Guest Author • Dec 17, 2015 •
Matthew Powers, University of Washington Earlier this fall, Greenpeace announced it was hiring a team of journalists and making investigations a pillar of its advocacy work. Now the public is beginning to see the fruits of that investment, as well as some of the questions that get raised when advocacy groups utilise some of journalism’s more controversial … Read More
Grant Jacobs • Nov 19, 2014 •
Last week European science reveled in landing a spacecraft on a comet, a triumph reported quietly in New Zealand. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield—who famously performed Bowie’s Space Oddity on the International Space Station—alluded to the long arc of scientific progress on Facebook, writing “Last night I held in my hands original works of Galileo & Newton. Today we … Read More
Gareth Renowden • Jun 24, 2014 •
A non-partisan campaign to put action on climate change at the centre of the coming election campaign was launched at the weekend (NZ Herald, RNZ). Climate Voter, a joint initiative by Forest & Bird, Generation Zero, 350 Aoteoroa, Greenpeace, Oxfam and WWF, is using social media to drive the campaign, and will host a debate […] … Read More
Gareth Renowden • Nov 14, 2013 •
I’m really pleased to welcome Jeanette Fitzsimons to Hot Topic as a guest blogger. The environmentalist and former co-leader of the NZ Greens is on board the yacht Tiama, sailing out into the Tasman to protest against deep water oil exploration. She will be providing us with regular updates on the flotilla’s progress. What a […] … Read More
Bryan Walker • Sep 07, 2013 •
The New Zealand Government has taken refuge from the challenge of climate change by recasting it as a matter of political positioning. This is nowhere more clearly seen than in the frequently reiterated claim that we are doing our “fair share” in the international effort to reduce emissions. It’s a brash claim in any case, […] … Read More
Peter Griffin • Apr 22, 2013 •
Gareth Renowden • Sep 19, 2012 •
According to the latest bulletin from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in the US, Arctic sea ice is likely to be at or about its minimum extent for the summer (as of Sept 17th). The animation above shows how the ice melt proceeded through the summer (up to Sept 14th), and the graph [...] … Read More
Bryan Walker • Jun 11, 2012 •
“Will we look into the eyes of our children and confess that we had the opportunity, but lacked the courage? That we had the technology, but lacked the vision?” These words preface the report Energy [R]evolution 2012: A Sustainable World Energy Outlook published this month by Greenpeace, the European Renewable Energy Council and the Global [...] … Read More
Bryan Walker • Jun 12, 2011 •
Andrew Weaver is a notable Canadian climate scientist. He’s recently written a short book for the general reader to give an easily understandable account of the science of human-caused climate change, to explain its impacts and to suggest solutions. The book is published as one of the Rapid Reads series by Raven Books. It’s titled [...] … Read More
Bryan Walker • May 30, 2011 •
The Guardian, with the exception of the foolishness of its analysis of the climategate emails, is one of the world media’s bright spots when it comes to recognising and communicating the realities of climate change. It carried grim news yesterday. Environment correspondent Fiona Harvey reported International Energy Agency (IEA) unpublished estimates that greenhouse gas emissions [...] … Read More