The Breaking Views blog is administered by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research at NZCPR.com. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
In this newsletter:
1) US-Europe trade tensions heat up over Biden's green subsidies
Financial Times, 27 February 2023
Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on the condition of our roads and the light rail project!
But actually, this isn’t funny anymore, is it?
This has got to be costing the country money now, with people being unable to get to the places where they earn money and where they learn how to do work.
As you know, we are now in March Madness. This happens every single year; it’s the crazy time of year where the roads get really congested with the Uni students heading back to campus and their classes, school kids back at school, and the rest of us back at work.
The earth is not a static, stable, benign system and climate is continually changing, driven by large scale processes such as solar cycles, lunar cycles, orbital variations, volcanism, plate tectonics, ocean circulation, gravity variations etc. Our understanding of each of these processes individually is still far from complete, and we have a very poor knowledge of the complexities created by the interaction of these processes over different timeframes. The actual Climate Deniers are those who do not recognise the system is dynamic, and believe the climate should remain static, or that changes can be reversed. There is no climate crisis, just climate change - all measures of climate are varying within ranges that have been experienced even in the brief period of recorded human history. Kauri’s position is based on measured data and repeat observations; not modelling and assumptions.
Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on political parties all at sea!
"Failure to understand and accept basic scientific facts raises serious questions about the judgment of prospective legislators."(1)Politicking by these two activists posing as journalists started on Tuesday night when Three News political editor Jenna Lynch reported on National Party MP Maureen Pugh uttering the "heresy" that the climate has always changed, but she was still awaiting evidence that humans are causing changes.
As the weather starts to cool, many are picking up change-of-season coughs and colds and when I look at what happened in post-Covid winters overseas, I worry about how bad it might get here too.
Health NZ says it’s ‘bracing’ for a tough winter. But it’s not just sickness that may come our way which is worrying, but our ability to cope with it. There is the state of our hospitals, the workforce of frontline health workers, the shortage of nurses, the overworked doctors and the lack of GP’s in many regions.
I predicted this would happen. Cyclone Gabrielle would be used by the climate alarmists to further the cause of anthropogenic climate change.
As expected, the airline just reported a decent profit of $213 million dollars, which is a whopper when you consider the $725 million dollar loss this time last year. It means that business has just done a billion dollar a turn around.
They're already copping it from some for charging too much, and actually have been copping since analysts first started predicting this result two weeks ago.
There is no denying Air NZ has made this money off the back of charging a lot more than they used to. Domestic ticket prices are 15-20 percent higher than last year.
Gerald Posner covered the issue on February 19th, citing a few examples of changes, which are certainly not minor; entire paragraphs are removed or altered beyond recognition. There are hundreds of changes, Posner says, agreeing with writer Salman Rushdie who has called these changes “absurd censorship.”
The Police Commissioner and the PM were both on Mike’s show yesterday saying the reports of looting are just not true, that it’s all the stuff of rumour and gossip, and that it’s unsubstantiated.
But then you have the locals. They’re irate, arguably more irate after hearing the denial of it from government, and saying it is very real, it is definitely happening and they’re traumatized by it.
Immediately after the initial shock, you go through a
period of numbness that only recedes when help arrives in the form of those who
genuinely want to provide the assistance in a form that could make a
difference.
But sadly, experience tells us that too often the ones who have the capacity to help in a meaningful way are dismissive of the local advice from those best placed to make comparative assessments of the damage caused during each climate event but, more importantly, comparative assessments of the Local and Central Government responses after each disaster.
