New Zealand Listener Issue 36 2019

Last week, the world’s leading climate-change scientists laid out how difficult it will be to feed the 10 billion people expected to populate the world by 2050. Yet here in New Zealand, we’re again looking at the prospect of wasting thousands of tonnes of food in the coming peak horticultural season. It’s not just our land usage that has to change to meet the demands of population growth, but our needlessly inflexible imported-labour laws. Year after year, growers have to let crops rot in the ground and on the trees because they can’t get enough seasonal workers for the harvest. Our efforts as a world-leading, clean, green, sustainable-food producer are in vain if we also get a global profile for wasting food. We’re coming to deserve the latter, as crop wastage has…

“What’s for dinner?” (August 24) effectively introduces us to the eating dilemma in a greenhouse world. Food involves everyone, so we hope it will kick-start a real assessment of climate change, its global warming and a host of other environmental problems. I would worry, though, if the food and agricultural problem pushed everything else aside in the climate debate. Other issues also involve everyone and are immense in their scale. For instance, the climate costs of transport, manufacturing, building and generating energy. Agriculture is problematic, but along with other biologically based industries, has some capacity to reabsorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Some data suggests biological land use can sequester about 27,000 gigatonnes of greenhouse gases a year, much of it taken up by trees and some by pasture. Fossil-fuelled engines, concrete construction,…

Graeme Bulling, Auckland FINALISTS David Warner: “Who says we’re abrasive?” – Graeme Bulling Warner: “We’ve already rubbed them up the wrong way.” – Kevin Boyce, Raumati Beach Warner: “My beard feels like sandpaper.” Steve Smith: “Perfect.” – Peter Scanlan, Lower Hutt Smith: “Score two centuries and you’re redeemed, apparently.” – John Stribling, Wellington Warner: “That’s what I meant when I said they’ve got to take the rough with the smooth.” – John Marris, Lincoln Warner: “I’ve got something up my sleeve.” – John Stribling Smith: “It appears our dreams have turned to Ashes.” – Tony Clemow, Kamo Smith: “What a balls-up!” – PM Lynch, Upper Hutt Caption Competition {caption@listener.co.nz} TO ENTER Send your captions for the photo above to caption@listener.co.nz, with “Caption Competition No 347” in the subject line. Alternatively, entries can be posted to “Caption Competition No 347”, NZ Listener,…

“Surprise at Boris Johnson being unfamiliar with things being stored in an arse, given that’s where most of his policies seem to be pulled from.” – Twitter account for Number 10’s “Larry the Cat, Esq” on the PM’s learning of prison smuggling techniques“People in LA refuse to walk five minutes down the road for a coffee instead of driving, but add the prospect of picking up dog shit and they’ll walk miles and miles.” – Kiwi journalist David Farrier“Never doubt the courage of the French. They were the ones who discovered that snails are edible.” – US columnist Doug Larson“A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half cracked.” – US entertainer Bernard Meltzer“Through my taxes on cigarettes, I’ve built three hospitals…

… the guard rail was erected in the late 1970s after an Austin 1100 ran off the next corner at speed and hit a tree several metres off the ground. Otago Daily Times, 6/7/19 A family home of this size, in this location with flexible living options is as rear as hens teeth. Beacon Real Estate Weekly, 19/7/19 [She] was incubated so couldn’t speak, but when woken up the first thing she did was write a note to the medical staff asking ‘Am I alive?’ Dominion Post, 13/8/19 “It is over the top,” he said. “It is hitting a new low.” Bay of Plenty Times, 10/7/19 The HM Bark Endeavour had four canons, instead of the 10 Cook had on his ship … Marlborough Midweek, 18/7/19 After all, trying to fit into someone’s expectations is like living in a straight…

1. What kind of thing is a no-see-um? ❑ Discreet underwear ❑ Biting insect❑ Hidden crevasse ❑ Forest owl 2. Roquefort cheese is made from the milk of which animal? ❑ Sheep❑ Goat❑ Buffalo❑ Reindeer 3. Which of these is not a novel by HG Wells? ❑ The First Men in the Moon ❑ The Island of Doctor Moreau❑ The Invisible Man❑ The Last Man 4. Which TV series theme song begins: “Little boxes on the hillside …”? ❑ Mad Men❑ Six Feet Under❑ Weeds❑ Malcolm in the Middle 5. Who is best-known for directing the Max Max and Happy Feet series of films? ❑ Robert Zemeckis ❑ George Miller ❑ Ron Howard❑ Kathryn Bigelow 6. True or false? The saying “que sera, sera” has a Spanish-language origin. ❑ True❑ False 7. Which activity is combined with boxing to form a hybrid…