Posts by Martin Roberts
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Legal Beagle: Election 2017: the Special…, in reply to Jason Kemp,
I think that you have a point, Jason, but roughly repeating Graeme's calculations with just 300k specials and then piling the remaining 84k all onto Labour only moves one more seat across from National.
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Does anybody have carbon costs for refrigerated shipping, btw? I know it's beside the point, but numbers are fun. My wife would also be happy to add that data to her household footprint spreadsheet.
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Your criteria 2 and 3 are within our own power, but I like your idea of approximating the 1st criteria with an import levy. The politics of applying a suitable price without succumbing to accusations of trade barriers could be tricky. Even if you had to concede say 10% undercharging on imports then that would probably be big enough.
Another angle would be to organise international pricing for certain products. Then we wouldn't have to refund the PGST on exports. Fonterra's website suggests that 7 countries produced 84% of dairy exports in 2014. Could we stitch up a deal with them? Has anybody even thought of trying?
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Helen Clark reminded us, in her recent Reeves Lecture, that we also need to work towards peace within Syria. There are so many still in the country who deserve better and who would overwhelm us if forced to flee.
I liked her language of investing in peace, which we seem rarely to do. I was also impressed that UNDP is able to do anything inside the country at this time.
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You seem to have read the actual text, which is more than I did. Having only caught the news yesterday, and seen that the online submission form was still open, I dashed off a few thoughts based on the introductory notes.
That online form is very handy for short comments. No need to worry about correct addressing or who to send it to--just scratch out a few quick thoughts.
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Speaker: Sponsored post: Speed and Safety, in reply to BenWilson,
Indeed, personally, I begin slowing down automatically that I even see a car at all in that exact situation, just on the presumption that they might pull out for whatever reason. I have my eye pretty much fixed on that car as the most likely danger, and my foot is already on the brake.
I wish the ad every success in fostering that attitude. I do think that so many rely on everything going to plan, whether from naive optimism, arrogant entitlement, or whatever. Yesterday I saw the latter in a bike-on-bike accident on K Road.
This guy passed me at speed then proceeded past an older gent who chose that moment to drift right. The passing cyclist adjusted his line somewhat, but only minimally, then cut back in too early and both ended on the ground. The speedster had time to brake and room to go wider, but held tenaciously to his original plan.
The problem wasn't so much his speed but his attitude, exemplified by chewing out the old chap whom he had just cut down from behind!
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Hard News: The Language of Climate, in reply to Bart Janssen,
perhaps it might be worth considering the cultural and social value of travel
Indeed. But what do I weigh it up against?
At present we pay for flying like we pay for 7/8ths of our lifestyle - we steal it from the future. Only in extreme cases would I steal cash to fly somewhere, but my carbon 'budget' lacks the same conceptual hold. To start with it doesn't even feed me, and on the other hand my cheques never bounce.
This uncertainly makes it hard to either justify my choices or challenge my unconcerned friends.
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Hard News: The Language of Climate, in reply to BenWilson,
Back in the day, you said final goodbyes to your family when you went overseas. If you did travel, and wanted to marry a foreigner, you faced very hard questions. I can see us going back that way, albeit with Skype to prolong the agony of parting.
In the present day, the moral picture is clouded. So many families (including yours and mine) have spread across the world in the expectation that those decisions belonged to a bygone era.
I don't mean to draw a line, so much as to recognise that I have something in common with all those dairy farmers whose business model has become more problematic.
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Hard News: The Language of Climate, in reply to Tom Bennion,
give up all non-essential air travel
What constitutes essential air travel? Perhaps asylum seekers? Bomber pilots too, if we're going to have them. Maybe medevac flights.
I still travel for work, on the argument that I'm spending their karma, and budget one domestic flight every three years for personal travel. I am increasingly uncertain that this is morally defensible, even though I feel that a globally equitable carbon-neutral world may still permit some flying.
Telling work that I am no longer available to travel feels big.
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Hard News: The Language of Climate, in reply to Moz,
somehow every year I donate to NZ deductable groups and every year can’t find anyone in NZ willing to claim the deductions)
I am well disposed to claiming anybody's deductions and re-gift them to charity. Does anybody know if there are legal hurdles? (e.g. Do the donations have to have been given in my name?)