Zoe Mills is a 17 year old high school student and one of thousands who joined the global climate strikes. She explains why her generation feel this moment so acutely. It’s an eerie sight. A sea of bodies lay across the worn concrete of the Queen Street intersection. A faint murmuring grows in an impassioned roar: “Wake up! … Read more
If you’re put off by the concept of protests, you’re not alone. Josh Drummond explains why you should bite the bullet and go along to today’s climate protests anyway. Argh, protests! They make me cringe. Here’s the big secret: protests make nearly everyone cringe. Most people feel a bit goofy going along to a protest, especially … Read more
On March 15, New Zealand school students led a global day of strike action on climate change. Grace Wilkie and Libby Morrison explained then why they were taking the day off school. They’re doing it again today, and this is why. Today students all around New Zealand will be striking for the climate again. As … Read more
Neil Miller was sceptical about the value of Dave’s direct action on climate change. But when he joined him in a London court room, he changed his mind. Dave is 25 and he’s a bit of a worry. He’s been arrested several times in London protests. I’ve told him that getting arrested is no solution … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Farming groups concerned about growth of forestry, dramatic new documents revealed in Hit and Run inquiry, and govt agency loses town records. Land conversions towards farming have pretty much always brought with them economic growth at the expense of environmental health. But increasingly, farmers and those who … Read more
The United Nations Secretary General has given a nod to indigenous rangatahi in their fight for climate justice. Yesterday morning, rangatahi Māori activists made their way to Auckland Museum’s event centre for an unusual meeting. Te Ara Whatu, Aotearoa’s first indigenous youth delegation to the United Nations, joined climate minister James Shaw and other climate … Read more
Aotearoa finally heard the announcement about the Zero Carbon Bill earlier this week. Maulik Thakkar of climate action organisation Generation Zero explains how the time to begin reducing our emissions is now, rather than settling for a slow reduction in emissions over the coming decades. We have repeated it again and again, like a mantra: “The … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: National calls for housing minister to be sacked, iwi vows no more children will be taken by Oranga Tamariki, and Christchurch businesses fear hard winter. Housing minister Phil Twyford hasn’t been the happiest camper during this term of government. He came into office with vast, visionary plans … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Zero carbon bill finally unveiled to mixed response, OCR cut to record lows, and Auckland councillor alleges poorer suburbs are subsidising wealthier areas. Last year, climate change minister James Shaw told Newshub Nation that he’d be happy if everyone else was “equally unhappy” with the final shape of the … Read more
This is the perfect time to announce a future ban on sales of fossil fuel cars, argues former National Party cabinet minister Wayne Mapp. Now that we have got past the CGT shemozzle, we can get back to the serious policy that the prime minister says is the existential crisis of our times, climate change. … Read more
A cornerstone of the Labour-Green post-election deal, the legislation will enshrine net zero emissions by 2050, with an independent Climate Change Commission installed. Methane gases, primarily emitted by agriculture in NZ, will need to reduce by 10% by 2030 under the bill. Read the Spinoff interview with climate change minister James Shaw here. Almost a … Read more
An 1,800-page report, years in the making, has painted a profoundly stark picture for diversity. With up to a million species facing extinction, humanity itself is in peril, says the UN body that assesses the state of global ecosystems A selection of expert views on the report, compiled by the NZ and UK Science Media … Read more
Don Rowe meets the animals on the frontlines of New Zealand’s climate change challenge – and the zookeepers fighting to keep them thriving. In a low-roofed hut at the Auckland Zoo, Richard Jakob-Hoff is staring at a reptile. The tuatara, a young female, is staring straight back. With her head slightly cocked, claws splayed and … Read more
Reducing food waste is a win-win solution for everyone as less food goes to landfill and more food goes to those who need it. So what’s being done to make this a reality? And what can you do to help? In 2020, New Zealand will vote in a general election with poverty and climate change … Read more
Averting catastrophic climate change will require system-level change, not the light touch, ‘gradual transition’ approach our government is taking. “You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us that the future was something to look forward to.” These were the words of Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old who inspired the global school strikes … Read more
