Breaking Views Update: Week of 19.01.20

Tuesday January 21, 2020

News:
Maori Council is calling for an investigation into the Kaikōura rebuild
Māori Council executive director Matthew Tukaki said he was asked to intervene after being told the ongoing construction was "killing the heart and soul" of the community.

Tukaki had concerns the construction of "unnecessary" barriers meant Māori had been denied customary rights in accessing kaimoana and sites of cultural significance.

GWPF Newsetter: David Attenborough Is Making The Same Mistake As Greta Thunberg

Ocean Warming: Not As Simple As Headlines Say

In this newsletter:

1) David Attenborough Is Making The Same Mistake As Greta Thunberg
Ross Clark, The Spectator, 17 January 2020
 
2) Forget Policymakers. Greta Thunberg And Her Allies Are Targeting CEOs Now
Christian Hetzner, Forbes 13 January 2020

Breaking Views Update: Week of 12.01.20

Saturday January 18, 2020

News:
Film-maker's legal 'funds running low' ahead of defamation trial with Sir Bob Jones over 'hate speech'
More money is being raised for a Kiwi film-maker's legal fund as she prepares for a courtroom showdown with Sir Bob Jones after calling for his knighthood to be revoked for "hate speech".

The well-known businessman filed defamation proceedings against Renae Maihi in May 2018, after the Toronto-based artist delivered a petition to Parliament demanding Jones lose his title.

Karl du Fresne: Then and now

They say that nostalgia isn’t what it used to be, but I’m not so sure. It can be instructive from time to time to recall how things were in the past and to ask the tricky question, is life better now? 

Consider the following:

I remember when my home town, with a population of 3000, had its own daily paper and everyone read it.

I remember when primary schoolkids got the strap for minor infractions and secondary schoolboys were caned.

GWPF Newsletter: Boris Johnson Snubs Climate Activists And Saves UK Airline

Tim Newark: End Unfair Air Passenger Tax And Ignore The Angry Greens

In this newsletter:

1) Boris Johnson Snubs Climate Activists And Saves UK Airline
The Guardian, 14 January 2020
 
2) Government Criticised For Prioritising Airline Over Environment 
The London Economic, 15 January 2020

GWPF Newsletter: The World’s Next Energy Bonanza

Sir Roger Scruton: The Politics Of Climate Change, The Inquisition & BBC Censorship

In this newsletter:

1) The World’s Next Energy Bonanza
Foreign Policy, 9 January 2020 
 
2) Terence Corcoran: Mark Carney’s War Against The Fossil Fuel Industry Is Just The Beginning
Financial Post, 9 January 2020

Sean Plunket: Should Climate Change be taught in schools?

Minister for Climate Change James Shaw defends initiative to introduce a curriculum teaching the impact of climate change in schools.

In his first interview for 2020 Sean Plunket challenges the Minister to explain the syllabus behind and justification for a curriculum dedicated to Climate Change in schools.

GWPF Newsletter: Science Scandal Deepens As New Study Refutes Alarming Ocean Acidification Claims

Peter Ridd Calls For Investigation Into Scientific Fraud & Cover-Up

In this newsletter:

1) Peter Ridd: Scientific Misconduct At James Cook University Confirms My Worst Fears
Global Warming Policy Forum, 10 January 2020
 
2) Ex-Judge To Investigate Ocean Acidification Research Controversy
Times Higher Education, 8 January 2020

Breaking Views update: Week of 5.01.20

Saturday January 11, 2020

News:
Decade-long beach access dispute at pā site in Oakura continues with complaint to Heritage NZ
A campaigner who has tried for more than 10 years to stop people accessing a Taranaki beach over a former pā site is hoping a complaint to Heritage NZ will help resolve the issue.

The land is owned by the Department of Conservation and administered by the New Plymouth District Council (NPDC), which is unable to stop people from walking over the site.

GWPF Newsletter: Global Deaths From Natural Disasters Drop To Record Low

False Alarm: Study Refutes Findings that Acidification Affects Fish Behavior

In this newsletter:

1) The Good News Nobody Reports: Global Deaths From Natural Disasters Drop To Record Low
Munich Re & GWPF, 8 January 2020
 
2) False Alarm: Study Refutes Findings that Acidification Affects Fish Behavior
The Scientist, 8 January 2020

GWPF Newsletter - Fighting Fire With Fire: Lessons From Australia’s Bushfires

There’s Only One Way To Make Bushfires Less Powerful: Take Out The Stuff That Burns

In this newsletter:

1) Australia’s Firestorms Follow Move Away From Cool Burning 
The Australia, 4 January 2020

2) Arsonists Fuelling Australia’s Bushfire Crisis As Arrest Toll Hits 183
The Australian, 8 January 2018

Bryce Edwards: Political Roundup - Are politicians delivering for New Zealanders?

