Classic NYT style: "Nigel John Dermot Neill was born to Dermot Neill, a NZer who served as a British army officer, and his English wife, Patricia, on their kitchen table in Omagh, a town of around 20,000 people in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on Sept. 14, 1947." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/o...

Sam, you did your bit, your level best: now it’s up to the rest of us to make sure this diabolical project never goes ahead #nzpol www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

""There is nothing new or accelerated in the flood events. It's just that we have built in the way," West Coast Councillor Birchfield said on Thursday." Average annual insured losses due to extreme weather 1968-2016: $37 million (real) 2017-2025, excluding 2023: $226 million 2023: $3965 million

Rod Carr: I hope our candidates commit to "a national energy strategy that promotes decarbonisation through electrification", "reform of the ETS to reduce gross emissions", and 17 other bangers blog.planetaryecology.org/2026/07/13/p...

@astrokiwi.bsky.social uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/...

New Zealand too, govt wants to rush contracts through before the election

New Zealand mentioned (?) xkcd.com/3269/

Wow, New Zealand fuel imports really fell off a cliff in May. Was that when stocks were said to be "declining, but stable"? I forget.

"Stay in your lane, academics!"

Berkeley Earth now has monthly temperature records for thousands of cities. Here's how summer has changed in Auckland, New Zealand - average max are up 2.1 ºC, from 21.6 to 23.7 ºC. More than half (+1.1 ºC) of that increase occurred in the past 20 years, a warming rate of 0.55 ºC per decade.

A sunny day in winter can generate as much solar power as an average day in summer. (Not quite a fair comparison as capacity is up ~20% – still impressive though.) Graph (app.em6.co.nz) shows daily NZ utility solar power generation in MWh. 1000 MWh is enough to make about 30 million cups of tea.

4103 new light EVs (cars, utes, and vans) sold in New Zealand in June 2026, the second-highest on record. Market share 32%. Pity it took a war to shake off 26 months of slow sales.

Every wonder what an FAA noise rule would look like if you wrote it in a day using a free ChatGPT account? Look no further than Trump's draft rule to replace the existing US supersonic overland flight ban with a sonic boom standard! (🧵) www.transportation.gov/briefing-roo...

Two things happening on 2 July.

Carbon capture isn't dead, it's pining for the fjords

Another excellent example of science communication: the sort of thing we should be seeing at #SCANZ26 instead of waffle about curiosity and networking.

Another viewpoint www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I learned something today

"As ministers promised to speed up expansion of the London airport in the name of economic growth (...) the Department for Transport said the runway was expected to boost GDP by only up to 0.05% – 90% less than the 0.5% previously stated." #Growth www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

This RNZ piece scarcely mentions inflation. Here are the nominal and real price rises by decade: 50s: 147%-> 53% 60s: 53% -> 8% 70s: 230% -> 4% 80s: 259% -> 26% 90s: 45% -> 21% 00s: 107% -> 59% 10s: 113% -> 81% 20s: 10% -> –13% Real return since 1950 2.5%/yr www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

Changes in the NZ car market

New Zealand energy emissions to March 2026: slow decline continues due to falls in coal, gas (running out), and electricity (wet weather + more RE). These are all small sources – oil is >75% of emissions and has increased in each of the past 5 years (even though data includes 1st month of the war).

#marsdenshmarsden I guess 🪦

The US-Israeli war in Iran has led to a doubling of EV sales in New Zealand, now at their highest level barring the rush to beat the end of the rebate in 2023.

Anne Salmond: "a PM who sees themselves as a CEO, and whose former business offers different standards of service to customers according to their ability to pay – First Class, Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy (ignoring those who can’t afford to fly)..." newsroom.co.nz/2026/06/06/a...

These ideas, and many many others, will be discussed at the Reality of Everything Symposium, 26 June. realityofeverything.org

Winter is coming.

"Four and a half kilometres of happiness" #Tearatupua #bikelash @cyclewgtn.bsky.social

Your thoughts, @radreduction.bsky.social? www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

OK, so councils will rush all of the following year's consents through a year earlier, to collect at the higher rate. Then none next year.

”People who care the most about the environment also do the most environmental damage with their jet-setting lifestyle, at least among those with the highest income and education.” This is why I choose to #eMTB to rivers and live sufficiently. www.newscientist.com/article/2527...

Across these five countries, crude production in April was down 42% compared to February.

The requirement for an Energy Strategy is still part of the Emissions Reduction Plan. The Government said late last year that the requirement to consult on changes to the ERP would be scrapped in a new amendment to the Climate Change Response Act in 2026 but I don't think that has happened yet.

More and more? World fossil energy per person in 2024 was still at 2007 levels – no overall increase in 18 years.

👀

"It's a money winner" www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro... @cyclingactionnz.bsky.social

No country is too small to matter. Nations that each emit around 1% of global CO2 may look negligible on their own, but together they produce about 30% of the total – roughly as much as China. If they sit it out, the maths doesn’t stack up.

Ilan Noy: "We will not even know the total value of damaged assets from the latest storm [in Wellington]. Surprisingly, governments in recent decades haven’t collected this information – perhaps preferring not to know the costs associated with extreme weather events." newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/01/w...

The helium shortage is now unavoidable. Another wonderful follow-on to the Iran War, and if you think helium doesn’t matter much, think again:

We're here to help. Here's our 6-point plan to mitigate the fuel crisis www.can.org.nz/open-letter-... @cyclingactionnz.bsky.social

www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic... @cyclingactionnz.bsky.social @bikeauckland.bsky.social @spokescanterbury.bsky.social @rnzrss.bsky.social

Here's 6 (six) affordable things the Govt and Councils should do ASAP to ease the fuel crisis, and save you money. Can you help? Sign our open letter to the PM www.can.org.nz

We're almost at 500 signatures - have you signed the letter yet? https://www.bikeauckland.org.nz/campaigns/fuel-the-future/ 👉 Ask the New Zealand Government to urgently allow widespread safe cycling infrastructure in response to the energy crisis. #FueltheFuture #ShiftLanesNZ #FuelCrisis

A lot of focus on rising electricity prices – but real residential prices are still lower than 15 years ago. Meanwhile, the margin between industrial & residential prices, which grew dramatically after the reforms of the 1980s, has been shrinking. Why is that?

Here is NZ's diesel use last year. If you had to plan for Phase 4 & a say 20% shortfall in supply, how would you proceed? Ag forest fish 303 kt Industry 257 kt Buildings 173 kt Heavy vehicles (97% diesel) 1414 kt Light commercial vehicles (80% diesel) 855 kt Cars (8% diesel) 187 kt

In a fuel crisis, in a climate crisis, in an affordability crisis, why is Wellington cutting bike lane funding? Join us on Thursday to fight for a better city.

Bikes = jobs. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Government confirms international aviation and shipping emissions are to be included in national carbon budgets. www.businessgreen.com/news/4528813...

Watch out!