by Cimino | 29 Jun 2011 | MMP
It is easily overlooked. Aotearoa may enjoy exemplary proportional representation, but electorate representatives are still elected by the multiply flawed first-past-the-post system. Voters in last Saturday’s by-election were allowed to express only their first...
by Cimino | 16 Jun 2011 | Regional governance, Sea-level rise
North Carolina has gone one better. Aotearoa merely curtailed work on a national environmental standard on sea-level rise, in a calculatedly cynical strategy to oblige each local territorial authority to run its sea-level rise policies by a gauntlet of, typically,...
by Warwick Silvester | 10 Jun 2011 | Establishment trials
Introduced by Cimino Cole 10 June 2011 Corrected 26 June 2014 With the Mahurangi Action Plan ultimately calling for the planting of more than 10 million trees, coupled with the high cost of establishing indigenous species, the realisation soon dawned that, without a...
by Cimino | 4 Jun 2011 | MMP
Some’ll see it as fiddling while climate warms. And never mind reviewing the electoral system, many see democracy as inherently incapable of responding adequately to avert runaway global warming, and hanker for a benign dictator. Famously James Lovelock, father of the...
by Dick Smith | 30 May 2011 | Climate mobilisation, Moratorium on population
In a recent book, Terri Irwin makes this perceptive comment: In a hundred years, what difference is it going to make worrying about two acres of land. We need to focus on the real change that will make the world a better place for our children and grandchildren. That...
by Cimino | 30 May 2011 | Agricultural emissions
On the face of it, New Zealanders have a light carbon footprint. Even Dr James Hansen, in his open letter to the prime minister, says that: New Zealand contributes relatively little to carbon emissions that drive climate change. Per capita fossil fuel emissions from...
by Cimino | 25 May 2011 | Climate mobilisation, Climate strategy, Science
The phrase ‘save the planet’ grates for good reason. Nothing that humankind can currently throw at it, greenhouse gases included, can affect the existence of planet Earth. Even if every nuclear weapon were detonated simultaneously for good measure, the planet would...
by Cimino | 21 May 2011 | Establishment trials
One field day was never going to do it. Five field days might start to do justice to Gary Heaven and Shelley Trotter’s deer farming, farm forestry, riparian restoration, walkway and winery projects and operations. The previous field day, held in February, had left...
by Cimino | 16 May 2011 | Global-warming and population, Moratorium on population, Nuclear power
Storm sidestepped over fewer grandchildren In one notable respect, he was not preaching to the converted. With the possible exception of the odd journalist, the 350 people who packed the 250-seat University of Auckland lecture theatre on Thursday evening had been...
