Grist | Topics | 20 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 20 of 20
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Just Forget All the Bad Stuff for a Day World Environment Day is June 5		04 Jun 2008	News
Posted at 4:55 PM on 04 Jun 2008 Thursday is World Environment Day, and you will no doubt celebrate by donating to Grist. (Thank you!) Once you've got that out of the way, you can also help out our dear environment by packing a lighter suitcase when you travel, jogging in the park instead of on the treadmill, using a wind-up alarm clock, and ditching your electric toothbrush, says a 202-page United Nations report called &qu ...
Topics: environmental movement, grassroots activism, holiday, New Zealand, news, United Nations (all these topics)

A Feather in Your Bottle Cap Researchers aim to turn animal waste into plastic		29 May 2008	News
Posted at 4:42 PM on 29 May 2008 File this under "ew": Researchers in New Zealand have developed a process to convert animal protein waste -- that'd be blood and feathers -- into plastic. "The material we can produce has the strength of polyethylene, the plastic used in milk bottles and plastic supermarket bags, but it's fully biodegradable," says Dr. Johan Verbeek, adding, "Plant proteins ha ...
Topics: agriculture, New Zealand, news, scientific research (all these topics)

Notable quotable	David Roberts	29 Mar 2008	Gristmill
'I'll retract the rape complaint from the wombat, because he's pulled out. Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know. I didn't hurt my bum at all.' -- New Zealander Arthur Cradock, who was subsequently charged with 'using a phone for a fictitious purpose
Topics: health, jackassery, New Zealand, quotables, sex (all these topics)

X-Men won't mar the spot Wolverine goes green in new movie	Sarah van Schagen	20 Feb 2008	Gristmill
Marvel at this: X-Men Origins: Wolverine will be an environmentally friendly production. This fourth movie based on the Marvel Comics characters is currently being filmed in New Zealand, and the producers have agreed to work with the local Queenstown Lakes District Council on a "green screen" initiative. As part of the project, the council will do an environmental impact assessment of the sets and find ways to maximize recycling efforts. A "g ...
Topics: celebrity, movies, New Zealand (all these topics)

Kiwis say jets are 10 percent of NZ's climate impact, not 2-3 percent Tourism and carbon neutrality	JMG	07 Jan 2008	Gristmill
This story is critical -- another datum showing that the global jet travel binge is both global suicide and homicide all at once, complete with pre-flight thuggery from the TSA* and a side dish of helping-promote-coal-to-liquids on the side (there was another story today about the U.S. (Ch)Air Force's new plan for dealing with peak oil: burn liquified coal / natural gas mixtures).
Topics: air travel, carbon neutral, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, New Zealand, travel (all these topics)

The Kiwi to Success New Zealanders seek to save endangered kiwi bird		28 Dec 2007	News
Posted at 12:24 PM on 28 Dec 2007 Since humans began populating New Zealand, some 75 percent of the islands' indigenous bird species have gone extinct. Due to habitat loss and nonnative predators, it looks as though the same fate may befall the kiwi, New Zealand's iconic flightless bird. Kiwi populations are estimated to be declining by 2 to 5 percent each year; surveys suggest that in the wild, only one in 20 kiwi chicks survi ...
Topics: endangered species, New Zealand, news, wildlife (all these topics)

Rough times for the orange roughy Better management is needed before closing fisheries is the only option left	Andrew Sharpless	07 Dec 2007	Gristmill
About thirty years ago, diners around the world developed a taste for the low-fat white meat of a large pelagic fish known as a slimehead. The name was changed to orange roughy, and a delicacy was born. Unfortunately for the orange roughy, its long lifespan (a hundred years or more) and its late arrival to sexual maturity (at 20 years or more) has made it vulnerable to overfishing. As its popularity in fine restaurants has grown, orange roughy populations hav ...
Topics: Australia, fishing, New Zealand, oceans (all these topics)

Interesting Kiwi story about anti-windfarm sentiment	JMG	06 Dec 2007	Gristmill
Apparently being in the antipodes doesn't change how people see wind farms: The "not in my backyard" view rules in a district where many residents don't mind wind farms just not any where near them, writes Bruce Holloway. ... In that respect, the experts advise that wind farm development in New Zealand is unfolding in a remarkably similar pattern to that of other countries. There is a relatively slow start to development, followed by a period of intense ac ...
Topics: energy, New Zealand, renewable energy, wind power (all these topics)

Mmm ... kiwi ... New Zealand sounds nice	David Roberts	26 Sep 2007	Gristmill
New Zealand: New Zealand has long had a reputation for being "clean and green" and has a proud record of conservation, with around 30% of its total land area being protected from development. Last week it announced bold plans [PDF] to tackle climate change, following up on a goal set by prime minister Helen Clark at the start of the year for New Zealand to become the world's first carbon neutral country. Among the stated targets, to be legisla ...
Topics: carbon neutral, carbon trading, climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, New Zealand, renewable energy (all these topics)

