Distracting myself from August’s cruelty, and finding some sun
Read MoreDairy milking New Zealand
Big dairy’s effects on the biosphere, and all of our back pockets, are sucking the country dry — a net picture less positive than the PR paints it
Read MoreOn New Chums Beach
The calls to save New Chums Beach risk snatching defeat from the jaws of conservation victory, by romanticising pristine examples. Surely we can do better
Read MoreZeroing in on the high country problem
In which, after two months chasing High Country Ministers and their officials round in a circle, I realise they’re telling me something after all
Read MorePower’s hidden costs: what Meridian wouldn’t tell us
Meridian is sticking to the letter of resource management law. It risks big power generation decisions being made, at big environmental cost, without full cost-benefit analysis
Read MoreConservation land mining and the green genie
Mr Brownlee may have dug a big hole for the mining industry, by eyeing up Schedule 4. Conservationists' price: a better Schedule, and a higher test for mining access rights
Read MoreGeorge and the beanstalk: vege myths and legends?
In which intensive vertical vege farming, 30 stories pie-in-the-sky, is dismissed as magical thinking by a bright green man
Read MoreBillets doux for Gerry Brownlee
Turning the draft energy strategy upside down, to shake some ‘step change’ out of it
Read MoreFilthy rich: our developing energy strategy
Does this government’s ‘developing country’ shtick, or our luck in being small, give us the moral authority to dine richly on oil and coal?
Read MoreOn the horns of a dilemma: housing cows
The quashed ‘cubicle dairy’ consents and withdrawn applications were only the opening line of a much more difficult conversation: can you tell happy cows in a barn from sad ones in a so-called factory?
Read MoreOIA uncovers 2nd quango, trying to evade the Act
DOC papers released to me, under the OIA, show Meridian deleting key email to pre-empt its release, and slowing down DOC decision-making
Read MoreCrown pastoral land: LINZ explains everything
Land Information New Zealand is a bit of a misnomer: the information, when I asked them for it, seemed in short supply. But inadvertently, they explained quite a lot
Read MoreOffshore oil: never mind the gap
Gerry Brownlee, in his haste to scrape the bottom of the oil barrel, is showing some disregard for Maori that is not mana-enhancing
Read MoreUniversal pension: universally fair?
What the Retirement Income Policy and Intergenerational Equity conference told us about selfish generations, and raising the age of pension entitlement
Read MoreJust dirty, not sexy: lignite to liquid fuel
Coal-to-liquid fuel feasibility studies are underway for lignite, the dirtiest coal, as the coal industry tries to dig itself out of a hole
Read MoreOMGlee!
Does Glee’s swag of Emmy nominations make me any less tragic?
Read MoreGrass stains on the Mackenzie, part II: tenure review
In which policy makers try to grow the economic cake, but end up eating it instead, leaving us with some little brown crumbs …
Read MoreGrass stains on the Mackenzie, part I
Intensive farming development of the Mackenzie district is a failure of law and policy, and ecological disaster on a colonial scale
Read MoreFollowing the footsteps of Monet and Monty
It’s time for tree planting, picture-painting, and the annual garden bird survey
Read MoreThe yellowcake story: gone by lunchtime, but was it unlawful?
“Gone by lunchtime”… If only the same could be said of the debate that wouldn’t die: carbon tax vs emissions trading
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