RANGI WEEPS

We are speechless.




We really don't know what to say other that this breaks BB's golden rule. Use words bigger than Wheelbarrow more than three times in one sentence and you are in serious danger of sounding very silly.

BIG TICKS FOR GROSER AND JOYCE

Tim Groser and Steven Joyce have been star performers for the government and both have been given the recognition they deserve by the Prime Minister. We are pleased that Tim has been given the chance to lead the weighty and complex job of International Climate Change. His wisdom and pragmatism will give New Zealand the chance to optimise any trade gains that can be made from world wide rush to Emissions Trading. We need to ensure that international policy does not impact negatively on the backbone of our economy - dairying.

As for Joyce - it's well known that he has the capacity for a heavy workload and a head for long term strategy - his sector relations are also superb. The education portfolio will benefit from his helicopter roll.

The lack of large changes to Cabinet will dismay Labour who will have been looking for blood. While they will be able to make some mileage out of Anne Tolleys demotion, there is little else wher Labour can gain any traction.

Key has put his two "fix it" men in charge of the areas that are the two biggest risks - that type of decision making just underscores the PM's growing reputation for pragmatism.

AND THEREIN LIES THE TRUTH

We still think that Climate Change is a load of tosh. And we fervently believe that the only true beneficiaries of an Emissions Trading Scheme will be the margin traders..

So here is a simple lesson why we have been hoodwinked.

ETS Slides

A RING OF CONFIDENCE

We are not - nor will be unquestioning believers in Global warming. We have seen the world wake up to the obvious manipulation of some of the core science of climate change in recent weeks. Now this.

Coming to light in recent days has been one of the most extraordinary scientific detective stories of our time, bizarrely centred on a single tree in Siberia dubbed "the most influential tree in the world". On this astonishing tale, it is no exaggeration to say, could hang in considerable part the future shape of our civilisation. Right at the heart of the sound and fury of "Climategate" – the emails leaked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) in East Anglia – is one story of scientific chicanery, overlooked by the media, whose implications dwarf all the rest. If all those thousands of emails and other documents were leaked by an angry whistle-blower, as now seems likely, it was this story more than any other that he or she wanted the world to see.

Now we not skilled in any area of science however we can read and this article in the Daily Telegraph makes for very compelling reading...

Seems the whole debate could rest in the rings of a tree...

ITS URGENT - REALLY.

The Aussie Rock says this is funny... He is right it is..

HOT STUFF

We are still pondering the ETS deal. Never ever before have we seen right wing commentators to a man and woman be so universal in their critical condemnation of a political decision.

And that criticism also extends to the venal play by Ngai Tahu which has seen them " secure" the planting rights to about 30,000ha of unused DOC land in the South Island to plant native forests.. They can claim the carbon credits for what they plant but they have to manage the forests and they have to plant them as well. We reckon analysis further down the track will show its the most crap deal any iwi has ever signed up to.

And a good Maori mate reckons the fellas who are taking the free trip to the Climate Change talks in Copenhagen as part of the Maori Party deal look like - quote, " house niggers"

Tough term but apt.

We wonder if ace guitarist and songster Tim Groser has been practicing Ten Guitars for the trip with the bro's. Or maybe he will get everyone singing " Hot Stuff"
Or maybe Burning down the house.


We think that Nick Smith is actually the fall guy in all this. We reckon there will be a big dip in the polls as the public comes to grips with the ETS and its ramifications.
Smith is Keys sacrificial lamb. He gets the shit job of shoving through all the unpopular legislation like climate change and ACC and then we reckon that Key will cut him lose and demote him as a succour to an angry public. The result - a bounce back in the polls.

Did we say that? Nah must have been a flight of fancy -too much red wine. Key is way too nice to do that to Smith- isn't he?

We not to sure if we want to laugh or cry....

ETS = BUMMER

We really dont know what more to say other than today was crap- we are disgusted and dismayed for all the reasons we have outlined in previous posts.

JUSTA THOUGHT....

If there is an iwi support group going to the Copenhagen Climate Change Talkfest, as part of the ETS deal, will they ask Hone Harawira how they can get to Paris?

And will they fly to gay Paris or take a bus?

And how do the iwi support group plan to offset the environmental cost of the trip or is that being built into the DOC deal?

And who is paying for the cost of the lawyers or is the government picking up the tab?

Like, we are just curious.. thats all...

CLIMATE CHANGE SCANDAL BREAKING

It started here in NZ after Investigate magzine confirmed that some leaked emails circulating on the internet, from one of the worlds leading climate change research centres in Britain were not a hoax. Its a very curious tale of hacked emails that appear to question the integrity of the the Climate change promoters.

The story is now global and in the main stream..and Gotcha has the best summary in the blogosphere.