Are our politicians doing a good job? Are they on top of the urgent problems that need fixing? These are some of the big questions that have arisen from reflecting on the last year in politics, especially as we shift into an election year.

Yesterday’s Political Roundup looked at the politicians who performed strongly in 2019 – see: Evaluating NZ’s politicians. But many end-of-year reviews also focused on where the politicians failed, especially the Government, given that 2019 was pronounced by Jacinda Ardern to be her Year of Delivery. The consensus is that the Year of Delivery failed to eventuate.

Melanie Phillips: The killing of Qasem Soleimani

It’s impossible to exaggerate the importance of the elimination of the Iranian al Quds commander Qasem Soleimani. He was killed by a US airstrike which targeted him at Baghdad airport, where he had been met by his close henchman Abu Mahdi al Muhandis and who was killed alongside him in a vehicle convoy with five others. 

This was America’s response to Iran’s escalating aggression, including an attack on US forces at an Iraqi military base on December 27 that killed a US contractor and wounded several others, and after an Iranian-backed mob attacked the US embassy on December 29 scrawling “Soleimani is my leader” on the guardhouses.

Matt Ridley: We’ve just had the best decade in human history. Seriously

Let nobody tell you that the second decade of the 21st century has been a bad time. We are living through the greatest improvement in human living standards in history. 

Extreme poverty has fallen below 10 per cent of the world’s population for the first time. It was 60 per cent when I was born. 

Global inequality has been plunging as Africa and Asia experience faster economic growth than Europe and North America; child mortality has fallen to record low levels; famine virtually went extinct; malaria, polio and heart disease are all in decline.

Little of this made the news, because good news is no news. 

Viv Forbes: Put Foresters back in the Forests

There was a time when Australian foresters kept Australian forests safe and productive. They maintained access tracks bridges and fire breaks, undertook prescribed burning, cleared flammable litter from the forest floor, cut suckers, manned fire lookouts and maintained their own fire-fighting crews in decentralised districts. University-trained professional foresters were supported by tough experienced rangers who learned their job in the bush.

Almost every advance in bushfire management in Australia, from the science of fire behaviour to aerial burning was thanks to our foresters. Into the 1980’s they were regarded as international leaders.

GWPF Newsletter: U.S. Shale Revolution And The Middle East Crisis

How The US Shale Revolution Changed The Face Of Geopolitics

In this newsletter:

1) Gaurav Sharma: Middle East Tension Will Bring More Oil Market Speculators And Yet More Barrels
Forbes, 6 January 2020
 
2) Dan Eberhart: Global Oil Supply Glut Gives Trump Room To Maneuver On Iran
Forbes, 3 January 2020

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: What’s been up in Lebanon?

Last semester (September to December, ending just before Xmas after being extended) was not an easy one for yours truly.

The students stopped attending classes halfway through October to attend mass demonstrations. Many academic staff staged a brief strike in support. Foreign students packed their bags and went home, as did numerous Lebanese students with families outside Beirut. The rest of the semester was on-and-off as the place vacillated between being a functioning university and a drop-in-when-you-feel-like-it venue for students bothering to grace us with their presence. Academics were exhorted by the senior administration to be ‘flexible’ with regard to course delivery and assessment.

Lindsay Mitchell: My prediction Ardern would increase child poverty

New Year seems to be a time when predictions are checked. In September 2017 I predicted Jacinda Ardern would increase child poverty if she became Prime Minister.

On 7 of 9 measures introduced under the Child Poverty Reduction Act, to June 2018 poverty had increased. That's fairly out-dated data now and not a particularly useful measuring stick.

But also now known is that children in benefit dependent households rose between June 2018 and 2019. From Otago University's Child Poverty Monitor:

GWPF Newsletter: Lies, Damn Lies And Tall Climate Tales

The BBC, Bob Ward & The Climate Catastrophists’ Attack On Dissent

In this newsletter:

1) Lies, Damn Lies And Tall Climate Tales
Global Warming Policy Forum, 2 January 2020
 
2) John Constable: The Future of Oil, Gas, and Coal: Stranded Assets or Safe Refuge?
GWPF Energy, 1 January 2020

Breaking Views Update: Week of 29.12.19

Friday January 3, 2020

News:
Open to talks on Maori papal apology call
Te Runanga o Te Hahi Katorika ki Aotearoa chair Sr Tui Cadigan, RSM, said she would be open to a thorough discussion on a call by the Māori Council’s executive director for an apology from Pope Francis for acts by some of his predecessors that laid the basis for the colonisation of Aotearoa.