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 Author • 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
Guest Author • Dec 07, 2015 •
Xavier Lemaire, UCL The International Solar Alliance announced by India at the Paris climate conference invites together 120 countries to support the expansion of solar technologies in the developing world. The cost of solar cells has decreased spectacularly over the past four decades, and the trend seems likely to continue. Solar energy has moved from a … Read More
Guest Author • Dec 03, 2015 •
How do we go about communicating that the whole of the biosphere (and humanity) is at stake? Professor David Teather looks for answers in the book Big World, Small Planet in a review originally featured in the latest issue of Forest & Bird magazine. Convincing others to care for the natural world is a matter for both … Read More
Guest Author • Oct 19, 2015 •
Rashid Sumaila, University of British Columbia Fish numbers are rapidly dwindling globally, and fishery subsidies are one of the key drivers behind this decline. In 2009, these subsidies totalled about US$35 billion, creating incentives for fishers around the world to increase their catch. But this short-term “race to fish” is jeopardising the long-term environmental, social, and economic … Read More
Bryan Walker • Apr 01, 2015 •
It is profoundly depressing to hear pundits and politicians talking about the prospects for economic growth with no reference to either equity or environmental constraints. In the case of New Zealand a “rock star” economy can apparently develop accompanied by dismaying levels of child poverty, excited expectations of new oil and gas discoveries which spell […] … Read More
Peter Kerr • Feb 23, 2015 •
Scoop’s in the middle of an attempt to change its ownership and business structure from individual shareholders to community (to be designed). It has just launched a PledgeMe crowd funding bid. The metaphor that applies is not unlike the tragedy … Continue reading → … Read More
Peter Kerr • Jun 18, 2014 •
The dark arts of branding received an illumination when Brant Cooper spoke to a packed house at Wellington’s Lightning Lab. The ‘Lean Entrepreneur’ co-author from San Diego popped in on invitation on his way to Australia, and talked about how … Continue reading → … Read More