Michael Reddell • May 28, 2017 •
After my post the other day, I pricked up my ears when I heard on the radio that new data on greenhouse gas emissions had been released, and at the same time heard various industry lobby groups calling for more government support (money or regulation”) for this, that or the other mitigating measure. It is the costs of meeting … Read More
Guest Work • Jan 25, 2017 •
By Distinguished Professor Paul Spoonley, Pro Vice-Chancellor of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey University. This second decade of the 21st century is proving to be one of the most transformative globally and locally, especially in terms of demographic change. The consequences for the ageing of societies from the pipeline effects of the baby boom in the … Read More
Michael Reddell • Aug 02, 2016 •
There was an annoying story on the front page of the Dominion-Post this morning. The online version of the story is headed “The big squeeze: Wellington’s population could almost double in the next 30 years”, a proposition which appears to be based on nothing more than annualizing last year’s estimated population growth for the Wellington city area. I … Read More
Michael Reddell • May 31, 2016 •
New Zealand’s population is estimated to have risen by 11.8 per cent in the last decade (much of it in the last three years). The starting point for that estimate is reasonably well-anchored: I used the population numbers for the March quarter of 2006, and the 2006 Census happened in that month. The end-point (March 2016) is only a Statistics … Read More
Michael Reddell • May 28, 2016 •
The Herald’s editorial on Saturday was headed “Population growth is powering NZ economy”. It isn’t just a statement of the rather obvious, that a rapid growth in the population – particularly unexpectedly rapid growth – boosts total GDP. When there are more people, they all need to consume stuff, and they need houses, schools, shops, roads, offices etc. And … Read More
Guest Work • May 25, 2016 •
By Alexander Arkhipkin, University of Aberdeen Squid, octopus and cuttlefish populations are booming across the world. These fast-growing, adaptable creatures are perfectly equipped to exploit the gaps left by extreme climate changes and overfishing, according to a study colleagues and I published in the journal Current Biology. Humans have reached and in many cases surpassed sustainable fishing … Read More
Robert Hickson • Mar 30, 2016 •
Hans Rosling, of Gapminder fame, and perhaps the world’s most enthusiastic statistician, has an hour long video making the case that increasing global population levels aren’t fundamentally a prelude to disaster. (You can read a synopsis here). You can also save time by looking at these shorter videos showing the key trends of … Read More
Michael Reddell • Nov 26, 2015 •
I was having a discussion the other night in the margins of the Goethe Institute event about the extent to which we should think about New Zealand’s economic advantages and opportunities as natural resource based. I’ve been running a proposition that the only thing really going for us is the land, its attendant resources (fish, wind, geothermal, as … Read More
Eric Crampton • Nov 17, 2015 •
Robin Hanson wonders whether cities are places for high-status men and the women who seek them, with low-status men relegated to the hinterlands: I’ve heard that polygamous sects are often run this way today, with older men kicking out young men when they come of age. But re-reading Montaillou on rural 1300 France makes me realize that humanity has … Read More
Michael Reddell • Oct 30, 2015 •
The media are full of stories of the Chinese government/party decision to abandon the evil one-child policy and replace it with a marginally less evil two-child policy. It is interesting to see the change presented by the authorities as a response to an ageing population, and I’ve seen various commentaries over the last few years suggesting that this easing … Read More