Hot Topic

Postcards from La La Land #132: time warps and twaddle

Gareth Renowden • Jun 07, 2018

• climate change,
• New Zealand Geographic

I don’t wander over to the dark side1 very often – NZ’s climate cranks are an unedifying bunch at the best of times – but I was somewhat surprised to find myself featuring in their current top story — National Geographic ignores the need for evidence. Not that they … Read More

The final cut: crank paper on NZ temperature record gets its rebuttal – warming continues unabated

Gareth Renowden • May 03, 2018

• climate change,
• crank paper,
• Environment and Ecology,
• heat,
• New Zealand,
• paper,
• rebuttal,
• Temperature

Way back in the spring of 2014, NZ’s little band of climate cranks somehow managed to get a paper published based on their recalculation of New Zealand’s long term temperature record1. The effort … Read More

Cheaper solar power and electric vehicles are going to change our world over the next 5 years

Gareth Renowden • Sep 17, 2017

• Batteries,
• clean energy,
• electric vehicles,
• Environment and Ecology,
• solar power

This will be the best hour you’ll spend in front of a screen this week, I promise.     Tony Seba explains how the plunging costs of battery storage and solar power generation, coupled with the rise of electric vehicles and autonomous driving technologies are going to first disrupt and then transform both the transport and power industries worldwide, … Read More

King Tide is a-coming – Billy Bragg’s excellent new single takes on the rising seas

Gareth Renowden • Aug 07, 2017

• billy bragg,
• climate change,
• Environment and Ecology,
• music video,
• sea level rise

The excellent new single from Sir William of Bragg. Always right on, our Bill, and often right. See also: Between The Wars. Now talk amongst yourselves… … Read More

Guy McPherson and the end of humanity (not)

Gareth Renowden • Dec 12, 2016

• climate change,
• global warming,
• Guy McPherson,
• Jmaes Renwick

by Professor James Renwick Is climate change going to wipe out humanity over the next 10 years? Prof Jim Renwick doesn’t think so… Ecologist Guy McPherson Ecologist Guy McPherson has been touring New Zealand for the past couple of weeks, explaining why humanity has only 10 years to live (a kind-of Ziggy message that … Read More

What are we waiting for? the fantasy of carbon neutral growth of aviation emissions

Guest Author • Sep 30, 2016

• air travel,
• aviation,
• carbon emissions,
• Climate,
• emissions,
• greenhouse gases,
• International Civil Aviation Organisation,
• planes,
• Travel

In this guest post, the ‘stop flying’ Wellington lawyer Tom Bennion writes about the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) proposals for ‘carbon-neutral’ growth of greenhouse gas emissions from the fast-growing aviation industry. New Zealand parents often tell their children not to eat too many sweets. Our primary schools spend a lot of time talking about suitable … Read More

Is it in the spirit of the Paris Agreement to ratify it with more emissions?

Mr February • Sep 24, 2016

• carbon accounting,
• climate change,
• Paris Agreement

Is the New Zealand Government’s plan to ratify the Paris Agreement in 2016 consistent with a two degrees Celsius (2C) carbon budget? Since the December 2015 Paris Agreement, the British climate scientist Kevin Anderson has given a couple of talks with the title Beyond Dangerous Climate Change: Does Paris Lock-out 2 Degrees? Anderson’s message is that although … Read More

Moro bars and triple dips: Geoff Simmons fact checks Paula Bennett’s clean unit claim

Simon Johnson • Sep 02, 2016

• climate change,
• emissions trading scheme,
• Environment and Ecology,
• global warming,
• paula bennett

The Morgan Foundation’s Geoff Simmons has done a whiteboard Friday video on Minister for Climate Change Issues Paula Bennett’s claim that the surplus emission units are not tainted by the 97 million fake Russian and Ukrainian emission reduction units that the Climate Cheats report of April 2016 showed had been handed to the Government under the … Read More

Tiwai Point uncertainty stalls NZ renewables

Simon Johnson • May 24, 2016

• aluminium,
• Environment and Ecology,
• Huntly power station,
• Meridian,
• renewable energy,
• Tiwai Aluminium Smelter

New Zealand Aluminium Smelter Limited is behind the Meridian/Genesis deal keeping the Huntly Thermal Power Station burning coal as the threat of closing the Tiwai Point smelter is stalling the construction of consented renewable energy projects. My last post at Hot Topic was about energy companies Meridian and Genesis doing a deal to keep the Huntly Thermal Power … Read More

When the world warms, the Arctic burns

Gareth Renowden • May 19, 2016

• arctic,
• El Niño,
• Environment and Ecology,
• La Niña,
• melting,
• sea ice,
• Temperature,
• warm

The Arctic has been ridiculously warm this last northern hemisphere winter. The sea ice maximum in March was the smallest in the record (by a small margin). April was another warm month in the far North — especially over Greenland — and May is continuing the warm streak. The sea ice is showing the effects of prolonged unusual … Read More