Far from a blowout – costs of $55m in 2019 and $69m in 2025 is not even an increase in real terms. Disappointed to see UNZ's Neil Quigley's take being "the sector could probably cope with a cut to its income from foreign PhD students". Really coming out fighting there.

Te Ara Paerangi Com - Research Advocacy Capability@te-ara-paerangi.community · 2d ago

MSc and PhD students are the workforce in the engine room of our public research system. They are very, very cheap labor by policy design. This talk about a 'cost blowout' is utter rubbish. We frown on company owners that charge people to get a job. We should be doing the same here. #NZPOL

From Hazel Petrie's review of Charlotte Macdonald's "Garrison World: Redcoat soldiers in New Zealand and across the British Empire" landfallreview.com/marching-to-...

Obviously nothing has pissed me off quite as much as them killing the Marsden Fund (👉 my 📌 post), but govt claiming that the Science Investment Plan does not cut funding when the plan itself says “core science and research funding is projected to decline in future years” was the icing on the cake.

Luxon wants to ‘brutally commercialise’ science, but cuts threaten its foundation

Comment from Auckland University: Decades of research funding cannot be replaced by funding the commercialisation of that science

newsroom.co.nz

HISTORIC RECORD HEAT EVERYWHERE We are gonna live historic days which will be remembered for generations: Thousands of records will be pulverized at the same time in North,South (40C in winter again !) Americas,Asia and Europe. Stay tuned. It will be an absolute insanity.

Great article from @jeremyrosenz.bsky.social. "Ecological catastrophe and nuclear war are the two existential threats facing the world. Choosing to prioritise military spending over international aid and climate change mitigation brings us closer to both." www.carbonnews.co.nz/news/38018/t...

@staygroundednet.bsky.social Spot the error: This record-breaking Qantas flight doesn't carry 20kl fuel, it carries 20kl EXTRA fuel. Total 185,000 litres. And half the seats have to be removed to lighten the weight. Hope the millions tracking it online knew that. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Qantas plane flies for more than 24 hours in record-breaking flight

The A350 landed in Toulouse 24 hours and 24 minutes after leaving Melbourne as airline plans direct London service

theguardian.com

Greenpeace climbers have hung a banner from a giant rimu tree, recreating one of NZ's most iconic environmental protests - the 1997 Native Forest Action tree occupation that helped to successfully end logging of native forest on public land. www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO26...

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/st...

Stop the Climate Amendment Bill!

This is important because climate change is the most serious and important issue facing humankind. We have a rapidly closing window of opportunity to prevent catastrophic damage to the natural world ...

our.actionstation.org.nz

Am I a kiwi or an ostrich? #NZpol #FarmersWeekly

Fixed it for you, @thetimes.com!

Supporting households and businesses to go electric would cut their fuel bills and prevent millions of tonnes of climate pollution

NZ households missing thousands in EV and heat pump savings – commission

newsroom.co.nz

In New Zealand, solar and coal are both quite small contributors to the grid. Recently solar (3.6% of generation in Q1 2026, 50% annual growth) has overtaken coal (1.8%). Let's keep it that way!

My comments for @smcnz.bsky.social on the CCC's new which I'm worried will vanish from the media like all the earlier ones: This is a devastatingly hard-hitting report from the Climate Change Commission documenting failures and shortcomings in almost all areas of our climate change response. [1/7]

NZ’s climate goals off-track – Expert Reaction www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2026/07/22/n...

NZ's climate goals off-track - Expert Reaction

The latest emissions reduction monitoring report says we're running out of time to meet our targets. Farming, electricity, and transport are the biggest risks to emissions budgets, the Climate Change ...

sciencemediacentre.co.nz

Here's the video of my 10 minute talk on "Energy Realities" at the Reality of Everything Conference. TL;DR: Most climate change is caused by fossil fuels; most of that is oil; most oil is transport. So climate => fix transport. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TNg...

