Jack Santa Barbara: Renewables a Placebo for Climate Change
Our collective belief that renewable energy is the cure for fossil fuels may well turn out to be more of a placebo than a real cure. Jack Santa Barbara explains why.
Collected from New Zealand and elsewhere
Our collective belief that renewable energy is the cure for fossil fuels may well turn out to be more of a placebo than a real cure. Jack Santa Barbara explains why. Keep Reading
Burning a patient with a cigarette had legal protection as a 'medical treatment', the Crown's lawyers once argued. Keep Reading
Waikato River hydro operator says NZ must make some big calls on investing in renewable power for the future – with the conservation and financial costs that come with it. Keep Reading
Christchurch residents are on tenterhooks with four cases of Covid-19 in the community and events cancelled. Keep Reading
Walt Disney Corporation championed extended protections for its cartoon characters; now New Zealand is conceding to paying for longer copyright Keep Reading
ANZ Bank has just announced a $1.92 billion profit for the year to September 30, 2021. This is about 1% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product. Keep Reading
Construction of light rail in Auckland, proposed 50 years ago by former Mayor Dove Myer Robinson, is now a step close with the release of working group recommendations for options of a light rail line running between the city centre and the Airport. Keep Reading
An introductory economics course student is likely to meet the above graph. It shows that if the minimum wage (in purple) is above the point where the labour supply curve (in red) and labour demand curve (in blue) cross there will be less employment. That is what students are taught. But research shows the world does not work that way. Keep Reading
Fonterra’s rosy “path to 2030” projections are predicated on moving much more milk into higher-returning products. What’s new - the company has been talking up value-add as a way to add value for shareholders for a decade, to little effect. Keep Reading
Pentecostalism puts its faith in the Holy Spirit more than Pfizer, but there are signs the fast-growing religious movement is not totally immune to scientific reason. Keep Reading
The decision to align the new water authorities with generations-old iwi boundaries highlights the challenging and sometimes contentious role for iwi Māori in the governance. Keep Reading
New Zealand’s biggest bank recorded a $1.92 billion profit this year, up 44 per cent. Keep Reading
Move means a person borrowing $800,000 would need to have an income of $133,000. Keep Reading
COVID has reminded us how good New Zealand is, and we should remember how we were reminded. Keep Reading
CoreLogic has released its third quarterly property market update. Keep Reading
Tearfund's annual name-and-shame of unethical fashion chains leaves out some important factors - such as clothing manufactured in New Zealand. Keep Reading
Employers are breathing a collective sigh of relief as the Court of Appeal overturns the Employment Court decision in Metro Glass v MBIE's Labour Inspector. This means companies don't need to collectively pay hundreds of millions of dollars of holiday pay to top executives. Keep Reading
Government departments are reporting 100 per cent on-time OIA responses at the same time as extending half of requests. What gives? Keep Reading
Power companies say the environmental regulations are making it too hard to build new wind farms – and have stopped the construction of transitional gas power plants entirely. Keep Reading
All NZ's councils' water networks are to be merged in new authorities three times the size of the big power companies – but to staunch the flow of community support, they'll get more say in governance. Keep Reading
A public relations and journalism expert says Rotorua Lakes Council's failure to circulate media releases about two recent public health incidents "sounds amateurish". Keep Reading
Fonterra has raised its 2021/22 farmgate milk price range to $7.90 - $8.90 per kg of milk solids, with an $8.40 per kg midpoint. The previous forecast was Keep Reading
Speed at which rates are rising has come as a surprise to some. Keep Reading
Cameron Bagrie explains why that could be bad news for the regions. Keep Reading
The NZ-UK free trade agreement helps unveil what the future holds for New Zealand farming as the sector becomes increasingly diverse, in the final of Professor Hugh Campbell's three-part series on rural politics. Keep Reading
Collected stories and commentary, from New Zealand and elsewhere, on politics, economics and citizen voices. Keep Reading