With the world on track to blow the carbon budget for 1.5°C before the end of this decade, we must use offsetting carefully. It can no longer be a substitute for deep emissions cuts.
World Health Day is shining a light on local responses to health challenges. It’s time New Zealand takes that message to heart and works with local communities for a fairer health system.
A recent study highlights the precarious world of rideshare and delivery drivers during the pandemic, and their struggle to be heard as non-unionised contractors.
Olaf Morgenstern, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
The current estimate is that Earth would warm by 1.5°C to 4.5°C if emissions were to double on pre-industrial levels. The range has remained stubbornly wide, despite improved climate modelling.
Dougal Sutherland, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
The public health mandates are relaxing, but a number of New Zealanders are going further, ditching masks despite the ongoing pandemic. What is driving the rush back to ‘normal’?
David Seymour says misinterpretation of the Treaty risks creating an ‘ethno-state’. But ‘Critical Tiriti Analysis’ aims to enhance democracy by ensuring a Māori voice at the heart of policy making.
Opinion and evidence differ on minimum wage policies, but one thing seems clear – they need to be better integrated within a wider economic support strategy.
Bitcoin’s annual electricity consumption is more than three times New Zealand’s – those hidden environmental costs must be part of any future regulation.
Before the pandemic, New Zealand’s emissions from domestic flights were 4.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, up by 43% since 2014 and the sixth highest in the world per capita.
It is impossible to label nuclear power as sustainable without taking into account the entire life cycle of a nuclear reactor and the industry’s exposure to environmental and geopolitical risks.
Michael Plank, University of Canterbury; Dion O'Neale, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau, and Emily Harvey, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Vaccine passes have outlived their usefulness, at least for now. But as New Zealand’s Omicron wave begins to subside, other public health measures remain vitally important.
New Zealand has more laws about respecting the flag than about protecting parliament and its grounds. The 23-day occupation in Wellington showed how much needs to change.
Thomas Lumley, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
For hospitalisations and deaths, the difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated people is more dramatic. Only 5% of New Zealanders are unvaccinated, but they account for 20% of hospitalisations.
Jane Kelsey, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Only 14% of people in poorer countries have received one vaccine dose, but a leaked WTO ‘solution’ to waive patents fails to ensure developing countries can access life-saving vaccines and medicines.
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University