Resilient local economies
If you google search the term “embodied energy” will find references to the embodied energy of buildings.
Yes, eco-architects are on to it. Buildings have life cycles and the energy involved in the extraction, transport, manufacture, assembly and end-of-life phases adds up. All this energy becomes “embodied” in a product.
So when we engage in discussions of our renewable energy future we can say much more about it than what energy source we will use. Mostly the discussion is about moving to renewable energy sources from fossil fuels. Continue reading “A Successful New Zealand’s Zero Carbon Act will mean declining economic growth”
About 15 years ago I was co-founded Otaki Transition Town, part of a movement that focussed on both peak oil and climate change. We were predicting dire warnings of a fall off the cliff and reading books like “Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller” by economist Jeff Rubin and “The End of Growth” and “The Party’s Over” by Richard Heinberg. Then when US discovered they could frack for oil and did so with great success, people forgot about peak oil and focussed their energies on climate change.
Continue reading “Peak oil and climate change. Which do we worry about most?”
When George Monbiot wrote his great article (Days of Rage) about the inadequate response of governments to the climate emergency, I read it three times because it felt so important. He said environment groups are arguing the only realistic approach is incrementalism. He said they will campaign, issue by issue, sector by sector, for gradual improvements. But he said that system change was the only fast and effective means of transformation.
Continue reading “Are transformative climate measures too threatening for the establishment?”
In the face of an urgent need to reduce emissions, we are proposing a TEQ scheme replace the Emissions Trading Scheme. This article argues that price-based schemes to reduce emissions are unfair to the poor and are not working anywhere.
They must be replaced by a numbers-based scheme. And since the Government has recently reduced the excise tax on fuel, we must now decide the purpose and future of fuel excise taxes. Continue reading “Tradable Energy Quotas – the magic route to degrowth and control of emissions”
Newsroom journalist Marc Daalder has written a piece on the two options for light rail to the airport. The government has chosen tunnelled light rail to the airport and the Minister of Transport, believing it to reduce emissions, has argued he wants to “pull all levers” for decarbonisation. Continue reading “Light rail to the airport? We need fewer cars in Auckland not more”
Often when groups talk about climate action or lack of it, a sort of despair sets in. Then some Pollyanna pipes up reprimanding people for their negativity and then people go quiet. It’s as though society demands a compulsory optimism. How dare you be pessimistic about the prospects of having a liveable climate?
Continue reading “Compulsory optimism on overshoot in our society is maladaptive”
I have just been on a webinar from https://climateinteractive.org describing their climate change simulator. Called Climate Interactive I was greeted with a happy faced man who asked all global participants what there was to be optimistic about the climate issue. So I imagine we are here to be optimistic and positive.
Continue reading “Effective climate action? Follow the money”
Often during the last twenty years, climate activists have had high hopes that humanity will avert a climate catastrophe. Continue reading “Climate catastrophe or inevitable after COP26?”
Covid 19 has exacerbated global supply chains troubles
Continue reading “Was Covid the only reason for the shipping crisis and when will it stop?”