Posts Tagged ‘Climate’

Too much talk – now is time for climate action

Monday, March 11th, 2024
climate action

Archbishop Mark Coleridge is looking to lead the way on climate action, declaring in a very clear message to the Brisbane diocese that talking about climate is simply not enough. “We have to listen to the cries of the earth and the cries of the poor. The vision has to become action” he said. Coleridge Read more

Summer sees peak temperature of 37C, makes top 10 warmest on record

Monday, March 11th, 2024

The last summer was a hot and dry one, with above average temperatures and below average rainfall for many parts of New Zealand. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research’s (NIWA) summer climate summary was released Tuesday, showing it was the ninth warmest summer on record, with a nationwide average temperature of 17.6C. The Read more

NZ’s warmest 12 months in observed history

Monday, November 20th, 2023

A 12-month run that’s delivered record-breaking deluges and dramatic marine heatwaves has proven New Zealand’s warmest period since observations began more than 150 years ago. That’s according to a prominent climate scientist’s analysis, as global agencies report that 2023 looks likely to go down as the planet’s hottest in recorded history. In assessing the local Read more

An early adopter of electric vehicles, but increasingly I feel duped

Thursday, June 8th, 2023
electric vehicles

Electric motoring is, in theory, a subject about which I should know something. My first university degree was in electrical and electronic engineering, with a subsequent master’s in control systems. Combine this, perhaps surprising, academic pathway with a lifelong passion for the motorcar, and you can see why I was drawn into the early adoption Read more

Storm brewing over Pacific climate and debt

Thursday, March 9th, 2023

Across the Pacific, people are picking up the bones of their ancestors like shells on the beach. Burial grounds are being washed away by rising tides. Communities are shoring up seawalls with old tyres. I was raised on the beautiful island of Tonga. When I was a child, my parents and grandparents would come out Read more

Africa’s imperfect storm: food crisis, violence and climate change

Monday, August 15th, 2022

Food insecurity, violence and climate change are forcing Africa into a corner. The continent is facing a looming food crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In better times, between 2018 and 2020, Africa imported 44 percent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine. “A striking phenomenon is the link between food insecurity, violence and Read more

Pope’s Climate Warning to Oil-Gas Executives: ‘There is No Time to Lose’

Thursday, July 19th, 2018
Ukraine Government

Challenging world oil executives to recognise the urgent environmental need to quickly transition from fossil fuel extraction and burning, to clean energy production, Pope Francis called them to take to heart that “Civilization requires energy, but energy must not destroy civilization.” Gathering the heads of some of the world’s largest oil and gas corporations – Read more

Climate revolutionaries of East Africa

Thursday, July 20th, 2017

For a long time polar bears were the poster child of climate change but that is no longer the case. Now it is an image of our fellow human beings, millions of them, battling on the frontlines for survival. While  the west debate the merits of climate science, in large parts of Africa, Asia and Read more

The consequences of climate change

Tuesday, November 8th, 2016

Charred by the pulsing heat, the earth has turned to dust. Rivers have thinned to threads. Wells and ponds have parched. Across the sun-punished lands of Colombia’s La Guajira province, the northernmost point of South America, the symptoms of drought are stark. Water carriers walk for hours, bucket handles digging into their hands. Goats and Read more

Climate change — a world at war

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2016

In the North this summer, a devastating offensive is underway. Enemy forces have seized huge swaths of territory; with each passing week, another 22,000 square miles of Arctic ice disappears. Experts dispatched to the battlefield in July saw little cause for hope, especially since this siege is one of the oldest fronts in the war. Read more