Gordon Campbell on responding to the need in Tonga
The power of the Tonga eruption (and the size of the aid response being mounted) have been sobering indications of the scale of this disaster. […]
Climate Change
Gordon Campbell on Defence’s desire to join the ”lets confront China” club
China has been put on notice by us. According to the New Zealand Defence Assessment 2021 report released on Wednesday, and set out in bold […]
Gordon Campbell on why Three Waters is a good idea worth supporting
If anyone needs a fresh reminder of the value of state broadcasting, yesterday’s interview about the Three Waters reforms between RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan and Local […]
Gordon Campbell on decoding the COP26 climate change hype
Batten down the hatches. Hurricane Blah Blah Blah is about to unload some serious verbiage at the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, yet the […]
Gordon Campbell on shifting to electric vehicles, and who killed Haiti’s President?
While the nation paused last Friday to share the existential horror of farmers and tradies maybe having to pay a little more in future for […]
Gordon Campbell on some after-thoughts about the Climate Change Commission report
The notion that New Zealand is pluckily – or foolishly – punching above its weight in the march towards carbon neutrality by the year 2050 […]
Gordon Campbell on the Climate Change Commission’s slow motion response
Good grief. An eleven to fifteen year window of adjustment to the threat from climate change is still being decried as “too ambitious” by the […]
Gordon Campbell on a few things about the year gone, and the year ahead
In October, the public rewarded the government for the way it has steered New Zealand through the Covid-19 crisis this year, and rightly so. The […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s rampant pandering to the farming vote
What on earth has happened to the political parties n the centre-right? Once upon a time in the US, the party of Lincoln was a […]
Gordon Campbell on the problems the pandemic is causing for Big Oil
Chances are, climate change won’t kill you overnight, and that’s got to be significant. Yet while we were all in lockdown listening to the birdsong, […]
Gordon Campbell on the excellent new classroom materials about climate change
Inevitably, children hear a lot about climate change – on the news, on the street, from their friends – and a lot of that news […]
Gordon Campbell on the Aussie bush fires, and the killing of Qassem Suleimani
In popular culture, Australia is often portrayed as Western civilisation’s last unspoiled frontier, or as its final refuge from planetary disaster. In Nevil Shute’s best-selling […]
Gordon Campbell on why the public is losing patience with the farming sector’s persecution complex
The narrative that our farmers are ‘doing it tough’ plays into a number of wellworn stereotypes…
Gordon Campbell on the media falling out of love with Jacinda Ardern, and other climate change concerns
The sensible antidote to Jacinda-mania isn’t this anti-Jacinda (middle of the) road rage. Especially since her alleged sins look so trivial, compared to what her peers are up to.
Gordon Campbell on Greta Thunberg, and Friday climate change actions
While there’s been an understandable focus by the media upon Greta Thunber, one remarkable thing about the movement she has inspired is that it is so de-centralised.
Gordon Campbell on the war-fighting purposes of our massive spend-up on Defence
If you’re willing to believe Defence Minister Ron Mark, our defence forces will be operating in future like a high-tech version of Oxfam…
Gordon Campbell on coal’s negative message to today’s school protests
As schoolkids around the world commit today to another round of protest action against climate change, the re-election of (a) the Morrison government in Australia […]
Gordon Campbell on yesterday’s token moves on climate change and interest rates
Yesterday, a visiting Martian would reasonably conclude that New Zealanders takes the threat of inflation a lot more seriously than climate change. To all outward […]
Gordon Campbell on the school strike for climate change
On Friday, March 15, New Zealand teenagers will be holding their own school strike against climate change, as part of the global action.
Gordon Campbell on the Nelson fire and what it says about our response to climate change
The Nelson fire has been a warning of things to come.
Gordon Campbell on why we politely fake the obituaries for politicians
One unfortunate side effect of “personality politics” is that when prominent politicians die, the niceties we observe at the death of private individuals get extended to them as well.
Gordon Campbell on yesterday’s quest for zero net carbon emissions
Some would querulously ask, zero net carbon emissions by 2050 – while others would say, why not?
Ten Reasons For Not Voting National
Three more years of business as usual is the real risk.
Gordon Campbell on the Rex Tillerson visit
Rex Tillerson will be welcomed in style – even though he could fairly be called the least influential person in decades to hold the post.
Gordon Campbell on the US bailing out on climate change
Naturally, Trump has framed his decision as a patriotic duty. Yet the withdrawal will do next to nothing to restore American jobs and communities.
Apocalypticism
The changes in the global climate are as extreme as the US presidential season
Gordon Campbell on MP pay rises, and the Paris agreement
Somehow, the ‘need” for belt tightening – or of stemming the rise in income inequality – just goes right out the window at this time […]
Gordon Campbell on the new bureaucratic tests facing solo parents
Offhand, its hard to think of a more cynical example of political opportunism than the requirement that solo parents will now need to re-apply for […]
Gordon Campbell on climate change protest, and Iraq training
For sheer style, humour and content fit for purpose, it would be hard to beat yesterday’s Greenpeace protest at Parliament. The fact that the hanging […]
Gordon Campbell on the Pope’s encyclical on climate change
The spread of market mechanisms into every facet of life – as health, education and the environment get treated as mere commodities – has seen […]