Andy Reisinger

@andyreisinger.bsky.social

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Climate science and policy. Also the occasional photo and random thoughts. Currently serving as Commissioner at He Pou A Rangi, New Zealand Climate Change Commission; former IPCC vice-chair WGIII. Usual disclaimers...

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Wow: “If you grow an acre of corn, it will produce 900 gallons of ethanol, which will get you about 25,000 miles for a Ford F-150...which is, not bad I guess. But let’s say we put solar on that same acre. It will produce enough electricity every year to drive my Lightning 550,000 miles.”

Forty Acres and a Sense of Hopesubstack.com Sunshine on a Cloudy Week

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My thoughts on @siouxsiew.bsky.social v the University of Auckland. The judgment, which finds in favour of Siouxsie, strengthens academic freedom in New Zealand, but highlights problems with Auckland's management that its VC seems reluctant to accept. thespinoff.co.nz/society/10-0...

The Siouxsie Wiles judgment should be a wake-up call for New Zealand’s universitiesthespinoff.co.nz 'The fact she had to take her university to court to force it to take her concerns seriously should trigger some serious soul-searching.'

The Government of Denmark had just agreed to a tax on livestock emissions. €40 in 2030, rising to €100 in 2035. Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen says: "We will be the first country in the world with a CO2 tax on agriculture.” Looks like New Zealand is now distinctly behind in that race.

Regeringen og parterne i Grøn trepart indgår historisk Aftale om et grønt Danmark | Økonomiministerietvia.ritzau.dk Regeringen og parterne i den grønne trepart er enige om et langsigtet grundlag for omlægning og omstilling af Danmarks arealer og af fødevare- og landbrugsproduktionen. Indsatserne i aftalen vil reduc...

‘transition-washing’, or greenwashing, in labelled transition finance. How to unlock the potential of labelled transition finance in the race to net zero.

Guardrails to address greenwashing of climate transition finance | ClientEarthwww.clientearth.org Download 'Guardrails to address greenwashing of climate transition finance'

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Young climate activists just won a ‘historic’ settlement in Hawaii. One has to wonder why the Biden Administration couldn’t get its minds around settling the federal case ie Juliana. wapo.st/3XvKtMH

Young climate activists just won a ‘historic’ settlementwapo.st The settlement, described as a “world first,” will legally require Hawaii’s transport department to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A bit of work to do on methane then, to align with their ambitions expressed in the Global Methane Pledge (www.globalmethanepledge.org) "methane policies in both countries were largely driven by safety, resource utilization, and pollution concerns rather than reducing greenhouse gas emissions"

A comparative review of methane policies of the United States and China in the context of US – China climate cooperationwww.tandfonline.com Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. The US and China are the world’s two of the largest methane emitters and jointly committed to tackling this global challenge in the US–China Joint Glasgow Decl...

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"ChatGPT is bullshit" doi.org/10.1007/s106...

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Pharmac says there are no plans to change eligibility criteria for free Covid-19 vaccination. There's a false screenshot going around suggesting that Pharmac is ending free Covid-19 vaccination for a wide range of people beginning July 1. Again, it's false.

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FluTracking New Zealand is looking for additional participants. They need more participants, and particularly younger participants, around the motu to help them track, and understand, flu & COVID-19 in the community. www.flutracking.net/Join/NZ/inv2...

Flutracking.net | Tracking respiratory illness across Australia and New Zealandwww.flutracking.net Flutracking is an online health surveillance system used to detect epidemics of influenza across Australia and New Zealand,

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My latest for Science about NZ's budget, the cuts to science and the Save Science Coalition, with @nzscientists.bsky.social @lcsnz.bsky.social et al “Analyzing this year’s budget is an exercise in determining how bad the damage will be.” www.science.org/content/arti...

