2012 •
It was clearly never Michael Mann’s wish to be embroiled in the public controversy that has been manufactured by the denial industry around his and his co-authors’ work. He’s a scientist first and foremost, the nine-year-old who wanted to know what it meant to go faster than the speed of light, the high school student [...]
The Benefits of Soil Carbon - Hot Topic
Feb 15, 2012 •
The UN Environment Programme’s just released Year Book 2012 includes a report The Benefits of Soil Carbon which looks at the vital role played by soil carbon in regulating climate, water supplies and biodiversity, and maintaining the ecosystem services that we depend on. The report is 15 pages long and well presented for general reading. [...]
Europe’s renewable power continues to increase - Hot Topic
Feb 13, 2012 •
Some encouraging renewable energy news in a recent press release from the European Wind Energy Association.  Their analysis of the 27 National Renewable Energy Action Plans shows that the EU-27 will meet 20.7 % of its 2020 energy consumption from renewables, exceeding the 20% target. The National Action Plans show that one third (34%) of EU [...]
Minister wants all options open - Hot Topic
Feb 12, 2012 •
The Minister for Economic Development Steven Joyce had a curious op-ed in the Herald earlier this week. It was aimed at those pesky people who obstruct progress when government tries to remove roadblocks in the way of business development. And that’s when the problems start to arrive. The people who say “we want jobs” but [...]
Uncomfortable parallels - Hot Topic
Feb 04, 2012 •
I’ve often been struck by what I see as parallels between the defence of slavery in earlier times and today’s persistence with fossil fuel-based economies. I explored this in a post some time ago but an article in yesterday’s Guardian encourages me to return to the theme. Jean-François Mouhot, a visiting researcher at Georgetown University, [...]
We’ll surpass government forecast says wind energy association - Hot Topic
Feb 02, 2012 •
A mild protest from the NZ Wind Energy Association arrived in my inbox recently. It was in response to the Ministry of Economic Development’s latest Energy Outlook forecast, published last week. The Energy Outlook estimates that wind farm capacity will increase from the current 622MW, to around 1,410MW and produce close to 10% of the [...]
Water is rising - Hot Topic
Jan 31, 2012 •
A friend from Los Angeles mentioned when visiting us a few days ago that he had recently seen a striking performance at UCLA by dancers from the Pacific islands of Tuvalu, Tokelau and Kiribati. Climate change figured strongly in the concert, which was part of a project called Water is Rising. Intrigued, I tracked down [...]
Stuck in the muddle with Obama - Hot Topic
Jan 27, 2012 •
I look back with some embarrassment on my enthusiastic posts when Barack Obama was in the early days of his presidency. I thought he was offering strong political leadership in addressing climate change. His words seemed unequivocal. Here he is speaking at the UN in September 2009: That so many of us are here today [...]
What Will Work - Hot Topic
Jan 24, 2012 •
Kristin Shrader-Frechette of the University of Notre Dame is rigorous in the presentation of her argument in What Will Work: Fighting Climate Change with Renewable Energy, Not Nuclear Power. In recent times a number of leading environmentalists have concluded nuclear power has to be employed to enable the transition away from fossil fuels. Shrader-Frechette disagrees. [...]