When science joins journalism, good things happen, as Mike Joy and Stephen Sackur showed. It was a big media science story, that should have been a bigger economic one: how to reconcile dairy’s growth industry with our “100% pure” brand
Read MoreConservation
The laws of Nature: finally, useful work for lawyers
It would be ironic if, in the end, it was lawyers who saved the world while I was out, tree-hugging and tweeting
Read MoreDairy goes green
Fonterra is helping dairy farmers write good farm stories: tales that start with basic effluent compliance, and could end in best sustainability practice and bridging the gap between conservationists and farmers
Read MoreMike Joy answers the PM, with hard facts
Fresh water ecologist Dr Mike Joy responds to the Prime Minister’s ‘hardtalk’, debunking his bland assertions, and calling his advice “rubbish science”, that would fail a first-year student
Read MoreHere be dragons
We stand on an economic cliff, at the edge of the physical world. Scientists explain why technology won’t help
Read MoreSelling Tane short, on conservation lands
Our native forests and the creatures that live in them are in retreat, says the PCE; commerce is a lesser evil than rats, stoats and possums. Barbeque sacred cows, says DOC. Just uphold the law, says Green MP Kevin Hague
Read MoreDeepwater protection - too little, too late
Environment Minister Nick Smith has finally confirmed that
Two hard constraints: climate science, and clean coal
Climate scientist James Hansen and Solid Energy chief executive Don Elder debate how to secure the future of coal, New Zealand, and the world
Read MorePrince Charles, won
Prince Charles – unwilling to let his son steal the whole show – almost atoned for a lifetime's embarrassing blurts and blunders, when he aired his passion for agri-culture, not agri-industry. Maybe he shouldn't be put out to pasture, just yet – or is that in fact where he belongs?
Read MoreCosta Rica: small feet and big smiles
In which my musing, about what would make a good life, is helped along by a good list. It sounds a lot like New Zealand
Read MoreCrystal Valley, and the conservation state
In 2004, the Nature Heritage Fund funded DOC’s Crystal Valley purchase, because of its outstanding conservation values. Last week DOC agreed to give part of the Valley, freehold, to Porter Heights Ski Field, to build an alpine lodge. What’s changed?
Read MoreSolid Energy defi(n)es sustainability in Southland
Putting Solid Energy’s own definition of sustainable business practice to the test, on the ground in Southland
Read MoreMackenzie developments, and Trust
High country farmers and Ministers are defending private property interests in the Mackenzie Basin, while speaking the language of collaboration and trust — with a capital T
Read MoreSolid Energy defends its lignite proposals
In which Solid Energy defends its lignite proposals before a Parliamentary select committee, defines sustainability loosely, and fails to define some other things at all, except the megabucks
Read MoreRequiem for Old Man Pine
I plant little trees. My neighbours cut big ones down.
Read MoreThe RMA road map: infrastructure crossroads
To help the government’s goal of “building infrastructure for growth”, the foundations of the Resource Management Act are being quietly reviewed, without a scrap of evidence that infrastructure is being impeded by the current law
Read MoreSeeing the Forest for the Trees
An examination of the strange suggestion, spread by the Green Party, that our native ecosystems are at a greater risk than those of any other country on Earth except for Burma.
Read MoreWaste minimisation, writ short
The last New Zealand Waste Strategy had 30 targets. A 2009 discussion document proposed 14. The new strategy has … none
Read MoreThe Minister “who took the fish out of fish and chips”
Species ranked ‘nationally critical’ are dying in our fisheries. Legislative fixes have twice been voted down by the National party
Read MoreBrownlee’s bucket list
Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee, and his colleagues, have work to do, according to an offshore petroleum environmental assessment, showing big gaps and serious risks in our regulatory practice
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