TELL US IT AINT SO

We have being doing the toil in the soil thing all weekend, feeling the earth mother within.. Gaia unbound.

So it was with dismay that we read a disturbing post over at Gotcha by Whale Oil.
on the train back to Wellington.

He reckons that the Iwi leaders forum, and the Maori party have demanded, as part of the ETS deal - that their leaders and kaumatua get an all expenses trip to Copenhagen to attend the climate change talks. And apparently Nick Smith is okay with it.
Why? we ask. What value is added? What will it achieve? Why will the taxpayers have to fork out for the cost?

If they( the Maori support group) believe in Climate change isnt it a bit rich to burn up so much carbon to get to a conference just , well just because you have a big swinging dick and want to look important?

And isn't it utterly bilious when Key is asking for prudent spending from everyone?

CLUSTER F**K ALERT

Radio NZ has leaked papers show that Maori are wanting a treaty type deal over forest plantings.

Remember all this against a backdrop of legal advice that shows that iwi are standing on the head of a pin over their claims that the government didnt tell them about the ETS when they negotiated the treaty settlements over a decade ago.

Considering that the ETS has only been around as a concept for about 7 years its crap to think that it would have come up in negotiations.

So we think this is a bloody barmy idea. It will incense other iwi who miss out and rightly so. And why should iwi commercial interests be treated any differently than any other commercial interest???

Carbon news also appears to have the insiding running on the political machinations surrounding the ETS


According to Carbon News;

The Maori Party is deeply divided over changes to the emissions trading scheme – but wont split its vote on the issue.They reckon that three of it's five MP's don't support it but they will still back the legislation.. and are likely to file a Minority report and they say

they say that the Maori Party dont like the current scheme, introduced by Labour because, it didnt go far enough in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

Apparently they have got some concessions like

protecting low-income families from rising energy costs as a result of the scheme, the shifting of the allocation of free carbon credits from fishing boat owners to quota holders, and the inclusion of references to the Treaty of Waitangi in the ETS.

Carbon News also reckons the Maori party pushed hard at the select committee forcing 5 days of deliberations instead of the one the govt had reckoned on.

MP's Rahui Katene and Hone Harawira are at odds with the rest of the MP's.

Carbon news says if these two voted against it , it would prevent the bill going ahead.


Yip this issue has all the hallmarks of a grade A cluster f**ck.

BIGGEST HOAX OF THE DECADE?

Well apparently the tide is turning , people are starting to get more sceptical as more absurd claims are made about the impending doom we face as the planet does or does not get a bit toasty.

So it is with great delight that we find that The Australian columnist Janet Albrechtsen sounds a sensible word of caution about the growing hysteria and stunts...

Supposed "facts" like this:

" Scientists scolded us with a report that a 750ml bottle of bubbly could produce 100 million bubbles, releasing five litres of carbon dioxide."

Errr yea - so what about beer? And anyway who cares.... its fluffy inconsequential stuff.

But its the stunts and the lies that Albrechtsen really takes issue with.

Just like the small island nation of Maldives where, last month, the president conducted a cabinet meeting underwater to remind the world that his country would be rendered uninhabitable by rising sea levels. Kitted out in full scuba-diving outfits, Mohamed Nasheed and his ministers sat at a table underwater off the coast of the capital of Male.

As planned, the president’s stunt made headlines across the globe. Send us money - and lots of it - is his message. The media love stunts. They are so easy to report.

Sadly, the media is not inquisitive enough to report those who question the circus acts of climate change. A week after the Maldives underwater show, Nils-Axel Morner - a leading world authority on sea levels - wrote an open letter to the president telling him that his stunt was “not founded in observational facts and true scientific judgments”.

Morner is a former professor who headed the department of paleogeophysics and geodynamics at Stockholm University and past president (1999-2003) of the International Union for Quaternary Research commission on sea level changes and coastal evolution. INQUA was founded in 1928 by scientists who aimed to improve the understanding of environmental change during the glacial ages through interdisciplinary research. In other words, the Swedish professor has gravitas when it comes to sea levels.

Alas his letter did not make headlines. That is a shame. Morner says there is “no rational basis” for the hysterical claims that the people of Maldives - or the rest of the world - are threatened by rising sea levels. And he sets out some facts.

Fact number 1: During the past 2000 years, sea levels have fluctuated with 5 peaks reaching 0.6m to 1.2m above present sea level. Fact number 2: From 1790 to 1970 sea levels were about 20cm higher than today. Fact number 3: In the 1970s, the sea level fell by about 20cm to its present level. Fact number 4: Sea levels have remained constant for the past 30 years “implying that there are no traces of any alarming ongoing sea level rise”. Fact number 5 (and I am paraphrasing here): The notion presented by the President of the Maldives that his country will be flooded is bunkum.

