Robert Hickson • Sep 16, 2017 •
In our own cultural memory New Zealand used to have the best farming system in the world. No more, according to some. Two recent articles about the Netherlands illustrate how we are falling behind in some ways, and can provide a stimulus for how we can do better. National Geographic highlights the Netherland’s sustainable agricultural system in … Read More
Robert Hickson • Sep 08, 2017 •
Where to with electric vehicles? Christchurch is introducing a fleet of electric cars, for business and public use. That’s adding about 100 new electric vehicles (“EV”) cars to the existing 3,000 in NZ. That’s less than 0.1% of the over 3.5 million light vehicles registered here. Source: NZ Transport Agency … Read More
Guest Work • Sep 05, 2017 •
By Glenn Simmons; Bruce Robertson; (David) Hugh Whittaker, University of Oxford; Elisabeth Slooten; Fiona McCormack, University of Waikato; Graeme Bremner; Nigel Haworth; Simon Francis Thrush, and Steve Dawson In popular imagination, New Zealand’s fisheries management system is a globally recognised story of sustainability, reflecting a “clean and green” environmental … Read More
Guest Work • Mar 15, 2017 •
By James Ward, University of South Australia; Keri Chiveralls, CQUniversity Australia; Lorenzo Fioramonti, University of Pretoria; Paul Sutton, University of Denver, and Robert Costanza, Australian National University Our economy and society ultimately depend on natural resources: land, water, material (such as metals) and energy. But some scientists have recognised that … Read More
Guest Work • Jan 30, 2017 •
By Wayne Martindale, Sheffield Hallam University Beef from Brazil, avocados from Mexico, lamb from New Zealand, wines from South Africa and green beans from Kenya – food shopping lists have a distinctly international flavour. And with many questioning the sustainability of importing so much food from so far away, we are beginning to ask if switching to a … Read More
Guest Work • Jan 18, 2017 •
By Prof Ralph E H Sims, Massey University, Palmerston North The future for secure and peaceful human life on our planet is under threat. A wide range of socio-economic indicators that illustrate global growth parameters from 1750 to 2010 confirm the rapid acceleration that has become particularly evident over the past six decades as world population … Read More
Robert Hickson • Oct 12, 2016 •
A US meat company is now an investor in vegan burgers, and selling them alongside meat patties. That’s just one of the signals pointing to big changes in food production systems in affluent nations. Lab-grown meat gets the headlines, but burgers made from plant proteins are well ahead of that, and likely to have a much lower yuck … Read More
Eric Crampton • Apr 08, 2016 •
Over at the Christchurch Press, I went through the current controversies about an Ashburton water bottling plant. New Zealand allocates water drawing rights through a consenting system. Government allocates drawing rights for water, but those rights aren’t really tradeable other than by selling the land that goes with the consent. All over the Canterbury plains, farmers have drawing rights … Read More
Victoria Metcalf • Mar 02, 2016 •
In this guest post by Thea DePetris, a Masters student at the University of Waikato, she outlines why the world’s wicked problems demand a transformation of our teaching systems and showcases one example, the Kids Greening Taupō community restoration education programme. The issues of the modern world aren’t getting any simpler as ‘wicked’ problems pervade our societal structure and environment. In response, educational … Read More
Guest Work • Dec 08, 2015 •
Pete Smith, University of Aberdeen and Pep Canadell, CSIRO Over 190 countries are negotiating in Paris a global agreement to stabilise climate change at less than 2℃ above pre-industrial global average temperatures. For a reasonable chance of keeping warming under 2℃ we can emit a further 865 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2). The climate … Read More