Science takes a hit in New Zealand’s budget, prompting researchers to organizewww.science.org New Save Science Coalition aims to head off future spending cuts

The New Zealand govt says it will hold an independent review of 'what New Zealand's 2050 methane target should be, consistent with the principle of no additional warming'. It's not clear where that 'principle' comes from, but Kristen Green (not on BSky?) has done some insightful analysis.

No additional warming, but relative to when [03-06-2024].pdfdrive.google.com

What to call it? "Using [the concept of "climate crisis"] promotes the epistemic goals of climate science to a high degree, bridges scientific, political, and activist discourse, and fosters for democratic participation when articulating climate policies."

Climate concepts for supporting political goals of mitigation and adaptation: The case for “climate crisis”wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com Figure illustrating the benefits (upwards arrows) or deficits (downwards arrows) for using different climate concepts (grey sectors) to formulate and pursue mitigation and adaptation goals.

Where are we at with feed additives to reduce methane emissions from ruminant livestock? Our latest briefing gives an overview of the current evidence. TL;DR: some are ready to implement now, some still have big question marks. But also, climate policies are needed to motivate adoption at scale.

Briefings - Expert Panel on Livestock Methanelivestockmethane.com BRIEFINGS A series of briefings unpacking the latest science on livestock methane solutions.

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Here's what it takes for an IAM to not require a bazillion negative carbon emissions: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1... Enjoyably sassy author thread here: twitter.com/HMcJeon/stat...

Ambitious efforts on residual emissions can reduce CO2 removal and lower peak temperatures in a net-zero future - IOPscienceiopscience.iop.org Ambitious efforts on residual emissions can reduce CO2 removal and lower peak temperatures in a net-zero future, Jay Fuhrman, Simone Speizer, Patrick O’Rourke, Glen P Peters, Haewon McJeon, Seth Monte...

New: Diplomats representing New Zealand at negotiations for a Pandemic Treaty have been told by the Government to focus on making sure New Zealand can opt out of international health rules rather than stopping future pandemics. newsroom.co.nz/2024/05/16/h...

Health negotiators told to put sovereignty ahead of stopping pandemicsnewsroom.co.nz Diplomats have been tasked with ensuring New Zealand can opt out of health rules rather than focusing on strong new pandemic prevention measures.

WHO accuses Nigel Farage of spreading misinformation about pandemic treatywww.theguardian.com Draft deal aims to improve global cooperation against outbreaks as rightwingers deny they are making false claims UK will lose decision-making powers

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While Florida's cell-cultivated meat ban is ridiculous, & this article is clearly being provocative, I don't find the idea of banning regular meat helpful either. Better IMHO: 1) produce meat more sustainably & humanely, 2) shift high-meat diets toward plants, 3) accelerate alt protein development.

Opinion: Florida just picked the wrong kind of meat to banwww.latimes.com Why is Gov. Ron DeSantis making it a crime to produce a meat alternative that could be part of a humane, healthful and environmentally sustainable future food system?

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Climate doomism, or the idea that it's already too late to do anything about climate change, can be debilitating and demoralizing. It's also a known discourse of climate delay. Here's a guide from Yale Climate Connections on how we can talk about it:

How to talk to a climate doomer (even if that doomer is you) » Yale Climate Connectionsyaleclimateconnections.org It’s not too late to tackle climate change, but sometimes it sure feels that way.

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Wait until these people find out how climate change will increase immigration.

Europeans want governments to focus more on curbing migration than climate change, a study saysapnews.com Europeans focus more on curbing immigration than on climate change and few of those interviewed across the globe consider climate to be among the top three priorities for their government.

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Scientists: if someone asks you a question like this, don’t bite. The future has not yet been determined. We still control if warming is 2C or 2.5C or something else. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C targetwww.theguardian.com Exclusive: Planet is headed for at least 2.5C of heating with disastrous results for humanity, poll of hundreds of scientists finds

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The Titanic kills an average of 13.4 people a year

while it is too early to make a claim of pattering, the next time the Titanic will strike is quite possibly is the year 2134

Development of a Sustainable Finance Taxonomy for Aotearoa New Zealand: key design considerations. Draft is open for consultation and feedback until 5 May 2024. Link for the draft, submission form, and webinars.