Tune in Tomorrow Leaders around the world leap into the climate-promise arena		14 Feb 2007	Daily Grist
Tune in Tomorrow Leaders around the world leap into the climate-promise arena Today we bring you another edition of Leaders Making Big Climate Promises! In New Zealand, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced a goal to make her country the world's first carbon-neutral nation. Zowie! British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell says he'll set up a climate team to cut vehicle and coal-plant emission ...
Topics: Canada, climate, New Jersey, New Zealand, news, United Kingdom (all these topics)

We're No. 28! U.S. environmental performance ranks below Malaysia, Chile, 25 others		23 Jan 2006	Daily Grist
We're No. 28! U.S. environmental performance ranks below Malaysia, Chile, 25 others We beat Cyprus! Yeah, boyee! The Mediterranean island nation comes in at 29th in a landmark pilot study ranking countries by their environmental performance. The U.S. comes in at a blazing 28th -- just behind most of Western Europe, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Chile, and, uh, Slovakia. The 2006 Environmental Performance In ...
Topics: health, New Zealand, news, United States (all these topics)

The Ol' Razzle-Nozzle On garden hoses	Umbra Fisk	29 Aug 2005	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, I'm diligently avoiding PVC plastics, but cannot find a good quality non-PVC garden hose. We have particularly high water pressure, so we need a hose that can withstand the pressure. I only need to water the veggie garden a couple of times a week in summer, but it's not quite feasible to do it with a watering can. To further complicate matters for you, we live in New Zealand, though we are willing to try importing a non- ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, gardening, green living, New Zealand (all these topics)

Global Village		18 Feb 2003	Daily Grist

Topics: green living, Iraq, Middle East, New York, New Zealand, United Nations (all these topics)

Massive a Tax		18 Oct 2002	Daily Grist
Massive a Tax New Zealand has unveiled a carbon tax to help it meet the goals of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which the country expects to ratify by year's end. The tax, which would be implemented in 2007 assuming Kyoto has come into effect, would boost retail gas prices by up to 6 percent, diesel prices by up to 12 percent, and gas and electricity prices by as much as 9 percent, according to government doc ...
Topics: business, climate, energy, New Zealand (all these topics)

Zealander		23 Jul 2002	Daily Grist
Zealander New Zealand is one of the last countries in the world to have a food-production system entirely free of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). But that could change when nearly 4 million voters go to the polls this Saturday to decide whether to lift a moratorium on the use of GMOs next year. In fact, the vote will decide more than that; it wil ...
Topics: elections, environmental non-government organizations, GMOs, New Zealand, political groups, politics (all these topics)

Greener Pastures		07 May 2002	Daily Grist
Greener Pastures New Zealand is home to a staggering 45 million sheep and 8 million cattle, which together produce 90 percent of the country's methane emissions -- or about 43 percent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions. To meet the terms of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, New Zealand has to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels -- but legislation proposed by the governmen ...
Topics: air pollution, climate, food and agriculture, New Zealand (all these topics)

Middle Earth in the Balance		01 May 2002	Daily Grist
Middle Earth in the Balance Seems like everyone but the U.S. is working on a way to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that fuel global warming. Yesterday, the New Zealand government proposed levying a tax of about $10 per ton of CO2 to meet the targets of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. The tax would go into effect in 2007 and would help the nation reach its goal of reducing greenhouse gas ...
Topics: air pollution, climate, New Zealand, ozone (all these topics)

Lost at Sea		07 Dec 2001	Daily Grist
Lost at Sea In the midst of an expedition to document the impact of global warming and pollution on the Amazon Basin, America's Cup champion Sir Peter Blake was shot and killed yesterday, when pirates boarded his research boat at the mouth of the Amazon River. Blake, a 53-year-old native of Auckland, New Zealand, won the yacht race in 1995 and 2000, but h ...
Topics: Amazon, Amazon River, climate, green living, New Zealand, outdoor recreation, pollution and waste (all these topics)

Kiwi Me a River		21 Aug 2001	Daily Grist
Kiwi Me a River In a big loss for the Green Party in New Zealand, the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification has rejected the idea of a country free of genetically engineered crops and animals. The commission determined that biotech foods need not "threaten New Zealand's 'clean green' image," recommending that research on the foods "proceed with caution," including limiting the size of any release of genetically engi ...
Topics: GMOs, New Zealand (all these topics)

A Rash Attack		02 Aug 2001	Daily Grist
A Rash Attack A flight attendant for United Airlines has sued the airline for exposing flight crews to pesticides on planes serving Australia and New Zealand. The attendant, Susan Matthews, says she developed a full-body rash after contact with the pesticides. The spraying -- which has been banned in the U.S. -- occurs about once every eight weeks to keep nonnative insects from hitching rides and potentially wreakin ...
Topics: Australia, health, New Zealand, toxics (all these topics)

Stories About: New Zealand