Garry's away; Axel's having a crack at putting a newsletter together This week, we had the 2020 Transportation Conference in Christchurch. It's the premier event for the industry and it's been going for a few decades. A good 200 people came together for a three-day gathering in our town hall. The … [Read more...]
Pumped hydro
Guest post by Brendon Harré. Something that I have been following for a while now is pumped hydro. The idea is to build high altitude storage lakes so that water can be pumped up to them when there is a surplus of generation capacity and electricity prices are low. Then when electricity is in … [Read more...]
A challenge by Axel Wilke:
Axel Wilke, transport planner - now walking fit again What’s my outlook for the 2020s? I predict the overriding experience will be effects brought about by climate change. Will it get too hot for us? Nope. Will the weather get too wild? Maybe. What about wildfires? Maybe, but nothing at the scale … [Read more...]
Ian Wells is seeking Christchurch companies committed to becoming carbon neutral:
Ian wrote to me and asked: Who do you recommend I talk with who works in a Christchurch organisation committed to go carbon negative? This is for a panel discussion/workshop I intent to run in May. My professional background is software. Recently I was on the exec of CanterburyTech … [Read more...]
Event: Climate Change: Food, Education and Wellbeing. Saturday 7 March
The Observatory cordially invites you to the above free public event, koha welcome. Please feel free to circulate/pass this invitation to others whom you feel might be interested, attached is a poster should you wish to use it. The event begins at 6pm, but seated by 5:50 please. 111 Seaview … [Read more...]
Last week Liz Yeaman on Electric Transport
We started the year with a ripper of a presentation by Liz Yeaman about electric buses. Liz spoke for her entire address without notes and relied only on her overheads, which were excellent. Here is the video of her address https://youtu.be/MBwsz0YDtwI thanks to Aaron Campbell. … [Read more...]
Tragedy of the commons
Axel Wilke writes... In the first half of the 19th century, some of the meadows used by English farmers to graze their cows turned brown. The grass was gone. It wasn’t that the soil was less fertile or that there was less rain than elsewhere. What differentiated the green and brown meadows was … [Read more...]
My life expressed in CO2
This tattoo disturbed me – what does it mean? Axel Wilke Writes... Earlier this year, I felt deep discomfort sitting next to a woman with a tattoo depicting some numbers. It reminded me of Hitler-Germany, when Jews had their prisoner ID tattooed when they went to a concentration camp. So I had to … [Read more...]
Do companies have a responsibility to Manage Climate Change risks?
Chapman Tripp were asked to come up with a legal opinion: “To what extent (if at all) are New Zealand company directors and managed scheme providers permitted or required to take account of climate change considerations in their decision-making?” Their Conclusion included this: "We … [Read more...]
Why Politicians and Activists Need each other
Rosemary Neave writes: Garry Moore has often said politics is the art of being able to count to 50%+1. If we have a democratically representative Council or Government, then it is unlikely all will agree. Mostly politicians are forced to make small steps rather than take giant … [Read more...]