She wasn’t just there to trade the latest woke gossip or discuss who has the whitest set of ivories. Newsom, who looks like a cross between an ageing Hollywood soap star and a celebrity lawyer, could certainly give Jacinda a run for her money in that department, especially contrasted against his flawless tan.
The visit culminated with California and New Zealand’s leading politicians signing a pledge agreeing to share ideas and practices that help fight climate change.
I’m sure those of a bright green persuasion are feeling all warm and fuzzy inside at this news. After all, California does have a reputation of innovation, creativity and success. It has led from the front on climate change action and the UNIPCC Assessment Reports are worshipped on the same pedestal as the Constitution of the United States.
Surely, New Zealand can only benefit from such cooperation and experience. Or can it?
California has a population of about 40 million, eight times that of ours. Its GDP is about 17 times that of New Zealand, or in other words it has roughly double the GDP per capita we have. Combine all that wealth with the brightest minds that California allegedly attracts and you should get some cutting edge solutions to climate change.
It hasn’t worked out that way though. After decades of leading the charge, California is ranked 40th out of the 50 US states in greenhouse gas reductions per capita. Perhaps Jacinda should have signed a pledge with the state that ranks first.
A hotbed of climate extremism and noted for its hugely expensive, failed climate mitigation policies it would not be the obvious partnership choice for anyone who had taken the time to investigate its past record and was serious about effective solutions.
But that’s our “progressive” PM for you. All show and no go!
Many of California’s supposed “climate” emergencies are entirely natural and have been made to appear much worse by the effects they have on a large population of many millions more people than the natural environment was designed for. Largely dominated by desert, highly flammable chaparral and mountains, the state only flourished when human ingenuity found a way to supply water and electricity from far distant rivers and dams to the bone-dry coast.
The state has perfect conditions for wildfires and has long experienced these natural disasters on a mighty scale well before people started to settle in large numbers. Forest management in the early 1900’s greatly reduced the intensity and extent of these infernos but the rise of green environmentalism in the 1980s encouraged, then legislated against the controlled burning and clearing of dead material.
Consequently, the accumulation of this fuel has made forest fires more extreme and much harder to control. It’s a similar story for our nearest neighbour, Australia. It has nothing to do with the slight warming of just over 1C in the last 170 years.
As is all too common these days, when real data contradicts CO2 as the favoured cause of climate change it is ignored and the climate alarmists become even more zealous in their demands for ever more ridiculous and extreme solutions to a problem that there is already an answer to.
California is already moving to ban sales of new petrol cars from 2035. The cost of this is eye-watering and will put a huge strain on the state’s already creaking national grid which relies heavily on wind and solar, after scaling back and closing natural gas and nuclear generation. As a result, it has experienced persistent and rolling brownouts and blackouts in the recent past when demand for power peaks.
Jacinda wants 30% of new car sales to be electric by the same date. Perhaps Gavin can persuade her to be more gung-ho. After all, it’s no skin off her nose. She’ll be working in New York at the UN by then.
Newsom has introduced or expanded an authoritarian set of policies which affect housing, transportation and energy and impact on virtually every aspect of people's lives. The cost of housing and power has increased enormously and has caused many Californians to flee to other parts of the country where the cost of living is affordable.
The word authoritarian is music to our PM’s ears and she must be relishing the adoption of some, if not all, of her counterparts' extreme climate measures. I’m sure there will be many taxpayer-funded trips for our Labour/Greens MPs to visit and see first-hand the failures in action. That won’t stop them unequivocally recommending the same thing here.
I can’t help thinking that a more successful strategy would be to get Gav and Jacinda to lie back on a solar panel at midday and smile. Can you imagine the amount of solar radiation that would reflect back to space. It can’t be any less effective than the disastrous Californian model that Jacinda will embrace with all the fervour of a socialist increasing taxes and benefits.
On the flipside, Jacinda and Gavin were rumoured to be discussing gun control. Gav is impressed with the international headlines our PM’s been getting on her “successful” legislation to outlaw most automatic and semi-automatic weapons, after the Christchurch massacre. He doubtless wants her advice and wisdom on how to prevent the almost daily mass shootings that happen in America.
It goes without saying that constantly telling people to be kind and caring is a huge part of it. But after that, confiscate a load of guns from law-abiding firearms licence holders who don’t shoot anyone anyway, but on no account raid the gangs who are the source of virtually all gun crime in New Zealand.
As usual our MSM let her off the hook by failing to announce the sharp rise in shootings since the gun control legislation was passed. Small consolation that our advice on gun control will prove just as futile as California’s advice on climate change.
Derek Mackie is a geologist with a keen interest in current affairs.
2 comments:
This brainless virtue signalling enemy of the people meeting with Gavin the Clueless tells you all you need to know about New Zealand's "leader".
She never misses an opportunity to get her face in front of the international cameras so that her tame, home MSM can show how important she is. It would be interesting to see what, if anything comes out of this other than a few taxpayer funded, Co2 emitting trips to California.
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