We prefer to call it bullshit... Even if it does warm up the globe a bit....

And for a fragile economy like ours we dont want to see the decision makers put the probable fiction of climate change ahead of the definite imperative to keep our economy safe..

SOFT WOOD - HARD TALK

There’s a six billion dollar fight over the ETS about to blow up. That’s how much Maori-owned forestry land has been devalued by the ETS.

The issue is the inclusion of pre-1990 forestry in the scheme. That’s trees planted more than 20 years ago – so radiata forests that are ready to be harvested, or slower growing species.

New Zealand is the only country in the world to include these forests in an ETS – no one else is even thinking about doing something so stupid.

Nick Smith’s forestry folly means that if you have one of these forests and it’s time to harvest it, and you want to do something else with the land – like build a wind farm – you have to buy $20,000 of carbon credits for every hectare.

It’s so much, that of course you can’t afford not to replant so your land has to stay in forestry forever. That means its worth much less – about $6 billion less according to the widely respected Federation of Maori Authorities (aka FoMA).

Now you’d think the Maori Party would be all over this issue. New Zealand stands alone as the only country willing to impose massive financial penalties on forestry (and agriculture) in the name of climate change – and these are the sectors where Maori have most of their money tied up.

But we’ve heard on the kumara vine that the Maori Party is of the belief that the Iwi Leaders Forum set up by the Ministry for the Environment supports the inclusion of pre-1990 forests in the ETS.

We hear that in fact most of the members of the Iwi leadership forum are strongly against the forests being in the scheme, but the Ministry for the Environment bureaucrats are telling the politicians the opposite.

So Tariana Turia went on national TV today to say the Maori Party supports the ETS because iwi do.

They don’t. FoMA and the northern tribes are going to be turning up the heat on this issue this week and a few iwi leadership forum members are going to get their heads chopped off in the process. Tariana’s won’t be happy when she finds out she was deceived and managed to piss off most of the main Maori forestry players throughout the country.

At the same time, Ngai Tahu reckons it can come to a separate arrangement that will see them get a bigger cash payout for agreeing to the inclusion.

That is appalling in itself. At a time when they should be standing shoulder to shoulder with all other tribes (and all other forestry owners) they have decided to take a course of action that lines their pockets and does not take into account the economic security of the forestry and agriculture sectors.

Ngai Tahu would do better to look at growing their assets instead of looking for the easy way to stick the government for more cash.

However the good news is that we also understand that the government has started to lose patience with Ngai Tahu and Tainui who seem to act like teenagers still trying to bone ma and pa for some Friday night beer money instead of getting on with working out ways how they can stand on their own financial feet.

They cant keep coming back and finding creative excuses for more hand outs just because they spent all their money on the equivalent of lollies and lotto.

Yet another reason for a change of leadership at the Ngai Tahu's "Table" or ruling council.

So it could prove to be another embarrassing week for the Maori Party if they end up getting blindsided on this issue on top of the MTS debacle.

We can't work out why the Maori Party would even think that the inclusion of pre 1990 forests could ever be a good thing. It is the biggest raupatu since the 19^th century and all the main players in Maoridom know it.

NICK SHOTS HIMSELF IN FOOT - NO ACCIDENT

Bummer it looks like Nick is in a bit of schtuck over his comments over ACC suicide payments being a bit of an incentive for people to kill themselves. We reckon he is bloody right. We are in a recession and its logical that the idea you can top yourself and the state will provide for your kids and missus would be something you would think about. We are very staunch on the individuals right to top themselves whenever they want but there is no way that we think the state should pay.

Now the big problem for Smith is that he has two of the most significant and controversial pieces of legislation in ACC and Climate Change needing to be bedded in. And like the Rugby World Cup debacle it seems that the governments cross party relations are a little shaggy. They need to appoint someone and quick to manage the interparty relationships. We also understand that Smiths management of these issues is also starting to worry Key. As well it should.

WORSHIPPING AT THE ALTER OF THE GREEN

You have to worry about Nick Smith. He is the out of tune green soloist in a band of blue.

So it is with alarm that we we read the Wall Street Journal and see that they are taking the piss out of NZ because we are shaping up to take a hit on our livings standards to " look good" in a green way in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Its a very succinct and hard hitting article that will reach the eyes of most of the key influencers of the world.

Stuff pandering to the green climate change extremists . This Government has more support than any other administration has had for bloody years. So it is in that political climate that you would think that Keys boys would be prepared to make some of the tougher decisions.

So its time to drop your balls boys. Concentrate on making this country the economic powerhouse it could be, indeed should be, but reducing our living standards as a sacrfice to the green idols aint the way to do it.

