The recent Women’s Football World Cup, with its acting-out of the Enlightenment values of liberty, equality and fraternity, was a delightful patch of blue sky among more ominous dark clouds. The fires and floods in the Northern Hemisphere have emphasised the threat of climate change to people’s lives throughout the world. They foreshadow the future. Read more
Māori landowners are flying to the United Nations in a last-ditch effort to stop changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme. The scheme forces polluters to offset their emissions by buying carbon credits. Planting trees creates those credits, which can then be traded. It’s led to the creation of an industry of carbon farming which many Read more
Green hydrogen could be critical to achieving a zero-carbon world by 2050 as the global economy moves away from fossil fuels. Green hydrogen offers a solution to decarbonising “hard-to-abate” industries such as steel and fertiliser production, heavy-duty transport and shipping. Recent announcements by high-emitting countries suggest the switch to green hydrogen might be greater and Read more
A lifetime’s service to healing the land has seen Waikato University honour Tauranga Catholic, Rob McGowan with a prestigious award. Known to many as ‘Pa Ropata’, McGowan is this year’s University of Waikato Medal recipient. The award recognises community service at a local or regional level. “Rob has made a significant and sustained contribution to Read more
According to a recent study, coastal shipping produces a fifth of the carbon emissions (well-to-wheel) of road freight. Rail also performed well, with about a quarter of trucking emissions. Despite this, trucking accounts for nearly 80% of New Zealand’s heavy goods transport, and a 94.5% share of the total emissions from heavy freight transport. The Read more
Manufacturers of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) make various claims about their vehicles’ fuel use. Some say it’s very low and provide numbers to prove it. Consumer NZ, with support from Te Manatū Waka–Ministry of Transport, decided to investigate to see if these suggestions were true. They assessed fuel use in five PHEVs and five Read more
The return this month of the first cruise ship to Auckland’s Waitematā Harbour was accompanied by the sort of fanfare normally reserved for visiting foreign dignitaries: a tug boat decked out in bunting, a circling helicopter, even the mayor on hand to welcome the ship. Coming after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic and Read more
In June 2022, an EV Mercedes drove from Germany to the UK on a single charge, travelling more than 1,200km (750 miles) without needing to stop. The average petrol- or diesel-powered car would have had to refill its tank three times on the same journey, though there was a catch. The electric vehicle was a Read more
Despite advances in cleaner water and safer indoor cooking, pollution remains the world’s leading environmental risk factor for disease and premature death, responsible for one in every six deaths, or 9 million premature deaths annually, according to a new report in The Lancet. The report finds the majority of pollution-related deaths today come from what Read more
A Church-sponsored farmers’ group is promoting organic farming as an eco-friendly remedy to the food shortage caused by the climate crisis in the Korean peninsula. The Catholic Farmers Association (CFA) has developed an ‘environmental conservation-type sustainable agriculture’ and consumption method they call ‘life agriculture’, the Gwangju Catholic Peace Broadcasting Company reported. The term ‘life agriculture’ Read more