Ooooo

New this morning: Two of the Government’s key energy policies are fossil fuel subsidies, breaching New Zealand’s international trade obligations, a new legal opinion has found. newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/26/l...

As of today, firms linked to donations to National/NZ First parties are four times more likely to have received approval under the fast track process than firms not linked. Currently 7% of all 300 FT applications are linked to donations, but 30% of the 23 FT approvals are linked to donations.

Handwriting isn’t just “slower typing.” EEG studies show writing by hand recruits broader sensorimotor, visual, memory, and attentional networks than typing the same words. The brain learns through movement too, not only through information. 🧠✍️ #neuroskyence #neuroscience #brain #EEG #words

Beating a 300-year old record by 2°C. That’s bonkers (i.e., statistically near impossible if not for climate change). Strap in…

I mean, the ongoing state-sanctioned genocide was a pretty big clue too.

Even the sky is pro-trans

$79m for willing pines, some of which will be spent on private land. Funded by the visitor conservation levy. Another farmer subsidy. Yet we can't get anything for kauri protection nationally beyond a vague promise of $2m from MPI savings.

Oh man I don't think I can afford another trip to Auckland this year but this would be incredible. youtu.be/aC-enyY6W8I?...

"“If powerful commercial interests were able to influence the blocking of a major public interest case behind closed doors, the public deserves to know how that happened, who knew, and what else has been withheld." #nzpol

NEW One of the last remnants of primeval temperate woodland in Europe, the Białowieża Forest remains largely unaffected by recent human activity. A new project has uncovered a rich, diverse archaeological landscape, spanning 10,000 years of human presence. 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy... 🏺 #Archaeology

I rode the Intercity a couple of times last year, Kāpiti to Auckland and Hamilton and back. Last time had been almost 20 years previously, when I used it quite a lot. Great read, and makes me think about all those voters who never have these experiences & insights. thespinoff.co.nz/society/24-0...

“Regular people don’t get to give secret documents and have backroom meetings with the Prime Minister and then have the law changed in their favour” - Chloe Swarbrick. #NzPol

Just taking a moment to appreciate the URL here. Not so optimal for the ol' search engines, keyword-wise – but a masterpiece of poetic concision nonetheless: www.eli.org.nz/updates/skul... 👈 💀

If I was a journalist I would have also mentioned how funding for wilding pine control was cut by two thirds by the same government in 2023/24. www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...

Sometimes as an NYT books columnist you find yourself quoted in the Atlantic by Helen Lewis, who believes two odd things: 1. That nobody is reading Pratchett anymore (instead of all the time, as they should), and 2. That Pratchett’s politics are hard to pin down, and Reg Shoe is not a fucking hero.

Them: "Go outside in Nature, it is great for relieving stress" Me, who is stressed because when working in Nature (reserves) I'm seeing the rubbish everywhere, dogs off lead scaring wildlife, dog poo, cats hunting lizards, areas set on fire, ponds destroyed by constant dog activity..: "Ok, thanks"

"Motueka-based fishing company Talley’s Group has launched its largest vessel yet, a modern factory trawler designed to improve energy efficiency and environmental sustainability." www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3610...

Almost everything put in place following the Royal Commission into the 2019 mosque shooting has been disestablished, piece by piece, and the social media environment is far worse now than 2019. This is, unfortunately, an unsurprising development www.rnz.co.nz/news/communi...

‘When the government replaces a New Zealand public servant with AI, what really happens is this: money that used to be paid to someone living in Wellington, Lower Hutt or Palmerston North gets paid instead to a tech giant in California or Seattle’ newsroom.co.nz/2026/05/21/b...

"The cause of the drying event is unknown," she said. "We are concerned and committed to developing a clearer understanding of what is driving water levels and the lagoon's role within the wider coastal water systems." www.rnz.co.nz/news/regiona...

“By analyzing how radio waves bounce around a room, researchers can effectively ‘see’ and recognize individuals — even if they are not carrying a device and even if their phone is turned off.” We must all become inflatable Frog now.

A joint private and publicly funded project using drones and AI-driven cameras seeks to rid a huge area near Mt Cook of predators and invaders

When people magnify the environmental impacts of renewables, the implication is that they must somehow be worse than the existing energy system In reality the existing energy system is not just more destructive than renewables - it's more destructive than anyone even realises

If you're working fulltime on minimum wage, you'll take home less money per week than the Minister for Social Development gets paid for LIVING IN HER OWN HOUSE. On top of a $320k salary, earned by making housing less affordable for low income households. The absolute state of it.