Because being paralysed by hopelessness and fear doesn’t help anyone, here are some ways you can actually make a change on climate, starting right now. On The Spinoff recently, Catherine Woulfe wrote about experiencing feelings of helplessness brought on by terrifying predictions of climate breakdown in books like David Wallace-Wells’ The Uninhabitable Earth. While all … Read more
The oceans are rising and the ground’s getting shaky – time to move the capital to Hamilton. As hellworld boils and our cities descend into the sea, writhing throngs of climate refugees will soon be forced to head for higher ground, scrambling over one another like a scene from the Old Testament. The effect will … Read more
Millennials and post-Millennials continue to have it out with the ever defensive Baby Boomers over the environment. Jai Breitnauer asks where are Gen X and what can they offer? It’s 1987: my parents have just traded their old fridge for a CFC-free version. Roll on deodorant is now a thing. The phrase ‘global warming’ is … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Focus put on airports around Southern Lakes, deal appears to have been reached on climate change law, and leadership crisis in National appears to have abated. The Southern Lakes area, including the tourist drawcards of Queenstown and Wanaka, face some huge decisions over airport infrastructure. It’s a … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Destiny Church rejected for prison rehab programme, Kāpiti Council sends sea level message to homeowners, and funding boost to solve Census snafu. Corrections minister Kelvin Davis has ruled out working with Destiny Church’s Man Up programme in prisons, reports Newsroom. Destiny says the programme can help turn lives … Read more
Good morning, and welcome back to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: More revealed on funding cuts disability advocates say are happening by stealth, dire warnings in environment report, and could National go for Māori seat? More light has emerged on a rumoured squeeze on funding for the disability sector.It comes from documents revealed to the NZ Herald, … Read more
David Wallace-Wells has written a blinder, a book that could actually prompt people to push through complacency. But it’s not enough to pump us up full of fear and then just leave us there, bumping around like so many useless balloons, writes Catherine Woulfe This article originally ran in Barker’s 1972 magazine. “It is, I … Read more
Despite all the evidence of climate change and environmental degradation, and the clear need to take action, we just aren’t taking action, writes James Renwick The Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ have released their latest report on New Zealand’s environment: Environment Aotearoa 2019. It’s great that government agencies are informing us so clearly … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Heavy fallout from axing of capital gains tax, cost blowout for City Rail Link, and wrongly evicted Housing NZ tenants to get debt wiped. PM Jacinda Ardern has ruled out a capital gains tax. Not only now, mind you, she’s ruled out Labour ever campaigning on it … Read more
Indigenous people have always had ecological perspectives on health, which have only recently entered ‘mainstream’ discourse, and the scope now is planetary health, writes Rebekah Jaung. Good intentions pave the road to inequity in health systems around the world. Whether it’s healthy eating guidelines that would require poor families to spend almost all their income … Read more
In the final episode of the Good Ancestors podcast, Noelle McCarthy spoke to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about the role of young people and the role of politics in responding to climate change. Young people are ready to confront the reality of a future with climate change. But they are increasingly frustrated by institutions that … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Carbon emissions continue to move wrong way, size and scope of police database revealed, and Ngāti Kurī propose massive new protected reserve. Yep, they’re going up. New Zealand’s carbon emissions continue to increase, with transport a leading cause, reports Stuff. Over 2017 they were up 2.2% on the … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Gun clubs, gun laws change after Christchurch attack, protests promised against new oil drilling, and widespread construction employment law breaches revealed. In less than a month since the Christchurch mosque shooting, sweeping changes have come to both gun laws, and the gun community generally. The new law … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Shareholders approve of sale of TradeMe to private equity firm, family ties between Shane Jones and logging boss, and Newsroom journalists detained in Fiji. TradeMe shareholders have given overwhelming backing to a takeover offer from a British private equity firm called Apax Partners, reports Business Desk. It’s the … Read more