A major new parliamentary commissioner for the environment report has just dropped, with recommendations about how tourism should be reshaped. Alex Braae spoke to Simon Upton about what he’s proposing. Last time parliamentary commissioner for the environment Simon Upton did some domestic tourism, he went to Raglan. He ate in a local restaurant, and attempted … Read more
The Climate Change Commission’s progressive recommendations to reduce transport emissions are realistic and achievable – and they could be revolutionary, writes Z Energy’s Sheena Thomas. I recently read about a Californian startup developing a diamond-encased battery powered by nuclear waste that would last a lifetime and solve the world’s energy and climate change problems. It … Read more
Click here to see interactive data visualisations and watch all five episodes of 100 Year Forecast on our special interactive website. Climate change is big and it can feel overwhelming. It may seem like New Zealand does not have a big part to play in any solutions to the global problem. Yet despite our low total emissions, our … Read more
Click here to see interactive data visualisations and watch all five episodes of 100 Year Forecast on our special interactive website. Aotearoa’s ecosystems are already under strain from habitat loss and introduced pest species. A warmer climate, more extreme weather and rising sea levels will intensify these stresses. This episode explores which plants and animals are under threat … Read more
Click here to see interactive data visualisations and watch all five episodes of 100 Year Forecast on our special interactive website. Aotearoa is a steep and rugged country. Our settlements are concentrated in pockets of fertile floodplains, around river mouths or along coastlines. During the last few decades, these places have experienced increased river and coastal flooding. As … Read more
Click here to see interactive data visualisations and watch all five episodes of 100 Year Forecast on our special interactive website. The future of rainfall in Aotearoa is complicated. As the country warms up, some places will get drier, while others will become far wetter. These changes will not be spread evenly through the year. … Read more
There’s a by-election happening in South Auckland and, as Justin Latif reports, you’d struggle to find a more diverse group of candidates. What do a globetrotting singer, a record-breaking weightlifter, an ex-fisherwoman, a social media expert, a radio show host and an IT guy all have in common? Not much, other than that they all … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Reaction to big changes required by first emissions report, stories swirl about managed isolation places, and UK in bid to join NZ-inclusive trade bloc. The Climate Change Commission has released a major report setting out the changes that will need to be made for New … Read more
CLICK HERE to see interactive data visualisations and watch all five episodes of 100 Year Forecast on our special interactive website. Aotearoa is getting warmer. How do we know this, and what will happen over the next 100 years? Watch episode one here: 100 Year Forecast explores what Aotearoa might look like in the next … Read more
Ardern says the government is ready to ‘accelerate’ to meet the ambitious demands of the emissions budget laid down by the Climate Change Commission. Every home and business in the country will need to see a substantial shift in behaviour under far-reaching guidance just released by the Climate Change Commission. The “emissions budget”, the first … Read more
The chair of the Climate Change Commission says he should have understood the challenge of the climate crisis sooner. On Sunday, the country’s first emissions budget will be released and everyone will understand, Justin Giovannetti writes. New Zealand is an international outcast. Its exports are boycotted around the world. Its leaders shunned. That’s a future … Read more
A community is outraged after Auckland Council granted consent for a row of trees planted by local kids to be removed along a revitalised waterway in South Auckland, reports Justin Latif. An Auckland Council decision to give contractors the all-clear to chop down 12 mānuka and kānuka trees shading Māngere’s Tararata Stream has angered and … Read more
Good morning and welcome to the Bulletin. In today’s edition: Collins outlines the plan forward for National, no spread of Covid spotted yet in Northland, and students return for climate protest. In front of a Rotary Club at the Ellerslie Racecourse in Auckland, National leader Judith Collins yesterday set out her party’s priorities for the … Read more
A new study suggests that trees’ ability to soak up carbon could expire. Mirjam Guesgen explains. Trees have long been held as the saviour for climate change. Plant enough trees and we might be able to balance out some of that carbon-emmitting flying or driving. But a new scientific study says that trees only buy … Read more
