The Wire with Alex

On The Wire for Rāapa Wednesday...

Emilia Sullivan interviewed Green Party co-leader James Shaw about a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shows we only have a small window remaining to avoid the planet warming 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

For their monthly catch-up News & Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to Auckland University Students Association (AUSA) President Alan Shaker about how Auckland Transport disruptions are affecting students and more for their monthly catch-up.

And National Coordinator of Gender Minorities Aotearoa, Ahi Wi-Hongi, discussed anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, aka Posie Parker, being allowed to enter Aotearoa to hold a transphobic event in Tāmaki Makaurau this weekend.

Alex Bonham spoke to Cleve Cameron from Big Street Bikers about avoiding congestion by embracing cycling.

Andre Andre Fa'aoso talked to Doug Wilson from the University of Auckland about wireless charging roads.

Arno spoke to doctoral researcher Abdullah Kalantan from the University of Auckland about a new smoking cessation project during the month of Ramadan. 

And University of Auckland astrophysicist Richard Easther discussed light pollution from Starlink and other satellites.

In the pursuit of meeting emissions reduction targets, the transition to electric vehicles is seeming like a bit of a necessity. 

With battery range and charging stations a worry for EV owners, the government and research organisations from around the world are banding together to come up with new solutions to instil confidence in EV fleets.

Andre Fa’aoso spoke to Doug Wilson, Director of the Transportation Research Centre at the University of Auckland. 

The research facility based in the Faculty of Engineering is designing and testing the possibilities of wireless charging roads in Aotearoa to remedy range anxiety for EV owners. 

The partnership between Downer and the University of Auckland has been tasked with testing the resilience and application of this technology on our roads.

Andre started off by asking Doug about what this technology is and how it works.

In a follow up statement, Doug shared the idea of ‘power snacking’. 

Doug says that power snacking “is very different to the current need to carry around a tank full of gas or a very large and heavy battery that takes longer to charge. For example, if you can charge your ‘EV on the go’ (at your origin, destination and on the way dynamically) then you can reduce the size of your battery as range anxiety is removed. This also has the significant environmental benefit of requiring less rare earth minerals (eg. cobalt, nickel and lithium) as the batteries are smaller in size and are also reduced weight.  This can only be done with wireless charging but the wireless EV infrastructure will need to be in place for this to affect potential users purchasing behaviours.”

Scientists have been calling for a ban for light-polluting mass satellite groups like Elon Musk’s Starlink for some time now, and a series of papers and opinion pieces published in the journal Nature Astronomy have echoed these calls. Scientists are concerned that the light pollution from these so-called megaconstellations make it difficult to view objects in space for research, to see the stars at night, and to detect potentially hazardous meteors heading towards Earth.  

Arno spoke to University of Auckland astrophysicist Professor Richard Easther to find out more about the call to regulate mass satellite groups.

For their weekly catch-up, News & Editorial Director Jessica Hopkins spoke to ACT MP Karen Chhour about the government banning TikTok from all parliamentary devices, and reprioritising its spending to refocus on the cost of living and Cyclone Gabrielle recovery.