Environmentalists and windfarms: Beware the loss of vision

A couple of years ago I visited Te Apiti Windfarm near Woodville. I found the windmills both impressive and disconcerting.
The generation of ‘green’ energy is something I strongly support. I admire the engineering feat, and I have to say that the visual impact on the landscape doesn’t bother me too deeply. But I don’t live [...]

Polling, voting, and Green Party strategy

One reaction I’ve been hearing from Greens in post-election analysis is: “I’d hoped we would have done better – some of the polls had us higher than that”
There are a number of explanations for the (apparent) discrepancy between the polls and the final result, and it is worth looking at them more closely, because they [...]

Are the Greens sell-outs?

Bryce Edwards has written an important and thoughtful critical analysis of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand’s recent election campaign: Have the Greens Sold their Soul?
I don’t agree with all he says: the whole point of billboards

Collective success, individual success, and the political philosophy of John Key

A few months ago, before his recent New Zealand election success, John Key was the subject of an in-depth profile in the New Zealand Herald. Reflecting on that profile on well sharp, Barry asked: “What are we getting ourselves into?”
Well, we are beginning to find out. In his victory speech, John Key let us see his political [...]

The global credit crisis: An opportunity, not a tsunami

The former chair of the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, has been widely reported as describing the global financial crisis as a “once in a century credit tsunami” (reports here and here). It’s an interesting statement, mostly because it is so utterly disingenuous.
We can see just how misleading it is with the help of the [...]