Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Susannah Shepherd,
Or, as is actually the case IIRC, it might point to Yale changing their methodology between those two studies.
I seem to recall that the methodology in the first one was pretty ropey.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Gareth Ward,
I haven’t seen the evidence that puts us in the bottom half of countries on this stuff?
I'm too tired to dig it out now, but I think he was referring to the PLoS study, which, as Mike points out earlier in comments, should not be read without caveats.
FWIW, I think serious critiques of what Joy says when journalists call him (I gather he doesn't generally approach the media) are a good and valuable thing. Calling him a traitor or declaring that he shouldn't frighten the markets isn't. It's precisely the wrong kind of criticism.
Also, Fran O'Sullivan has denied writing the Herald editorial. I'm not surprised by that. It has much more of the John Roughan but what if the experts are wrong? vibe about it.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Sacha,
The “100%” tagline is topical because of its trumpeting in Hobbit-related promotion – including imagery of tourists frolicking in rivers that clashes with the recent reports about 50% of our waterways being too polluted for that.
I can imagine that may have got up Dr Joy’s nose
Sorta, maybe. But as I noted, the actual quotes in the NYT story were given months ago to a reporter from a different paper. The Herald's response mentions the timing of the remarks, but the timing wasn't actually Joy's.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Stripe,
that’s what this site is all about, isn’t it? Silencing people you don’t like. ;)
Do tell.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
I cannot see this this announcement can have caused dirty rivers.
It might help to address what she actually wrote. The paragraph you're complaining about doesn't mention rivers but laments "a lax approach to environmental care and management" on the part of the government.
In the next paragraph she cites multiple examples, which you discount because they're mostly not about freshwater waterways, which she didn't mention in the paragraph you're unhappy with.
But if it's waterways you're after, the criticisms of ministers' actions in the Listener editorial and the Gareth Morgan column -- which concludes by lamenting "yet another demonstration of the National cabinet’s open hostility to environmental protection" -- would seem to have substance.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Graeme Edgeler,
Perhaps Ms Toki (or someone else here) can point me to some regulatory changes made by the current government that make the matters complained of here, worse?
She appears to do so at some length in the next paragraph of her column. Did you bother to read it?
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Mike Dickison,
So we should be a bit careful about citing that “18th worst” ranking to support Mike Joy’s areas of concern—freshwater ecology—because the study doesn’t have much to say about that.
Thanks. That's very useful.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Tom Semmens,
Except anyone who reads the NY Times story will nowhere see Dr. Joy quoted as saying that. The Herald editorial writer either didn’t actually read the story in the NY Times or simply made the quote up to suit their agenda.
I’ve just worked this out. The editorial writer (and this isn’t the first time this has happened) didn’t understand the paper’s own reporting.
The quote seems to have been given directly by Joy to the Herald’s reporter, Nikki Preston, who wrote it up thus:
Massey University senior lecturer in environmental science Mike Joy, who was quoted in the article, said the reality was New Zealand was nowhere near 100 per cent Pure.
“We don’t deserve 100 per cent Pure, we are nowhere near the best in the world, we are not even in the top half of countries in the world when it comes to clean and green."
Which was mangled in the editorial thus:
His remarks are included in a recent New York Times article that suggested this country’s clean green image, represented by snow-capped mountains, clean rivers and pristine countryside, was false and misleading. Dr Joy told the newspaper that although this country promoted itself as “100 per cent Pure New Zealand”, the reality came nowhere close to matching this. “We don’t deserve 100 per cent Pure, we are nowhere near the best in the world, we are not even in the top half of countries in the world when it comes to clean and green,” he said.
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Hard News: Fact and fantasy, in reply to Paul Williams,
In this instance, it’s clear that Joy has. I’d hope the VC would defend him, not chastise him.
I thought it was clear that I meant Maharey had given short shrift to those lobbying for Joy to lose his job.
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We invited the editors of the Herald to join us on Media3. They declined, but we've just received an emailed response from Tim Murphy which I'll convey and discuss on the show.