GWPF Newsletter: EU Climate Plans Stall As Brexit Talks Take Over

British Solar Industry In Total Free Fall After Subsidy Cuts

In this newsletter:

1) EU Climate Plans Stall As Brexit Talks Take Over
Climate Home, 27 June 2016
 
2) British Solar Industry In Total Free Fall After Subsidy Cuts
The Daily Caller, 27 June 2016

GWPF Newsletter: Brexit Victory Boosts Climate Sceptics

Brexit, Climate Alarmism And The GWPF Myth

In this newsletter:

1) Brexit Victory Boosts Climate Sceptics 
Toronto Sun, 27 June 2016

2) Brexit, Climate Alarmism And The GWPF Myth
Financial Post, 25 June 2016

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Brexit – so what? Now what?

The Europhile elite has been defeated. Great Britain shows Europe the way to the future and to liberation. It is now time for a fresh start, relying on our own efforts and sovereignty.- Geert Wilders, Dutch Freedom Party, 25 June

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I switched on the BBC the other day and heard that the UK had decided to leave the EU.

Bruce Moon: False Claims About Water

Two Victoria University academics are reported as claiming that three bottom lines - outlined in a Cabinet paper on water in May 2016 - breaches the Treaty of Waitangi. The three options are: “nobody owns freshwater”; “no national settlement favouring iwi/hapu over other uses”; and “Allocation determined catchment by catchment based on resource availability, efficiency of use, good industry practice and a positive contribution to regional economic development”.

Their claims are blatantly false.

Frank Newman: New rules for landlords

From 1 July, amendments to the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act will come into effect.  The changes cover a number of areas but here's the fine print regarding smoke alarms and insulation.

Smoke alarms

• From 1 July landlords will need to have working smoke alarms installed in all their residential rentals.

GWPF Newsletter: Britain Declares Independence

Brexit Has Significant Implications For Energy & Climate Policies

In this newsletter:

1) Peiser: Brexit Has Significant Implications For Energy And Climate Policies
The Daily Caller, 24 June 2016
 
2) UN Boss: Brexit Means Rewriting Of Paris Climate Agreement
EurActiv.com, 22 June 2016

GWPF Newsletter: The Return Of The Global Warming Pause?

New Climate Science Survey Reveals Uncertainties

In this newsletter:

1) The Return Of The Global Warming Pause?
Roy Spencer, 22 June 2016
 
2) Global Sea Surface Temperature Responses to the 1997/98 and 2015/16 El Niño Events
Watts Up With That, 23 June 2016

Matt Ridley: A bright global future for Britain

I was just too young to vote in the 1975 referendum. I would have voted “Yes” to the European Community and I think I would have been right to do so. It had contributed to European peace by blurring French and German economic sovereignty. It was a free trade area in a world of high tariff barriers, albeit within a protectionist wall that excluded other countries and continents. It helped to halt Britain’s disastrous obsession with central planning.

Two decades later, the European project stopped being about economic growth (to this day it still has no trade deals with America, China, Japan, Brazil, India, Canada, Australia and Indonesia) and embarked on the drive for monetary and political union, embodied in the treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam and Lisbon.

GWPF Newsletter: Resilient U.S. Shale Producers Defeat OPEC

The Energy Absurdity Of The Paris Climate Agreement

In this newsletter:

1) Resilient U.S. Shale Producers Defeat OPEC 
Reuters, 20 June 2016
 
2) The New Swing Producer: Shale Bounces Back
The Economist, 18 June 2016

Lindsay Mitchell: Free-for-all benefit system is untenable

Barrister Catriona MacLennan recently recommended improvements to the social welfare system via the current rewrite of our social security legislation. She wants to “…ensure all New Zealanders in hardship receive the help they need.”  The original intent of social security was to alleviate unforeseen hardship. Not self-imposed hardship. One in five babies  born onto welfare every year is not unforeseen hardship.

She wants “…the reduction of poverty [to be] the aim of social welfare, rather than the current focus on reducing the number of beneficiaries.”

Matt Ridley: Why Europe cannot grow digital giants

The EU is falling behind and it's not bad luck, it's bad policy

Last week I visited an island and stood among a crowd of puffins. If I turned my head I could see the lighthouse. If I looked up, the arctic terns were above my head. Yet I never left a gallery in Gateshead. How come? I was wearing a virtual-reality mask.

I have tried this “Oculus” technology once before, when visiting Facebook in California (which owns Oculus) and it is truly extraordinary to have an all-round, up-and-down view of the world depending on how you turn your head. All it involves is a special (Samsung) smartphone jammed into a pair of goggles.

