Posts for government

Business wary of green practices that hurt profits

New Zealand Herald, 9 June 2009 Privately-owned New Zealand businesses score poorly compared to overseas counterparts in their willingness to spend money on environmentally-friendly practices that hurt the bottom line.

Ban on GE imports welcomed

New Zealand Herald, 8 June 2009 A High Court decision to block applications to import and develop genetically engineered material has been hailed as a landmark by GE-Free New Zealand.

Aussies offer answer to toxic old TVs

New Zealand Herald, 01 June 2009 Australia’s first television glass recycling plant is calling for Kiwis’ old tellies, as environmental organisations on both sides of the Tasman try to stem the flow of toxic TVs to rubbish dumps. Increasing numbers of people are dumping lead-containing…

Record-Breaking Solar Plant To Be Built in Australia

GoodCleanTech, 18 May 2009 “We don’t want to be clean energy followers worldwide, we want to be clean energy leaders worldwide,” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says. And as one of the first steps to gain recognition as a leader in clean energy, Australia announced…

The Kyoto Protocol and New Zealand

It just happened that I had to make myself familar with the Kyoto Protocol and it’s implications for New Zealand. If you are interested in it, a good resource is at The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade website: http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Treaties-and-International-Law/03-Treaty-making-process/National-Interest-Analyses/0-Kyoto-Protocol-Part-I.php

Global warming proof undeniable

New Zealand Herald, Monday May 11, 2009 Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation in Geneva, responds to a recent article by Chris de Freitas questioning global warming. The observed increase in global surface temperatures is unequivocal and a clear manifestation of global warming.…

SSD Electricity Savings Could Power an Entire Country

Nikkei Electronics Asia, May 8, 2009 15:21 The use of solid-state drives (SSD) could allow the world’s data centers to reduce their cumulative electricity consumption by 166,643MWH from 2008 to 2013, according to iSuppli Corp. This amounts to slightly more than the total electricity generation…

Environmental and energy balances of wood products and substitutes

The FAO Forestry Department promotes, among others, the responsible use of wood as an environmentally friendly raw material. In the last decades, wood and wood-based products have been faced with stronger competition from substitute materials, such as plastics, concrete, steel, glass or aluminium, as these…

Kiwis solve global warming riddle

New Zealand scientists have helped solve one of the riddles of global warming by drilling deep into the ancient Antarctic rock.