Harry Chapman
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howdystranger.bsky.social
Harry Chapman
@howdystranger.bsky.social
From Wellington, NZ. Interested in tech, public policy, climate change, etc

See chapman.nz
Pinned
Hello world! Good to be on Bluesky, and nice to see some familiar faces. It is getting hard to keep track of all my social media accounts though!

Keen to find all the NZ political journos, policy nerds and climate change people.
Reposted by Harry Chapman
I thought I’d have a go at answering the question: what’s the flow on effect on emissions budgets from the methane cuts?

The answer was worse than I had anticipated

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
Scientists fear weaker methane target signals wider retreat from climate action
After cutting methane targets, New Zealand has a choice: shoulder the burden at huge cost - or cause more warming to the planet.
www.rnz.co.nz
October 13, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Reposted by Harry Chapman
New Zealand accused of ‘full-blown climate denial’ over cuts to #methane reduction targets

- Farmers praised the move, but scientists and opposition parties criticised it as ‘weak’

- NZ has 5 million cows and 23 million sheep

#climatecrisis
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
New Zealand accused of ‘full-blown climate denial’ over cuts to methane reduction targets
Farmers praised the move, but scientists and opposition parties criticised it as ‘weak’ and ‘unambitious’
www.theguardian.com
October 13, 2025 at 11:25 AM
This is so bleak.

Also I feel hetero men aged 18-34 are going to have a lonely future having alienated lots of feminist women. Self-inflicted loneliness epidemic!!

thespinoff.co.nz/society/18-0...
The bleakest findings from a new survey about gender attitudes in Aotearoa
The lowlights include one in three young men in Aotearoa believing that gender equality has gone too far.
thespinoff.co.nz
September 18, 2025 at 6:59 AM
Reposted by Harry Chapman
Agricultural companies never had to pay for their methane emissions in NZ, but they used to be required to report the totals to the EPA.

No longer.

For some companies, it was the only way to get even a crude estimate.

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
Three of New Zealand's biggest emitters no longer have to reveal their climate impact
It comes after the government ended compulsory reporting for the farming sector.
www.rnz.co.nz
August 14, 2025 at 8:06 PM
A lot of the stuff recommended in here is doubling down on the format which makes RNZ increasingly unlistenable for me (both morning report and checkpoint). But I guess as someone in their 30s I'm not the target demographic

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...
Mediawatch: RNZ rejigging radio to arrest audience decline
RNZ is targeting listeners in Auckland and New Zealanders over 50 after a review of programmes and news prompted by declines in RNZ National's live listenership.
www.rnz.co.nz
August 14, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Reaching for change: Is our public service obsessed with restructuring?
www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360...
The Post
www.thepost.co.nz
August 3, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Out of morbid curiosity opened up the X app and scrolled. It was mostly Elon Musk tweeting about how good his AI tool Grok is, along with some pro-Ray Chung ads...
July 13, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Reposted by Harry Chapman
Biking is on the up in Wellington, thanks to the network effect, and thanks to WCC. www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3607... @cyclewgtn.bsky.social
‘Good news story’: Wellington cyclist numbers well over double in two years
A cycling advocate said the swell of cyclists coming through the Basin Reserve was due to a new cycleway that opened mid-2023.
www.stuff.co.nz
June 23, 2025 at 7:55 PM
This development in Island Bay, Wellington is a great example of the power of intensification. The multi unit complex on the left used to have one house on the site (similar to the house on the right). There are probably 10-15 times as many people living on the land now
April 6, 2025 at 2:29 AM
This is the weirdest thing I've seen on Facebook marketplace for a while!

"Made from real bird parts by myself" 😬
April 3, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Harry Chapman
thespinoff.co.nz/media/21-01-...

How a big sign on the Wellington waterfront exposed a problem with local news.
Windbag: Why I was wrong about the Well_ngton sign
How a big shiny sign on the Wellington waterfront exposed a problem with local news.
thespinoff.co.nz
January 20, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Today I learned never to promise a toddler can have a treat when they wake up, because they'll never go to sleep 😫
January 20, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Global economy could face 50% loss in GDP between 2070 and 2090 from climate shocks, say actuaries www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Global economy could face 50% loss in GDP between 2070 and 2090 from climate shocks, say actuaries
Exclusive: Report by risk experts says previous assessments ignored severe effects of climate crisis
www.theguardian.com
January 17, 2025 at 11:18 PM
China’s Soaring Emissions Are Upending Climate Politics www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
November 19, 2024 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Harry Chapman
Here's my column this week, about the astonishing moment in which we find ourselves: facing the greatest predicament humankind has ever confronted, and doing sweet FA about it. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Picture an all-seeing eye scanning the dying Earth – and then lighting on our ‘solutions’ at Cop29 | George Monbiot
What would it witness in Azerbaijan? A species that knows it is destroying itself but is too greedy to change course, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2024 at 7:17 AM
Reposted by Harry Chapman
Reposted by Harry Chapman
A better way of getting Google to support NZ media: https://billbennett.co.nz/media-development-levy/
October 13, 2024 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Harry Chapman
I’m predicting now that in the future, there’s a chance the 21st century could become not a dark age but a gray age. An era where we have limited historical information not because of a lack of records, but because of an overwhelming abundance of fake or untrustworthy records.
The rise of AI-generated photos poses a serious threat to our understanding of history. As these fake images become increasingly convincing, it's getting harder to separate fact from fiction.

I'd love for you to take a few minutes to read this:

marinaamaral.substack.com/p/ai-is-crea...
AI is creating fake historical photos, and that's a problem
The increasing sophistication of AI-generated photos raises concerns about the reliability of visual evidence
marinaamaral.substack.com
March 20, 2024 at 2:56 PM
I wrote about my experience of reading local Wellington news on the Post website chapman.nz/2023/12/10/r...
December 10, 2023 at 1:29 AM
Some good analysis from Ezra Klein on ai www.nytimes.com/2023/11/22/o...
November 23, 2023 at 8:46 AM
Interesting research on children and air pollution www.stuff.co.nz/environment/...
November 1, 2023 at 8:34 AM
I wrote a blog post about Spotify's AI DJ chapman.nz/2023/10/21/r...
October 23, 2023 at 9:09 AM