Tagged: Sustainability

New Zealand’s hoki fishery under scrutiny after claims of fish dumping, misreporting - Guest Work

Guest Author • May 28, 2018 •

• fisheries,
• hoki,
• illegal dumping,
• Sustainability

Elisabeth Slooten; Bruce Robertson; Glenn Simmons; Graeme Bremner, and Nigel Haworth New Zealand’s hoki fishery has come under renewed criticism this week after leaked reports revealed that some of the country’s biggest fishing companies had been systematically under-reporting their catch by hundreds of tonnes. Hoki is one of New Zealand’s most valuable export … Read More

The once and future farmer - Ariadne

Robert Hickson • Sep 16, 2017 •

• agriculture,
• innovation,
• Netherlands,
• New Zealand,
• Sustainability,
• water management

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

Electric avenue - Unsorted

Robert Hickson • Sep 08, 2017 •

• electric vehicles,
• New Zealand,
• Sustainability,
• transport,
• urban

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

New Zealand’s fisheries quota management system: on an undeserved pedestal - Guest Work

Guest Author • Sep 05, 2017 •

• fish,
• fisheries,
• marine,
• QMS,
• quota management system,
• Sustainability

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

The decoupling delusion: rethinking growth and sustainability - Guest Work

Guest Author • Mar 15, 2017 •

• carbon emissions,
• decoupling,
• GDP,
• growth,
• limits of growth,
• Sustainability,
• trade,
• wellbeing

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

Is a vegetarian diet really more environmentally friendly than eating meat? - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jan 30, 2017 •

• Diet,
• Environment,
• food,
• meat,
• Sustainability,
• Vegetarian

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

The “Great Acceleration” is cause for great concern. - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jan 18, 2017 •

• carrying capacity,
• earth systems,
• global commons,
• Great Acceleration,
• Horizon Scan,
• Sustainability,
• Sustainable Development Goals

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

Cellular ag - Ariadne

Robert Hickson • Oct 12, 2016 •

• farming systems,
• food,
• future,
• innovation,
• meat,
• New Zealand,
• Sustainability

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

Bottling water and cutting out the middle-cow - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Apr 08, 2016 •

• agriculture,
• Sustainability,
• water

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

Kids Greening Taupō: A Step Towards Transformation - Curious and Curiouser

Victoria Metcalf • Mar 02, 2016 •

• children,
• citizen science,
• education,
• Environment,
• Sustainability,
• Taupo

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