Gareth Renowden • Jan 01, 2013 •
Mr Morrison invites us all to come on home, and have a Celtic new year — which is always a good thing, as I can testify, being a Celt of many generations standing. While I wait for the ham to subside and the cabernet merlot to wash out of the system1, I’ll point you to [...] … Read More
Aimee Whitcroft • Nov 20, 2012 •
An hour or so ago, the Guardian’s George Monbiot published a new article, with the following headline and tagline: If children lose contact with nature they won’t fight for it With half of their time spent at screens, the next… Read more › … Read More
Bryan Walker • Sep 02, 2012 •
Climate Change Minister Tim Groser gave a substantial and intelligently argued speech recently to an informal meeting in Auckland of international climate negotiators met to discuss the way forward to a new agreement in 2020. Groser makes the case for political realism in climate negotiation. He records his sense after attending a COP conference at [...] … Read More
Gareth Renowden • Feb 21, 2012 •
Something I didn’t expect: Peter Gleick, the director of the Pacific Institute, a vocal opponent of climate denial and a highly respected scientist, turns out to have been behind the leak of the Heartland Institute board meeting documents that have been creating waves for the last week. Gleick made the admission in an article at [...] … Read More
Bryan Walker • Aug 24, 2011 •
George Monbiot has a striking piece in the Guardian this week, asking how much of the economic growth of the past 60 years is real and how much an illusion created by levels of borrowing that cannot be sustained. Ireland is his exemplar: “Go to Ireland and you’ll see that even bricks and mortar are [...] … Read More
Bryan Walker • Apr 20, 2011 •
The defence of the Ratcliffe coal power plant protesters in the UK, charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass, was that they were acting through “necessity†to prevent death and serious injury caused by carbon dioxide emissions and climate change. James Hansen was among the defence witnesses, testifying to the reality of the danger from [...] … Read More
Bryan Walker • Oct 13, 2010 •
I found myself hesitating over reporting a further attempt on the part of Oxfam to draw attention to the increasing plight of populations in poorer countries faced with the early effects of climate change. In this case it is Oxfam New Zealand’s Wave of Change campaign, highlighting climate impacts in the Pacific region. Why was [...] … Read More
Bryan Walker • Sep 25, 2010 •
The BBC’s HARDtalk interviewer Stephen Sackur engaged this week with the eminently reasonable Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society. The interview covered a range of topics, and climate change was among them. It could hardly not be, given the seriousness with which Rees regards it.  Sackur chose to introduce the subject by suggesting that [...] … Read More
Bryan Walker • Sep 22, 2010 •
As an example of contradictory thinking it would be hard to better Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee this week. He was announcing that oil and gas exploration in New Zealand is to get a substantial boost in government resources, including funding to further the possible exploitation of deep-sea methane hydrates. He made a plea [...] … Read More
Bryan Walker • Aug 27, 2010 •
Back in March I posted on IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri’s stout defence of the IPCC report against the attacks to which it was being subjected by hysterical denialism. But he has also had to defend himself against accusations in an article by Christopher Booker and Richard North in the Sunday Telegraph in December which claimed [...] … Read More