Tagged: carbon emissions

We managed to toilet train cows (and they learned faster than a toddler). It could help combat climate change - Hot off the press

Guest Author • Sep 14, 2021 •

• carbon emissions,
• cows,
• farming,
• moo loo,
• New Zealand stories,
• nitrogen,
• water pollution

Douglas Elliffe, University of Auckland and Lindsay Matthews, University of Auckland   Can we toilet train cattle? Would we want to? The answer to both of these questions is yes — and doing so could help us address issues of water contamination and climate change. Cattle urine is high in nitrogen, and this contributes to a range of environmental problems. Read More

Suburban living the worst for carbon emissions – new research - Hot off the press

Guest Author • Jul 06, 2021 •

• carbon emissions,
• cities,
• climate change,
• suburbs,
• urban planning

Sabrina Zwick, United Nations University   Work, education, entertainment, or simply better connectivity all draw people to cities. By the end of this century around 85% of the world population are predicted to live in cities. There are speculations that the COVID-19 pandemic will slow down this urbanisation trend, but I think it’s unlikely to stop it. Cities remain … Read More

So it begins: The Climate Change Commission’s advice to government and what happened next - Planetary Ecology

Robert McLachlan • Jun 23, 2021 •

• carbon emissions,
• climate change commission,
• electric cars,
• New Zealand stories

What’s that? You wanted action, not just words, on climate change? And you wanted it now, not next year or the year after? How about something big, really big, maybe also diving right into the heart of an emotional, touchstone issue – say, the private car?  Welcome to the EV subsidy. The New Zealand government has surprised and delighted electric vehicle … Read More

The outlook for coral reefs remains grim unless we cut emissions fast — new research - The Changing Climate

Guest Author • May 11, 2021 •

• carbon emissions,
• climate change,
• coral reefs,
• New Zealand stories

Christopher Cornwall, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Verena Schoepf, University of Amsterdam   The twin stress factors of ocean warming and acidification increasingly threaten coral reefs worldwide, but relatively little is known about how various climate scenarios will affect coral reef growth rates. Our research, published today, paints a grim picture. We estimate that even … Read More

Why did New Zealand’s CO2 emissions blow out so spectacularly in 2019? - Planetary Ecology

Robert McLachlan • Apr 18, 2021 •

• carbon emissions,
• climate change,
• co2,
• New Zealand stories

Every year in April, the trees start changing colour, the clocks go back an hour, and the national greenhouse gas figures are released and promptly forgotten. They take fifteen months to prepare, so by the time they come out it’s very easy for commentators to point out that they are out of date. Even now that the national media are … Read More

Climate explained: rising carbon emissions (probably) won’t make the Earth uninhabitable - Climate: Explained

Guest Author • Apr 07, 2021 •

• carbon emissions,
• Greenhouse effect,
• New Zealand stories

Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz Even with all humanity’s carbon emissions to date, there’s a lot less carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere … Read More

For a carbon dividend - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Dec 16, 2020 •

• carbon emissions,
• carbon tax,
• Climate Commission,
• emissions trading scheme

My Dom Post column this week makes the case for a carbon dividend. Canada imposes a carbon tax on provinces that haven’t established their own carbon pricing regime, and is set to substantially hike the tax to $170/tonne.  How is it politically feasible? Money collected in each province is sent back as a grant to residents in each province. Carbon … Read More

We (still) need to talk about cars - Planetary Ecology

Robert McLachlan • Dec 16, 2020 •

• car industry,
• carbon emissions,
• Clean Car Standard,
• Fossil Fuels

To address climate change, we need to phase out the burning of fossil fuels. The largest share of fossil fuels is burnt in cars and trucks. So it seems clear that fossil-fuelled vehicles need to stop being designed, made, imported, and driven. But anyone who has visited a road or seen a car ad recently knows that that isn’t happening, … Read More

Does building and expanding motorways really reduce congestion and emissions? - Unsorted

Guest Author • Oct 07, 2020 •

• car emissions,
• carbon emissions,
• climate change,
• Motorways,
• Traffic

Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz Q: Does building and expanding motorways really reduce congestion and emissions, or does it increase it? Simon Kingham, … Read More

Tourism and the ETS - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Dec 20, 2019 •

• carbon emissions,
• climate change,
• emissions trading scheme,
• ETS,
• tourism

Eloise Gibson covers the carbon costs of tourism over at Newsroom: But in reality: “value-led tourism growth may actually worsen those pressures that are linked with consumption. Higher-value visitors, by definition, consume more goods and services, all of which have an associated greenhouse gas and solid waste footprint. To the extent that these goods and services are relatively energy … Read More