GWPF Newsletter: La Nina Is Coming And Temps Are Dropping Fast

U.S. Court Orders University Of Arizona To Release Climategate E-mails

In this newsletter:

1) La Nina Is Coming And Temps Are Dropping Fast
Vencore Weather, 15 June 2016
 
2) U.S. Court Orders University Of Arizona To Release Climategate E-mails
Energy & Environment Legal Institute, 16 June 2016

Mike Butler: Scientist says P-risk over-hyped

The P-contamination test does not point to a health risk and property owners are spending megabucks on unnecessary testing and remediation, a toxicologist confirmed this week. The advice from toxicologist Nick Kim is that testing for P, a street name for methamphetamine, does not necessarily show any health risk. (1)

Dr Kim is a senior lecturer in environmental chemistry at Massey University.

Two years ago, a request under the Official Information Act showed no recorded illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths resulting from methamphetamine contamination or fires from P labs. (See http://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/mike-butler-p-lab-risk-vastly.html)

Richard Epstein: Illinois On The Fiscal Brink

Illinois—a state that has long embraced progressive fiscal policies—has moved one step closer to the financial abyss. 

Last week, Moody’s Investors Service issued the jarring announcement that it was downgrading Illinois’s general obligations bonds to Baa2 from Baa1, which is just two levels above junk bond status. The next day, Standard & Poor’s followed suit by lowering its rating to BBB+, or three levels above junk bond status. 

GWPF Newsletter: Science On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown

Rodney Leach, Baron Leach of Fairford (1934 – 2016)

In this newsletter:

1) Science On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown
Financial Post, 14 June 2016
 
2) NOAA: 75% Chance Of La Nina By September, Cooler Temps Coming
Environment Examiner, 13 June 2016

Brian Gaynor: Rural co-ops lack market savvy at board table

Fonterra and others won’t become great by focusing on farmers.

A number of recent developments highlight concerns about the corporate governance of rural-based companies. These concerns have led to the requisitioning of special shareholder meetings at Silver Fern Farms (SFF) and Fonterra Co-operative while Murray Goulburn Co-operative shareholders in Australia are also threatening to call an extraordinary meeting.

GWPF Newsletter: How A ‘Liberal’ Bias Is Killing Science

Marine Scientist Censured By James Cook University For Questioning Misleading Claims

In this newsletter:

1) How A ‘Liberal’ Bias Is Killing Science
The Week, 10 June 2016
 
2) Marine Scientist Censured By James Cook University For Questioning Misleading Claims
The Australian, 11 June 2016

Frank Newman: Interest rates and lending restrictions

Last week the Reserve Bank left the Overnight Cash Rate (OCR) unchanged at 2.25%. The Monetary Policy statement that accompanied the announcement has some interesting commentary about what is ahead for property investors and homeowners.

When discussing the state of the property market and the future it said, "Low mortgage rates, high net immigration, and the shortage of housing in Auckland have contributed to high house price inflation.

GWPF Newsletter: Paris Climate Agreement May Unravel Next Year, India Fears

Is China Having Second Thoughts About Paris Deal?

In this newsletter:

1) Paris Climate Agreement May Unravel Next Year, India Fears
Business Standard, 10 June 2016
 
2) Is China Having Second Thoughts About Paris Deal?
Bloomberg, 6 June 2016

Michael Bassett: Labour and the Greens

Reading comments by Matthew Hooton on the damage Labour has done to itself by entering its agreement with the Greens brought to mind the problems faced in earlier times by the New Zealand Liberal Party. And how little our modern Labour Party knows about its history and its own climb to power. In this centennial year of Labour’s birth that really is unforgivable.

After a couple of centuries of Whig politics in Britain and more than two decades with John Ballance, Dick Seddon and Joseph Ward leading successful Liberal governments in New Zealand 1891-1912, the Liberals here, as elsewhere (except Canada) found their votes being preyed upon by a new political force, the trade unions and their political entities. 

Matt Ridley: We need to defeat one particular mosquito before it gets us

Cancelling the Rio Olympics would do little to slow the spread of the zika virus. That horse has already bolted: more than 60 countries and territories already have zika. It will soon be almost anywhere that its mosquito host lives. Now that the link with microcephaly is well established, becoming pregnant in any country with zika carries a small but real risk of birth defects for the baby.

In the 1970s, troubled by the risks of using pesticides, we took our eye off the fight against mosquitoes and the diseases they carry. Zika is just the latest evidence that we are paying a heavy price for that. 

GWPF Newsletter: It's Official: India Contradicts U.S. On Paris Agreement

India Won't Ratify Paris Deal Anytime Soon, Officials Warn

In this newsletter:

1) It’s Official: India Contradicts U.S. Claims Over Signing Paris Climate Deal This Year
Press Trust of India, 8 June 2016
 
2) India Will Not Ratify Paris Deal Anytime Soon, Officials Warn
NDTV, 8 June 2016

Karl du Fresne: Will newspapers become the new craft breweries?

It’s rare these days to hear about any development in the news media that’s worth celebrating, but the announcement that the Wairarapa Times-Age is reverting to local ownership is a tonic.

