Hurricane Harvey and the devastating floods in South Asia are reminders of the cost we pay for climate denial and inaction.

As we speak, floods in India, Bangladesh and Nepal have killed far over 1,000 people and impacted an incomprehensible 41 million people.

And over in North America, Hurricane Harvey has painted a devastating picture for the residents of Houston, Texas.

The equivalent of half of Houston’s annual average rainfall has fallen in the last 48 hours; 80,000 households are without electricity; Houston emergency services have received almost 6,000 urgent appeals for rescues; 54 Texas counties have been declared state disaster areas; thousands of people are displaced or in shelters; five people have died.

And climate change is making it all worse.

While we cannot say definitive... Read more >

The New Zealand Government is pleased to announce that next year they’re keen to open more than 500,000 square kilometres of our ocean for oil companies to survey and drill, including parts of the marine mammal sanctuary, home to the world’s most endangered dolphin, the Māui. 

What utter blockheads.

We live in a time when the changing climate means widespread devastation is looming. In our lifetime, we’re going to see mass extinction, sea level rise, threatened food and water security, and an influx of climate refugees. 

Many countries around the world are desperately working together to action plans that cut our dirty fossil fuel emissions before it’s too late. 

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, our Prime Minister and his government are doing worse than nothing - they’re sitting back, twiddli...

The revelation that Shell has advised its investment bank to offload its $1 billion New Zealand portfolio is another big nail in the coffin of the Government’s petroleum agenda.

The Prime Minister has been jumping up and down for years defending the offshore oil industry here, waxing lyrical about the jobs it could create and the income it could generate.

‘Could’ being the key word here.

To date, no deep sea oil has been found in eight concerted years of exploration, and now the biggest rat of all is fleeing the sinking tanker.

After more than 100 years in New Zealand, media across the ditch are reporting that Shell is about to bail.

On Friday The Australian published a story stating that Shell has asked its investment bank, JPMorgan, to ditch its New Zealand portfolio, which includes ... Read more >

MYTH 1: Solar is only for the rich

The most common argument we hear against solar energy is that encouraging it will somehow widen the gap between rich and poor. The logic goes that because “only rich people can afford solar”, the so-called poor people without it will then have to pay a larger share of the costs to maintain the national grid.

More on this sharing grid costs thing when you hit Myth #3, but in a nutshell, we say, bah humbug to that! Statistically, we’re seeing that solar being a rich kid’s game is simply not true. Of the customers using solar provider solarcity’s “solarZero” energy service, around 40% are below median income households. Under this service, households can get rigged up without the cost of buying the solar system.

And if you think about it logically, this makes s... Read more >

This week the Electricity Authority – New Zealand’s supposed power watchdog – decided it wasn’t keen on being stuck in the middle of public and private interests anymore, so it picked a side.

Three guesses about which side it picked.

Against a backdrop of huge public outcry, the authority ruled that a controversial move by Hawke’s Bay lines company, Unison, to charge its solar users an extra fee for choosing to use sunshine to power their homes, was not in breach of any regulations.

What are they, vampires??

via GIPHY

To keep things “fair” it did give naughty kid Unison a mild telling off, saying the tariff (read: Tax) isn’t as clearly service-based and cost-reflective as it could be, and doesn’t offer sufficient choices to consumers.

But really, let’s not be fair: New Zealand’s elect... Read more >