frogblog

In the paper this morning I referred to the MAF briefing to the incoming Government released yesterday.
The Government’s press release chose to focus on bland reassertion of the fact that agriculture is the back-bone of the economy as if someone had forgotten.
Far more topical is the briefing’s sage advice for our climate change negotiators in […]

Yesterday I was informed that a number of officials have been dumped from the New Zealand Government delegation to the climate change talks in Poznan, Poland.
Apparently, a number of senior officials from the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry for the Environment who were all set to attend to advice our Ministers during the negotiations, […]

Simon Upton writes a good critique of New Zealand’s climate change situation in today’s Dom Post. It must be amazing for the former National Party Minister who got us involved with the Kyoto process in the first place to watch as once again, we go back to square one in terms of our response to […]

With consents granted to the Arnold hydro scheme (45MW), and now a new proposal for a dam on coal-mining land on the Stockton plateau (25MW), the primary rationale for Meridian’s Mokihinui Hydro Proposal (MHP) has been removed.
Meridian’s proposed MHP cites these benefits:
The Mokihinui Hydro Proposal would:

produce between 310 and 360 gigawatt […]

Greenpeace has turned it’s front webpage into a giant countdown clock leading to Copenhagen to highlight how little time we have left to cut a real deal on climate change. I quite like it.
Temperature increases, global emissions and loss of ice at the Arctic and Antarctic have now overshot scientists’ worst case scenarios. […]

Why would someone who believes climate change is a hoax and human activity is not contributing to climate change, want a carbon tax? Why would you tax fossil fuels if you don’t believe they are doing any harm? Why would a party that has campaigned on a carbon tax since 1993 and accepted […]

I thought I would kick off the weekend with a topic that is sure to challenge the imagination and bring all sorts of ideas - good and crazy - out into the open.
So just what is The Singularity? The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI) describes it thus:
The Singularity is the technological creation of smarter-than-human […]

The Department of Conservation says that the powelliphanta augustus snails are not faring so well in their new homes. Up to 40% mortality is evident in the new populations established just within the last 2 years.Over 6000 snails have been gathered up and thrown in DOC fridges for the crime of daring to live on […]

There it was again this week, nestled into a little side bar on A3 of the Dom Post. “GE onion field test” Once again, while most of the media is busy watching the new masters of the Executive Wing, ERMA is quietly saying ‘yes’ to a GE future for New Zealand.
It can only end in […]

The Royal Forest & Bird Society is calling out for submissions in support of a Water Conservation Order:
The NZ Recreational Canoeing Association and Fish and Game have jointly applied to the Ministry for the Environment for a Water Conservation Order on the Upper Hurunui River to protect the river and keep it in its […]