After 12 years in what is now the NZME (previously known as APN) stable, the Masterton-based Monday-Friday paper is being bought by its general manager, Andrew Denholm. My guess is that other local money is involved, although I have no inside knowledge.

GWPF Newsletter: India Denies It Will Ratify Paris Climate Deal This Year

Saudi Arabia Scales Back Renewable Energy Goal To Favor Natural Gas

In this newsletter:

1) India Denies It Will Ratify Paris Climate Deal This Year
The Hindu, 8 June 2016
 
2) India Links Ratification Of Paris Agreement To Climate Finance
DNA India, 7 June 2016

Brian Gaynor: University numbers mean big business

The Government is planning to spend $13.5 billion on education in the June 2017 year, second only to the $16.2 billion it plans to spend on health.

This is an important sector because public and private expenditure on tertiary education in New Zealand is about 2.1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared with an OECD average of 1.6 per cent.

The three main areas of education spending are primary and secondary schools ($6.1 billion), tertiary funding ($4.3 billion) and early education ($1.8 billion).

GWPF Newsletter: Denmark Cancels All Coastal Wind Farms, Delays New Built Until 2025

Europe Is Falling Out Of Love With Renewables

In this newsletter:

1) Denmark Cancels All Coastal Wind Farms, Delays New Built Until 2025
Jyllands-Posten, 7 June 2016
 
2) Green No More: Denmark Scares Off Green Investors After Subsidy Cuts, Policy U-Turn
Bloomberg, 5 June 2015

Fiona MacKenzie: Riding Roughshod Over Middle NZ

Our politicians, bureaucrats and journalists are struggling to stay in touch with Middle New Zealand. Many of them think it’s unnecessary. After all, they hold the power to tell us what we ought to think and what we should endure.

The system usually works well for them. The Middlers keep to themselves, too busy with the day-to-day.

The problem arises when the people are actually allowed a voice. Referendums must be so frustrating to those who think “they know what’s good for us”.

GWPF Newsletter: The Sun Has Gone Completely Blank

Great Barrier Reef: Scientists ‘Exaggerated’ Coral Bleaching

In this newsletter:

1) The Sun Has Gone Completely Blank
Vencore Weather, 4 June 2016
 
2) Blog Speculation: ‘Only A Question Of Months Before Warming Pause Resumes?’
No Tricks Zone, 4 June 2016

Bruce Moon: Anne Salmond and her record of performance

In swearing an oath in a court of law, one is required to tell the whole truth.  It is recognized that half the truth may be worse than no truth at all.  

So we have Anne Salmond who says that there are examples "ad infinitum" of Maori kindness to children ("Comment", 'NZ Herald', Dialogue Section, 26/5/16).  Well so be it but there is another half of the truth.  Female children who could not become warriors had little value and when deemed surplus were disposed of at birth, usually by their own mothers.  Slave and half-caste children often had a similar fate. Depressing the fontanelle or holding the nostrils together until the infant ceased to breathe were ways of doing this.

Karl du Fresne: It's not booze that's the problem - it's us

It has become accepted wisdom that New Zealand has a serious drinking problem. But do we? And if we do, what’s the reason?

Let’s start by tackling that first question. In 2014 the World Health Organisation published a table showing per capita alcohol consumption in 190 countries.

New Zealand was ranked 31^st . At first glance, that seems a bit of a worry. It suggests we’re among the world’s heaviest boozers.

Frank Newman: Property politics

The general election is more than a year away but the battle lines are already forming. 

Two combatants, Labour and the Greens, have entered into a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to work together with the simple objective of ousting National from the treasury benches.  It creates an interesting dynamic, given NZ First has repeated its view that it would not be part of a coalition that involved the Greens.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Do we really need new toilet laws?

Never mind about the economy, the environment, ISIS or the ZIKA virus. There are far more pressing issues facing Western law-makers. Such as where transsexuals – Arthurs who parade as Marthas, and Marthas who parade as Arthurs (‘trannies’ for short) – can go and relieve themselves when their bladders catch up with them in public places.

I’m not joking. It’s a huge issue in the US. Some states have legislated for trannies being able to use bathroom/toilet facilities in accordance with the sex they ‘identify with’. Schools are under pressure to allow supposedly transsexual kids to use toilets/changing room facilities according to the sex they think they are.

GWPF Newsletter: Unsettled Science - Antarctic Isn't Warming, Models Wrong Again

In this newsletter:

1) Unsettled Science: Antarctic Isn’t Warming, Models Wrong Again
The American Interest, 30 May 2016
 
2) New Study: Global Warming May Boost Arctic Snowfall And Slow Greenland Ice Sheet Decline
Reporting Climate Science, 24 May 2016

Daniel Mitchell: Economic Lesson from Europe - Higher Tax Rates Are a Recipe for More Red Ink

We can learn a lot of economic lessons from Europe.

- Never adopt a VAT unless you want much bigger government. 

- Bigger government means lower living standards.
- Don’t believe Bernie Sanders about the Nordic nations.