National MP Maureen Pugh has refused to say she believes in man-made climate change.
Asked if she believed in climate change caused by human actions, Pugh said she hadn’t seen evidence.
“I have yet to see the response from [Climate Change Minister] James Shaw where one of our local councils wrote to him and asked him for the evidence.”
There’s an overwhelming international consensus that humans are causing climate change through greenhouse gas emissions.
Newshub asked if she didn’t think humans are affecting climate change.
“It is not what I think. It is what I can prove. I am waiting on the evidence from the minister… I have yet to see what the evidence is that they are providing about that. “
Shaw responded by saying: “I am honestly not interested in wasting time responding to people who don’t believe in science”.
Pugh, the National MP based in West Coast-Tasman, said she isn’t denying climate change.
She told reporters the earth has cooled and warmed over a millennia.
“If I think back to the two cyclones that we had that impacted Tasman and the West Coast in 2018, back-to-back cyclones, they are just things nature throws at us,” she said.
“Of course I believe in climate change, I have seen the impact and the evidence of years and years of mining that shows you where the glacial moraines were over time. I have seen them over my own eyes. Climate change is real.”
Newshub
She didn’t deny it at all, but the media just love a chance to put the boot into National, especially when there is a real concern that Labour’s cyclone response is looking more and more like the hapless response to Hurricane Katrina in the USA.
Then Christopher Luxon decides he needs to out-woke the media and lay down the law effectively saying there is no difference between National and Labour, they are effectively the UniParty when it comes to climate change.
Pugh’s leader, Christopher Luxon, said climate deniers or minimalists should be “under no illusions it’s real”.
“I would be very strongly saying climate change is real and you only need to look at the events over the last 15 years, 10 years in New Zealand to see that is exactly the case,” Luxon said on Tuesday morning.
He said he was clear with his team that climate change is real and National is committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
On Monday, when speaking about Cyclone Gabrielle, he said: “If you’re a climate denier or climate minimalist, you’ve got to give it up”.
Newshub
Actually, no, we don’t have to give it up Christopher. He was aided and abetted in the attack on Maureen Pugh by other wets like Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop.
Other National colleagues Newshub spoke to were all adamant man-made climate change is real. National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis and MP Chris Bishop said they would be raising the issue with Pugh.
“I disagree with [Pugh],” said Willis. “I will have a conversation with her. The science is very clear that climate change is happening, that man-made emissions have contributed to it and this is an issue that we need to rise to.”
“Yes, obviously, man has an impact on the climate,” said Bishop. “There is no doubt about it. We have been filling the atmosphere with fossil fuels for generations now. Of course, it has an impact.”
Newshub
How dare someone not blindly follow the man-made climate change consensus. How dare they ask to see evidence. They should be made an example of and burnt at the stake for all to see.
If Luxon really does waste time on this, instead of holding the Government to account, then he is the problem, not Maureen Pugh.
According to Radio NZ he is going to chastise Pugh:
National MP Maureen Pugh has been pulled into line by the party leadership after telling reporters she has yet to see evidence humans have contributed to climate change.
That was immediately decried by leader Christopher Luxon and deputy Nicola Willis, who offered to give the MP plenty of reading material laying out the science and the evidence.
Pugh’s comments come after several severe – and increasingly ferocious – weather events, devastating large swathes of rural New Zealand and causing widespread damage in Auckland city.
Radio NZ
National under Christopher Luxon is wading its way towards losing the next election.
The message to his caucus was clear: “If you’re a climate denier or climate minimiser today, that’s just not an acceptable position,” Luxon said.
Radio NZ
Aren’t the MSM hoist by their own petard when they ask, “Do you believe in climate change?” – as if climate change is a fairy story you believe in or you don’t? The question should always be: “Do you agree that climate change is caused by human activities?” and the answer, unless you’re a greenie with no critical-thinking ability, or Luxon, should always be, “No, unless someone can produce categorical proof.”
Luxon’s position is there is no room in his caucus for “climate deniers”. Interesting. Pugh needs to stay, and her leader needs to go.
Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. This article was first published HERE.
5 comments:
This really hasn’t helped national. The only party with a consistent strategic approach that is fair reasonable and logical for all- is act. Seymour runs rings around everyone else .
Reminds me of the responses amongst National to the question - was colonisation good for Maori? From memory, only one stated the reality.
Agree - but he may be too cerebral for the masses.
They like emotive "identity" politicians - not analytical or common sense ones.
As a small business owner said: I voted for John Key because I liked his eyes.
This is the level. Peopleshould be afraid.
NIWA predicted in October that the 2022/23 tropical cyclone season would be 'near normal' based on average data since 1969 and they advise that La Nina brings "moist, rainy conditions to northeastern areas of the North Island and reduced rainfall to the lower and western South Island." Yip! The real problem is that the Nats didn't have their ducks in a row on climate. They are trying to be red, green and not Blue. Like many people, Pugh hasn't seen evidence, they try and figure it out, receive failed predictions from unaccountable scientists and are criticised for living. A sensible response would be to say that we need not wait for evidence to act - that's a party line most could buy. Suggesting that we look at the last ten years of data is a clear sign that Luxon doesn't know.... that climate is the average of weather across a minimum of 30 years.
Of course, the MSM jumped on the opportunity to show Luxon criticising Pugh. But she was the logical one in this argument, whereas Willis etc. backed their leaderr who presumably has the authority to harm their promotional chances. Nobody with sense denies Climate Change - it always has and always will change. The argument is whether humans cause some of it, and Pugh was completely correct to ask for the evidence. I note that James Shaw deliberately failed to produce any such evidence - probably because he does not have any! To think that we weak umans could wield sufficient strength to affect the climate is complete arrogance! Maybe it takes an Atheist to relaise that!
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