Satellite measurements show that in the early 2010s sea level rise suddenly accelerated to a rate of 4.1 millimetres per year, possibly in response to an increase in the rate of global warming

🚨 New Ambio study led greatly by Håkan Pleijel within the @biodiversa.eu project BioDiv‑Support: Northern Scandinavia is heading for major climate & ecosystem shifts 🌡️🌲. High‑resolution models reveal big impacts on 🦌 reindeer herding, 🎿 tourism & 🌿 conservation 🔗https://rdcu.be/fkiYw Thread 👇🧵

Not only will the hateful mine destroy the beautiful landscape of Central Otago, polluting the land, it will pollute the night sky. X marks the spot where another massive light pollution will be created for a mining operation.

🎈📌👶 fortune.com/2026/05/22/m...

AI boom discourse has gotten so out of hand that it’s making the New Yorker relatable🫢 (with alt text)

19 days after seeding green mistletoe onto silver birch. Other people spit on them to try and mimic the digestive enzymes of birds. I haven't tried here so will interesting to see if they develop.

Help I've outsourced all of my thinking to the machine and I have a deadline to meet but my employer hasn't paid for Microsoft 365 Copilot (Premium) can someone please ask Nicola Willis what I should do?

Mowing the lawn: the colonial ghosts haunting our suburban ritual theconversation.com/mowing-the-l...

remember when Google offered unlimited digital storage to colleges and universities and then when adoption reached the right levels rescinded that promise, capped everything, and started pricing those services without the subsidies? idk man just something I think about a lot

Read our full statement here. with @globalecoguy.bsky.social @profpaulbehrens.bsky.social @hannahdaly.ie @michaelemann.bsky.social @scmcclelland.bsky.social @roisinmoriarty.com methanescience.org#statement

Our new statement urges countries not to weaken ambition w/ revised "temperature neutrality" goals & metrics that justify them. Methane is a powerful lever, and high-emitting countries can do more than simply keep emissions stable. We have the tech & knowledge insideclimatenews.org/news/2005202...

So a $261 million sea wall project with a $87 million cycleway on top where all of NZTA's $261 million funding came out of its shrinking 'Walking and Cycling' fund. Got it? www.rnz.co.nz/news/regiona...

I met an Irish guy at a 40th last year and he blew my mind by telling me there were zero skateparks in Ireland in the 90s.

While there are certainly some that deserve scrutiny, I don't think it's justifiable to give grants to multi-million $ organisations. Eg Surf-Life Saving NZ: $34 million revenue $17 million assets Requested: $86K Wellington Free Ambulance: $62 million revenue $41 million assets Requested: $210K

Happy world bee day! New research published in NeoBiota has found that the Western honey bee—an introduced species to Australia—and the devastating, invasive plant fungus known as myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) may have formed a mutually beneficial relationship known as "invasional mutualism.

Oh hey, perfect timing. Someone should send this to Nicola Willis. Ask her what research she's done to justify and cost her job cuts.

“Sure, it will take some adjusting and there will be some moving pains, but unless you want to be forced into the Gemini lifestyle, it’s time to make a plan to get off Google and start packing your virtual boxes for greener pastures.” By @parismarx.com disconnect.blog/google-is-it...

I wrote about RCP8.5 in one of the first posts on The Climate Brink. It may not be business as usual, but there are still good reasons to analyze RPC8.5 runs. www.theclimatebrink.com/p/rcp85-asks...

"Was the rescue for humans – or for Timmy? From an animal-welfare and ethics point of view, efforts to rescue Timmy were a bad idea. The whale was in very poor health. As a wildlife scientist, my view is that euthanasia was the kindest option."

Also: if you must, for some reason, frame your message around distraction, it is *entirely possible* to do this without minimising the issue. "National are so desperate to distract NZers from their litany of failures that they're throwing trans people under the bus and we won't stand for it"

tough to overstate how quickly science funding in New Zealand has been blown to pieces - on Friday the NZ govt straight up disbanded the Marsden fund (our version of the NSF) it'll be replaced by a 'transition fund' with less money and zero information, as of yet, about what it will support #nzpol

Paper 2: Teimouri et al. 2026 reviewed 500 nutrition studies. - Meat industry ties were around 16x more likely to report favourable conclusions about meat. - That effect size is larger than what's been documented for sugar-sweetened beverages or for nutrition research broadly(!)

Paper 1: Bach et al. 2026 explored 1,233 environmental claims from the 33 largest meat & dairy companies: - 3 were supported by scientific evidence(!). - 38% were unverifiable promises. - 17 of 33 now have net-zero pledges (and like big oil these rest on offsets rather than emissions reductions).

Today, Labour’s line is just “it’s a distraction”. Even the statement from their rainbow spokesperson is a) it’s a distraction b) yeah we stand with trans people c) we’ve always been so good at rainbow stuff. As comms, it’s pathetic frankly.

"Everyone just wants a decent cost of living, secure home and their privacy. Today the Government has instead chosen to import another culture war to try confuse and divide us." Chlöe Swarbrick @greens.org.nz 20 May #nzpol