KEISHA NEEDS ECONOMICS 101, NOT A CHAT WITH THE PM

We were saddened to see that John Key had apologised to Keisha Castle Hughes using her acting ability to promote the Climate change debate. Now she has status and her flakey Greenpeace cause has more credence.

And Greenpeace should not get support from the Government.

LITTLE GIRLS SHOULD BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD

We were delighted to read Keys great put down of Keisha Castle - Hughes to " stick to acting"

Finally someone who has the guts to tell people whose only attributes are based on their impersonation skills, that they are not authorities on weighty matters of state.
Now Keisha, bless her little cotton undies, seems to be a lovely girl who cares for the planet and that is a good thing but that does not give her the right to ponce around like some understudy diva and demand an audience with the Prime Minister.

She needs to learn some manners and humility and spend some time doing some serious analysis of all the facts. Then she will realise that what she is proposing makes her look like a complete airhead.

And we note that Sainsbury has her as a guest on Close Up tonight. We will watch and take the piss...

UPDATE - we just watched and winced .

Lordy - she is sweet, she is a loving mum, she can act but she will never ever be a rocket scientist. And if she expelled less hot air she would do the planet a real favour.

AUSSIE LABOUR PICTURE DOESN'T CUT THE ICE

Climate change is an argument of two sides as this story in the Australian shows and we are squarely on the side of the non believers. Yeah, things may be hotting up (a bit) but we are not convinced that the human element is the key driver.

But the Australian has a lovely bit about how ex Midnight Oil frontman and now Eco Minister for the Rudd Government Peter Garrett has been caught bullshitting.

<--------Its all to do with this pic of the Wilkins Ice Shelf

So Garrett has now pulled back on claims that we will be swamped by a sea rise of 6M. He used the break up of the Wilkins Ice shelf to prove his point that global warming was dramatic.

Mr Garrett claimed the break-up of the Wilkins ice shelf in West Antarctica indicated sea level rises of 6m were possible by the end of the century, and that ice was melting across the continent.

The Environment Minister later sought to distance himself from his comments.

A study released last week by the British Antarctic Survey concluded that sea ice around Antarctica had been increasing at a rate of 100,000sqkm a decade since the 1970s.

While the Antarctic Peninsula, which includes the Wilkins ice shelf and other parts of West Antarctica were experiencing warmer temperatures, ice had expanded in East Antarctica, which is four times the size of West Antarctica.

British newspaper The Observer this month published prominently a story with a photograph of breaks in the Wilkins shelf.

"A huge ice shelf in the Antarctic is in the last stages of collapse and could break up within days in the latest sign of how global warming is thought to be changing the face of the planet," the story began.

In March last year, US news agency msn published the same photograph with a similar story that began: "A vast ice shelf hanging on by a thin strip looks to be the next chunk to break off from the Antarctic Peninsula, the latest sign of global warming's impact on Earth's southernmost continent." The photograph was published by numerous other outlets, including The Australian.

A spokeswoman for the British Antarctic Survey said the photograph in both stories was taken in March last year.

Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce said the misuse of the photograph and the similar story lines 13 months apart reflected how the Wilkins ice shelf break-up was being recycled annually to fuel global warming concerns.

Senator Joyce said Mr Garrett's entry into the debate demonstrated how it was being hijacked by misinformation.

He is a bloody liar. Lying is common in lefty political circles - Remember the H Fee story ?

CLIMATE CHANGE - BASED ON " SMALL BODY OF EVIDENCE

Debate is raging amongst the Australian scientific community over Climate Change - some has been spurred on by the fact that there is a net increase in ice in Antarctica. New debate has been sparked after the release of a book called Heaven and Earth: Global warming - the missing science.

The Author of Heaven of Earth, Geologist Iam Plimer sums it up nicely.

Many scientists, he said, had not considered the history of the earth when discussing climate change, or factors including the earth's rotation, changing tides and solar winds.

"When you look at the selective evidence, then there's a chance that you might be frightened about the end of the world," Professor Plimer said.

"When you look at the comprehensive evidence, it just says the planet changes all the time."

Of course, all the doomsayers reckon that Plimer has used selective evidence to back up his claims.

His book has proved to be so popular 10,000 copies sold out in two days. That shows people do want to hear all sides of the debate and are prepared to spend money to buy a book to read about it.

POST CUTS NO ICE WITH CLIMATE CHANGE PROMOTER

We like debate - Adding noughts in vain got elegantly pissy over our BRING ON THE GIN post about the net gain in ice at the Antarctic. We do know that the Arctic is up north, he suggests we maybe geographically challenged, and we get his argument, sort of.

Anyway in the spirit of good debate, we have linked to the the Noughty man , who says he is a theoretical physicist, so he must be smarter than a smart thing.