Yep. Just a vote grab. Absolutely nothing to see here.

The only party that is taking Climate Change seriously is the Greens. Unfortunately, both the major parties are seriously overlooking what will happen to NZ’s trade if they continue down this path - National are worse than Labour. The effects on trade, hence NZ income, will, l believe, happen over a much shorter period than most think, leaving no time to catch up.

Perhaps Labour will still come home strong before the election, but I’m not holding my breath on that one. Labour+Green I can stomach. National+/-anyone I cannot.

What is needed is a full on CGT and a shift in tax thresholds that reduces tax on the poor and increases tax on the rich, along with some serious Climate Change action. Healthcare needs to be number two behind Climate Change.

It’s all about perception? When the killings happen in your own backyard, it’s meaningful. If it happens in a foreign country, not so much.

Perhaps you miss the point of what The Conversation is about.

Our mission is to share knowledge and inform decisions.

Inform decisions, not make decisions.

Typically, the stories are written by Academics not Journo’s, and often they are written to just present some detail/facts, it is up to the reader to come to their own conclusion. I pretty much always find them informative, though sometimes, as in this one, much of the detail can be found in the papers/details that the story links to.

I think you’ll find the point/conclusion in the title.

Where are you getting the logs from?

About half our property (~2 ha) is native bush - they tell me it has never been harvested, so it is as it was before whoever came here first. Actually, it was Europeans that stripped most of the bush for sheep/beef/dairy and some crops around here. I’ll either limb a couple of Southland Beech and try them, or there is a Gum overhanging our fence line that needs to go. Need to find out which is likely to be best - I’d prefer to use the Southland Beech as it’s native, and I can continually trim a few without any impact.

A slow process, but I’m happy to post in 6-12-24 months, or however long it takes, how things progress. I was considering growing some in bags, but the idea of growing in logs means so much less input in time and $'s. I’ll probably have a play with some wood chip beds in the meantime.

Pretty much. I think crop rotation is a bit overstated personally. If I find a spot that a particular veg. grows well in, why would I not keep growing it there. If you’ve got healthy soil and don’t introduce infected soil, all should be good, though some diseases can blow in with the wind, but here, where I am, due to geography, it’s not known to be an issue.

Some plants can build up bugs like nematodes in the soil if continually cropped in the same spot. However, that can be managed, either by planting companion plants that repel the pest, or growing a crop that inhibits it in the off season. I don’t go overboard on this type of thing, but it can be helpful in some cases.

With potatoes, the issue is spreading the disease - I’m not intending to sell or give-away potatoes as seed, so that’s not a problem. I’m more likely to bring in disease if I buy in seed potatoes, but certified seed potato should be okay.

Probably both since I collected a heap of seeds. If I find a spud that we like I’ll try to build up the numbers. We are in a particularly good spot for spuds as we don’t get any diseases carried in here.

Which part of the country are you?

About as far South and West as you can get. Have a good sized hot house, so can get things started early. The weather says 0C or maybe -1C tonight but day temps get above 18 behind glass/polycarbonate.

Which mushroom kit did you get?

Shiitake Mushroom Grow Kit - Splash & Grow Block

I’ll likely buy 1000 dowels when we decide which we prefer.

Many locals shut shop in the garden here over winter, but I manage some reasonable growth with the right plants.

First time planting potato seeds. It’s supposed to be a bit hit and miss on what you get, but it leads to you to creating your own potato i.e. not a clone like when you plant seed potatoes.

I’m trying to get to a point where I don’t have to buy in much each year. Produce my own everything including seeds. Just something to have a go at, no doubt some things won’t go to plan. But that’s the fun.

In the last couple of days I’ve planted some Butternut Pumpkin, Zucchini and Yams, into pots to get a start for when it warms up.

Potato seeds (yes seeds, not seed potatoes) I planted a little while ago have sprouted. First time I’ve planted potato seeds. I’m interested in how they grow and what the results are like. I collected the seeds last year.

The Grey Oyster mushrooms I bought last weekend have come on strong, and I’ve ordered some Shiitake mushrooms to try as well. Testing which ones the boss likes the best before inoculating some logs.

Looking at what EV’s have been popular in China over the last couple of years:

2-3 years ago the most popular EV was the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV:

This year it’s the BYD Song Plus:

The Wuling is still in the top five, but so are Tesla. Seems like SUV’s are what people want - how could you change peoples minds? Perhaps offer larger rebates on smaller EV’s? Or, tax luxury (SUV) EV’s? Have to get rid of those oil burners first though!?

I think I get where you are coming from, but what are the alternatives? Most alternatives like electric public transport that allows commuters to travel into cities to work requires that intergenerational investment that, in NZ, just doesn’t seem to happen. Or are you suggesting working from home (which some jobs can’t do), or just a much simpler life in general (I’m pretty much there now). Or perhaps where consumerism ends, international trade ends, international travel ends etc., tourists disappear etc. I’m all in, but it simply is not going to happen until the water level rises, the temperature reaches extremes and the effects are actually felt by people first hand. It is the nature of humans, unfortunately?

I would suggest reconsidering. EVs make terrible cats.

Agree, they just don’t purrrrr like real ones.

Everyone is gravitating to SUV EVs which are hideoisly inefficient. It’s like the McMansion-isation of personal transport.

I’ve heard this more than once recently - what a lot of rot. A medium size electric SUV is no more inefficient than a medium size electric car. It may carry a little more weight around and have a little more wind resistance, so may require/use a little more stored electricity, but not much. If the owner actually needs the extra space or clearance of an SUV (I do, but diesel at the moment not yet electric, mostly due to range issues), then I don’t see anything wrong with that.

However, I do agree when it comes to those who buy and drive SUV/Utes etc., just for the Wank factor - I always suspect it is something to do with small penis syndrome ;)

I don’t know how they are tracking now, but this comapny made some waves with their seaweed approach back in 2021

Terribly! They promised 80-90% reduction of methane back then, but recent trials in Aus show it having less than 30% reduction and the cow looses considerable weight. So the end result is more like 10% reduction and long term effects on the cow are still to come in.

There is another one available now that claims 30% reduction (forgot its name) but I’ve not seen any real trial results yet.

I think the focus on cars is a bigger problem than what energy source they use. EVs are taking over anyway, there is no standing in the way of that.

If there was an alternative that isn’t likely to take multiple generations to implement, I would agree, but that is not the case?

If we want to reduce emissions (pollution isn’t much of a problem in windswept NZ) then we need to focus on more efficient modes of transport and lifestyles. Not more cars.

I suspect your definition of pollution doesn’t match what most consider it to be. NZ is a terrible polluter of the environment, which includes green house gases (transport and agriculture) and the effects that has on climate change? I don’t think the idea is to have more cars, but to replace existing polluting cars with more environmentally friendly EV’s?

Completely nuts to get rid of it! Without incentives like this, most will just continue on as normal, which will result in a very prolonged, if ever, move away from high polluting fossil fuel vehicles.

Some other subjects are simply crazy too.

What children’s bedrooms look like around the world

Link from The Bulletin (Spinnoff) this morning gives an intriguing look into the world through the state of kids bedrooms. Those who have young kids might see their rooms a little differently after seeing these?

Minimum 1C last night and currently 2 going on 3C. Plenty of lambies around, some a bit muddy though.

Light frost last night meant a bit of cover for some plants that I’ve put out a bit early.

🏚️->🏡🎆

Same. If you have an ad blocker or similar and zap the image, the story is revealed.