Science-folks: If we run 100 experiments, we might find 1 or 2 of them may have results that can make many dollars.

NZ Govt: Excellent. We will fund those 1 or 2 experiments.

1. Denial has changed shape, not shrunk. What required fringe platforms three years ago now issues from sitting MPs, highly influential podcast hosts, and the incumbent government's own political messaging. The disinformation ecology, and parliamentary speech are no longer separable in any practical sense. The fringe hasn’t dissipated; the centre moved to meet it. 2. A storm that fails to produce catastrophe is weaponised against the credibility of all future warnings. The “boy who cried wolf” motif has become the central discursive device. 3. Pandemic-era distrust has proven fully portable, as the 2023 analysis warned it would. “Just like covid” now circulates as a complete argument wherever extreme weather is discussed. The epistemic damage of 2020–2022 has migrated wholesale into institutional communication on unrelated subjects, and shows no sign of waning. 4. Climate adaptation policy is now contested almost exclusively through conspiracy vocabulary. "Agenda 2030," "WEF land grab," and "fifteen-minute cities" - peripheral imports from foreign networks in 2023 - are the default lens in 2026 through which managed retreat, zoning changes, and planning decisions are discussed. Debating adaptation on its actual merits has become structurally difficult, if not near impossible amongst large swathes of New Zealand’s population. 5. The denialist dictionary has been Americanised or MAGA-fied. "Woke," "fear porn," "Jacinda's sheep," "leftist media" - the register is imported wholesale from United States culture war discourse, often without meaningful local adjustment. Local disinformation producers are increasingly indistinguishable from their American counterparts. 6. Racism, and specifically, anti-Māori racism, has migrated from the edges of post-disaster politics into the core of climate governance. Managed retreat, for example, is attacked as pro-Māori land transfers. 7. The target has shifted from individual experts to the category of expertise itself. Institutional…

Key points in the research. #nzpol

"Kuwait invokes ‘force majeure’ on its fuel, allowing it to forfeit delivery to NZ’s refined fuel suppliers"

Neat development #nzpol

🤣

I was thinking of you earlier, as one of my colleagues here mentioned the conference. I hope it goes smoothly.

Wearing them will very quickly allow you to meet other ocean buddies to talk about octopuses with – frankly, THE DREAM situation for me! 🐙

pocomoto.co.nz/product/octo...

'A storm every eight days' - country's biggest insurer calls for systemic response An increasing number of severe weather events were now happening in spring and summer, IAG says.

When major insurance companies speak out, government should listen, right?

RNZ: 'A storm every eight days' - country's biggest insurer calls for systemic response
www.rnz.co.nz/news/environ...

Hutt river flow since the last big flood event, 6 weeks ago

shout out to the fire fighters union calling off their strike to support people during this disaster, hopefully their mobilising to help pump the water out of peoples houses has won them more support against their bosses

Massey Uni will also be closed tomorrow.
Time to stay home and off the roads.

ANALYSIS: Government set to reduce Treaty in legislation to lowest possible standard - what it means Sweeping changes to Treaty clauses across 23 laws could lower te Tiriti to its weakest legal standard, reshaping how it influences decisions in health, environment and beyond.

www.teaonews.co.nz/2026/04/20/a... Absolutely heartbreaking and not at all surprising! This is what we’ve been warning of since the beginning of the Coalition - shame! Their agenda finally exposed! #NZpol

Was wondering why there are earplugs provided in this hotel room (I just arrived) - seems we’re very close to the train tracks 😬

I just think we’ve kinda normalised working through crises and disasters, and that potentially isn’t for the best.

I’m so feeling for my Welly peeps but I’m also seeing a lot of folks are saying “so glad I can WFH” and I think we forget in weather events of the past where you couldn’t come into the office you used to get the day off.

My place should be ok, but my friend and also my neighbour are keeping an eye on it

Update from Hutt City FB page: The river is rising quickly. They are closing both Kennedy Good and Melling bridges overnight and not reopening until they've been assessed by engineers in the morning. Get home, sooner rather than later. Roads are already closing.
www.facebook.com/plugins/post...

[two buttons meme]

Cyclists get a little narrow lane where cars can’t hit them

Everyone dies in floods

a man with white hair is saying i feel like i 'm taking crazy pills ALT: a man with white hair is saying i feel like i 'm taking crazy pills

So my co worker was telling us a story about how ChatGPT sent him to a business that was closed and he got mad at it for wasting his time and petrol and that he hasn’t spoken to ChatGPT in 3 days to punish it and you want me to process this as normal behavior? LIKE WTF.

Come on @stuff.bsky.social this headline perpetuates myths about women’s family violence being equal to men’s - headline should add “in self defence” or even better could be rewritten to properly acknowledge the father was the aggressor, as the article shows. Please do better.

Kiwi being held in ICE detention centre in California Kiwi Everlee Wihongi has lived in the US for more than 25 years and is now in an ICE detention centre in California, after a three week visit back to New Zealand.

Politicians from every party should be asked to put their stance on ICE on the record.

This is what fascism looks like - and as the Desmond Tutu quote notes, “if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”.

It’s a weird feeling not being there at the moment!

Understandable x

We turned rivers into road and wetlands into suburbs.

Extreme weather turns them back to rivers and wetlands.

This is what the #ClimateCrisis looks like.

Completely gobsmacked to be working for a government agency that puts Nicola Willis's 'go to the office' edicts over the safety of staff or the advice of civil defence organisations

The Hutt River has about 10 times the flow now (in cubic metres a second) than it was having at 3pm [link works in Chrome but seems a bit iffy in Safari] graphs.gw.govt.nz/envmon?view=...

Yikes, Wellington, you ok?

Shouldn’t this come before hillsides collapse and houses have rivers running through them though?

Wellington campus to close due to weather Kia ora koutou, Due to a state of emergency being declared for the Wellington region and the issuing of a Red Heavy Rain Warning, we have made the decision to close the Pukeahu Wellington campus effective immediately. The campus will remain closed tomorrow, Tuesday 21 April.

Massey closed too:

Any VUW community folks on here, campus is now completely closed including for teaching for the rest of the day *and* all day Tuesday. Go home, stay home, stay safe and dry!

An old pine tree has fallen across the road taking the power lines with it.

Wellington peeps, if you need one, this is your go home stay home warning.