Reality of Everything Symposium - Energy Realities

YouTube video by The Reality of Everything

youtube.com

In his essay “The Polyhedral Perspective”, Noam Andrews explores how polyhedra descended from mathematical treatises to Renaissance artists’ studios, distilling abstract ideas into objects one could see and touch: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/polyhedral-perspective

Here's Andy Burnham committing to a fossil fuel phase out and the @fossiltreaty.bsky.social last year. The science is extremely clear, we already have far more fossil fuels than can be burned if we are to stay within the Paris #climate targets & prevent catastrophic warming.

Oil Change International@oilchange.org · 3w ago

Deadly heatwaves are hitting the UK. This is not the moment for more oil & gas. Burnham just backed a global plan to phase out fossil fuels. Now, reports suggest he'll back new North Sea drilling—a big reversal + mistake for the economy, climate, & UK. financialpost.com/pmn/business...

6000 words on the death of EVs in America, but no room for two words in particular – "climate change". ("Oil" does appear once, in a 2015 quote from Obama). www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/m...

The American E.V. Has Been Crushed. Will It Take the U.S. Auto Industry With It?

The largest U.S. automakers have backed away from electric vehicles, even as global sales are booming. The decision may make them obsolete.

nytimes.com

Surely this is the “who has the best policies to get the country off fossil fuels the fastest” election, no? www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

The return of rising oil prices risks killing off the emerging positive vibes

Analysis - For a brief few weeks in the wake of the ceasefire in the Middle East, it felt as though New Zealand's economy might finally be catching a break.

rnz.co.nz

Classic NYT style: "Nigel John Dermot Neill was born to Dermot Neill, a NZer who served as a British army officer, and his English wife, Patricia, on their kitchen table in Omagh, a town of around 20,000 people in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on Sept. 14, 1947." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/o...

Sam Neill, New Zealand Actor Known for ‘Jurassic Park,’ Dies at 78

He appeared in more than 150 films and TV shows over a five-decade career, but was perhaps best known for his star turn in the dinosaur blockbuster.

nytimes.com

Sam, you did your bit, your level best: now it’s up to the rest of us to make sure this diabolical project never goes ahead #nzpol www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

‘That’ll be the end’: actor Sam Neill joins fight to stop controversial goldmine near his New Zealand vineyard

Neill says ‘one of the most beautiful and remote places in the world’ will be permanently changed if Bendigo-Ophir wins fast-track approval

theguardian.com

""There is nothing new or accelerated in the flood events. It's just that we have built in the way," West Coast Councillor Birchfield said on Thursday." Average annual insured losses due to extreme weather 1968-2016: $37 million (real) 2017-2025, excluding 2023: $226 million 2023: $3965 million

Rod Carr: I hope our candidates commit to "a national energy strategy that promotes decarbonisation through electrification", "reform of the ETS to reduce gross emissions", and 17 other bangers blog.planetaryecology.org/2026/07/13/p...

Politicians need to lead on climate

By Rod Carr Image: Climate Change Commission I am an optimist. Hope is not a strategy, neither are hopes always the same as expectations. In my world, to hope for something is to have an optimistic…

blog.planetaryecology.org

@astrokiwi.bsky.social uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/...

New Zealand too, govt wants to rush contracts through before the election

David Roberts@volts.wtf · 4w ago

Hawaii is thinking about building an LNG import terminal. A study by the state claiming massive consumer benefits was shown to contain basic errors, to the point of fraud, honestly, but that hasn't slowed the push at all. But what really bugs me ...

New Zealand mentioned (?) xkcd.com/3269/

Airport Meeting

xkcd.com

Wow, New Zealand fuel imports really fell off a cliff in May. Was that when stocks were said to be "declining, but stable"? I forget.

"Stay in your lane, academics!"

Berkeley Earth now has monthly temperature records for thousands of cities. Here's how summer has changed in Auckland, New Zealand - average max are up 2.1 ºC, from 21.6 to 23.7 ºC. More than half (+1.1 ºC) of that increase occurred in the past 20 years, a warming rate of 0.55 ºC per decade.