Damn! How does @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social manage to write such excellent pieces every time? This is a beautiful and insightful read (from 3 months ago), as so many of hers are, grounding the growing use of AI in the true reality of being human. Treat yourself 👇
www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
This piece from @emilywrites.co.nz is really worth reading, on the human impact of this weather and exactly how much this government has not just refused to act, but instead consistently acted against the interests of us all. www.emilywrites.co.nz/i-dont-want-...
In safari resorts in Tanzania they have signs telling you to lock the veranda doors in your room, as baboons will open them to get at the fruit baskets left out for guests - they're smart animals.
'The prodigious skill of the accomplished and singular prose stylist is married with a scarily good memory and a shimmering humanity [...] It is nothing less than the best of literature about the worst of times.'
Rob Muldoon, former prime minister of New Zealand, once played the narrator in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Week in Review:
Emily Perkins reveals what went on inside a Wellington book club that led to Elizabeth Knox's extraordinary new memoir.
When Ministers mock: The rise of a violent political speech in New Zealand www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-m... (LinkedIn), sanjanah.wordpress.com/2025/01/31/w... (Wordpress)
“There has been more than one oil “shock” every decade since the 1970s. Earth Sciences says there is now a 50% chance of major flooding in a New Zealand city at least every year. But the government seems to think these things are not happening.”
A masterclass in outlining clear, viable actions 👇
"I watched as yet more journalists chirped about their bullshit phone calls with Trump, which were, per usual, entirely neutered of meaningful substance."
www.takahe.org.nz/giving-birth...
www.takahe.org.nz/what-to-wear/
www.takahe.org.nz/party-boy/
The Luke Malpass article in The Post (paywalled, sorry) seems to be getting some attention, because he links the Iran war to the fiscal state of the government - but then turns the whole thing into The Greatest Hits of Neoliberalism Vol 20.
A thread.
#nzpol
www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...
You won't find many kākāpō Easter eggs in the latest episode of the, Kākāpō Files ... because they've all hatched!
And by every measure, this is now officially the biggest breeding season on record.
#kakapo #conservation #birds
www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/kaka...
Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry finalist Erik Kennedy talks about his shortlisted collection @erikkennedy.com @thwupbooks.bsky.social #theockhams
Cartoonists are very,very observant:
Always so incredibly grateful for smart people taking time and care with my work. 'Two Systems of Justice: Zachary Gillan reviews Audition by Pip Adam.'
www.seizethepress.com/2026/01/30/a...
Opinion from Auckland University: NZ has the resources and the technology to be much more self-sufficient – what we need is the political will, writes Kevin Trenberth.
I've saved $2 a day by owning and driving an electric vehicle – even before petrol prices spiked above $3 a litre, Marc Daalder writes.
Our home planet is struggling with a record energy imbalance, which is warming oceans to unprecedented levels, making weather more extreme and threatening health and food supplies, the World Meteorological Organization has warned.
Read the full story. 🔗👉 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
The gap between New Zealanders who do extraordinary things at home and abroad and a backward-looking leadership is stark, writes Dame Anne Salmond.
Fossil fuels push the world towards autocracy. Were we less dependent on them, there might have been no President Trump, no President Putin, no ayatollahs, no Netanyahu, no perpetual Middle East wars. Democracy depends on unhooking ourselves.
This week's column.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
a young, brown-haired, clean-shaven american man in a green army uniform. he looks stern.
On 16th March, 1968 Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson Jnr was flying helicopter recon for a US attack on My Lai, an alleged Viet Cong-controlled village in Vietnam.
But as the attack developed below, Thompson realised he was witnessing something something else:
A massacre.
He decided to act. 1/28
Do people realise the fuel refined at Marsden was nearly all from off shore, before the closure it mostly came from the Middle East. Crude oil extracted in NZ has long been for the export market and NOT used in NZ, we still produce oil, we have just never been able to use or refine that type of oil here. Now we just import refined oil for retail use, instead of importing crude, which we’ve always done before 2022. I know Shane Jones and many pages on the internet want you to believe something else, but it’s just not true. The Marsden Point owners closed the refinery side of the business. Because it wasn’t viable. If tax payers bailed it out, we just would’ve paid twice, once to the commercial owners through our taxes and again at the pump.
The thing is, we actually have access to more markets now for refined oil than we did for crude, and crude usually took longer to get here. So technically we may be slightly more resilient at a time like this compared to before. Putting aside the fact the government has reversed nearly everything that was trying to reduce our dependence on oil that would’ve helped cushion us from a shock like this: - Removing EV incentives, and industrial decarbonisation incentives - Subsidising fossil fuel exploration - Ending climate investment funds - Weakening/delaying carbon pricing in major sectors - Cutting public transport subsidies and walking and cycling funding to provide alternatives. - “Jacinda closed Marsden” (she didn’t) but regardless it isn’t actually a factor in all this.
Great post at another place from @richardhills.bsky.social who nails the actual story of Marsden Point. No, it wouldn’t have helped. This is something media could be constantly pointing out to NZ First #nzpol
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