Taxonomy recommendations — Centre for Sustainable Financewww.sustainablefinance.nz Recommendations by an indepdendent technical advisory group on the key design considerations for an Aotearoa New Zealand sustainable finance taxonomy

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The use of biomass for carbon removal is an understandably fraught topic. Today Frontier published a set of high-level sustainable biomass sourcing principles that will help us navigate the complicated landscape of biomass-based CDR projects: frontierclimate.com/assets/bioma...

Interesting article from a legal perspective on the recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, pondering the difference between net-zero CO2 and net-zero GHG and what countries are obliged to strive for under this ruling.

Climate or carbon neutrality? Which one must states aim for under Article 8 ECHR?www.ejiltalk.org In its judgment in Verein KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz and Others v. Switzerland, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Grand Chamber ruled that Switzerland had acted insufficiently on climate cha…

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Not great!! Latest update at zacklabe.com/climate-chan... #ClimateChange

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Review of environmental and health impact of novel plant-based foods: "NPBFs typically have substantially lower environmental impacts than ABFs [animal based foods], but the nutritional contents are complex and vary considerably across brands, product type, and main primary ingredient." [1]

Mapping the evidence of novel plant-based foods: a systematic review of nutritional, health, and environmental impacts in high-income countriesacademic.oup.com AbstractContext. Shifting from current dietary patterns to diets rich in plant-based (PB) foods and lower in animal-based foods (ABFs) is generally regarde

tl;dr: it's damn hard! "The ahistorical nature of the transformation and resulting economic restructuring necessitates a paradigm shift in the intentionality of policymaking, commensurate with both catalysing such a transformation, and navigating the political economic consequences of its impacts."

Comparing food system sectoral changes in 2050 with historical transformations: A multi-model analysiswww.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu Food systems must transform in pursuit of health, sustainability, and justice goals. The scale and distribution of these profound changes across different food sectors is underexplored. We examine pos...

Editor's summary: "Rates of biodiversity decline from land-use change are expected to be lower than in the 20th century but much higher when climate change is considered. [...] Outcomes depend on the scenario, suggesting that policies can make a difference."

Global trends and scenarios for terrestrial biodiversity and ecosystem services from 1900 to 2050www.science.org Based on an extensive model intercomparison, we assessed trends in biodiversity and ecosystem services from historical reconstructions and future scenarios of land-use and climate change. During the 2...

An important critique of "science-based" company targets - current methodologies "solidify the position of incumbents over that of growing or yet-to-be companies". Sadly it's behind a paywall, but if you contact the authors I'm sure they would be more than happy to send you a copy.

Corporate emissions targets and the neglect of future innovatorswww.science.org Targets can distort competition in favor of incumbent firms

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We don't talk about this enough, but if Trump wins, he will do everything possible to repeal Biden's climate policies. On the pod, @volts.wtf volts is incredibly informative on how disastrous this would be. He also explains a concept called "petro-masculinity": newrepublic.com/article/1808...

Trump’s Bizarre Rants Over Wind Power Are More Ominous Than You Thinknewrepublic.com If Donald Trump wins the White House again, his love of fossil fuels and hatred of renewable energy could translate into an absolute catastrophe.

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teach the kids humanities so they know who sisyphus is

US citizens have paid nearly a billion dollars since 2018 simply to replenish the sand lost to storms and "erosion" (aka sea level rise) in Florida — quite aside from the billions in Federal disaster relief they've also given the state. #resilience 💸💸💸 subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

E&E News: Add sand, lose sand, repeat. The climate conundrum for beaches.subscriber.politicopro.com The U.S. is paying a fortune to rebuild beaches, only to see the sand disappear.