The issues political editor Justin Giovannetti will be keeping an eye on in 2021 (that have nothing to do with Covid-19). New Zealand will be busy in 2021. The border will remain closed to nearly all travellers and Covid-19 will continue to lead the news, but the country has a packed domestic agenda of issues … Read more
Summer reissue: The Overstory, the winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, is an engulfing, worldview-shifting novel about climate catastrophe and hope, writes Susan Wardell. (Photographs are from a photo essay on kauri dieback by Michelle Hyslop; captions by Andrea Ewing). First published 9 April 2020. The year before last, I spent the month … Read more
Summer reissue: There are many lessons climate scientists can learn from mātauranga Māori. Lesson one is: don’t panic. This story was made with support from the Science Journalism Fund and was first published 29 December, 2019. Hank Dunn (Te Uri o Tai, Te Rarawa) has survived five shipwrecks in his lifetime. He told me this … Read more
The year 2020 is about to burn itself out and we can all put it behind us. Despite its terribleness, José Barbosa argues 2020 will be remembered as the ultimate fork in the road. In the last 12 months we’ve all been witness to some remarkable things. I needn’t go over them all here, but … Read more
All this week we’re looking back on some of the best videos published on The Spinoff in 2020. Today, 100 Year Forecast looks at the future of flooding in New Zealand. Watch all five episodes of 100 Year Forecast on our special interactive website HERE. Aotearoa is a steep and rugged country. Our settlements are … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Swag of briefings to incoming ministers released, government outlines summer Covid resurgence plan, and Port Hills fire comes amid scorching week. A whole lot of papers around the end of one term of government and the start of the next have been released. The briefings to … Read more
Countries that signed up to the Paris agreement promised to review their efforts every five years, but already New Zealand has stumbled, writes Bronwyn Hayward. Saturday marked five years since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed. That agreement was the moment that the world’s governments (196 countries) finally agreed climate change was real, was happening … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Why it matters Wairoa lost their dentist service, commercial rent relief won’t be revisited by government, and four year term referendum looking likely. It can be hard enough for key workers to live in the big cities, with the high cost of living. But for many … Read more
The fate of Māngere’s much-maligned cycle path network has become something of an obsession for Justin Latif. Now, he writes, solutions are being proposed – but not all are being welcomed by the community. I have the strange honour of having written several thousands of words about Māngere’s Te Ara Mua Future Streets cycleways for … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Response to Royal Commission report into March 15 terrorist attack, slow progress on climate change criticised internationally, and ‘digital handshake’ to be added to Covid app. The security services have come in for criticism in a Royal Commission report into the March 15 terrorist attacks, … Read more
The declaration of a climate emergency tells the people of New Zealand, and the international community, that this is who we are and this is where we are going, writes James Renwick, a climate scientist and member of the NZ Climate Commission. Last week Jacinda Ardern tabled in parliament a motion to declare a climate … Read more
Bronwyn Hayward has her reservations about climate emergency declarations. Can today’s win her over? Today New Zealand became the 33rd country to declare a Climate Emergency. Around the world, more than 1,800 cities and local governments have already declared climate emergencies, including 16 New Zealand city and district councils. “Climate Emergency” was the Oxford Word … Read more
Today in parliament, Jacinda Ardern will move a notice of motion declaring a climate emergency and a series of other steps including ‘becoming a carbon-neutral government by 2025’. Here is the full text of the motion. To move that this House: declare a climate emergency, following the finding of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change … Read more
Threads of a political career, woven together: climate change, child poverty and global leadership. Within weeks of a history-making victory, Jacinda Ardern and the Labour party face a growing list of demands. Local government is in disarray, the housing market is out of control and the spotlight is once again on children being removed from … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: New wave of bank closures hitting the regions, Australia rocked by war crimes report, and ten years since Pike River marked. A massive wave of bank branch closures is coming, with BNZ shutting down 38 locations over the next year. They’re in both cities and towns, … Read more