Squirrels and beavers put a glitch into the modelling that has been used to chart climate warming
December 18, 2014Yes, Nick Smith is taking a punt with climate change – but so did Rodney with the Super City
March 15, 2011Those tossers at ACT have a bloody nerve.
Mind you, lots of nerve is needed when membership requires you to be led by a bloke who wears yellow jackets.
In this case, however, Alf is talking about the nerve of John Boscowen, who basks in the title of ACT Deputy Leader and Climate Change Spokesman.
He has got all huffy about climate change matters, and is demanding to know
… how Climate Change Minister Dr Nick Smith could propose to reduce New Zealand greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 when he does not even know what effect this target will have on jobs and GDP.
The answer is simple.
You take a bloody big punt, you stand up and you propose it.
And if you don’t know what will happen as a consequence – well, that’s just too bad.
A note of caution: don’t let the Aussie company tax decision divert our attention from the ETS
May 3, 2010Alf has only just caught up with an on-line account of what ACT MP John Boscawen had to say about the emissions trading scheme at the weekend.
Boscowen reckons National backbenchers as well as some senior Government Ministers now want to defer the scheme.
Speaking on TV3’s “The Nation” Mr Boscawen said the Government needed to immediately to defer the scheme now that Australia has decided to defer its scheme.
The New Zealand scheme is due to begin on July 1.
“I’ve heard from several sources in recent days that several members of Cabinet are concerned, “he said.
“Back bench lobby MPs are lobbying Cabinet Ministers, they’re very concerned about the damage it’s going to do to New Zealand and the damage there is to their re-election prospects.”
Dunno about the others, but Alf can be counted among the Nat back-benchers who are very unhappy with our team’s determination to go ahead with the ETS scheme.
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Another political skiver – Key puts a Danish dinner date ahead of delivering a three-minute speech
December 14, 2009Alf is far from happy with The Boss this morning.
John Key has gone all the way to Copenhagen for the much-ballyhooed greenhouse gas bunfight, but he won’t be delivering New Zealand’s speech at the international climate negotiations.
Nope. Not because – as Hone Harawira did – he is going to bugger off to Paris for a bit of sight-seeing with the missus.
In John Key’s case, he will be buggering off for a bite rather than deliver the speech.
Officials have confirmed Mr Key, who arrives in Denmark on Thursday morning, will be at dinner at the royal palace while Climate Minister Nick Smith delivers a three-minute speech on Thursday night.
Keisha should be chuffed as Key yields the high ground
August 16, 2009Bring back Rob Muldoon.
Yep. It sounds like a heresy.
But Rob would never have apologised to Whale Rider star Keisha Castle-Hughes – as John Key has done – for suggesting she “stick to acting” rather than debate climate change issues.
The only saving grace is that The Boss didn’t dive for the photo opportunity, as Alf previously had feared, by being pictured with the somewhat skinny lass.
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Let’s have a 100% reduction in hot air from Keisha
August 6, 2009Keisha Castle-Hughes – an actress – is disinclined to take Prime Minister John Key’s advice to “stick to acting” and not publicly parade her potty opinions on climate change.
The uppity lass has gone further and invited herself to a chat with the PM.
The Whale Rider actor told Close Up last night that she would be willing to meet Mr Key to discuss the issue.
“I’d love to sit down and maybe he’d know that – if we sat down and talked – that I know a lot more about it than I think he thinks I do.”
Giving Jim his Nobel dues
April 29, 2009The Green Party’s persistence in describing climate scientist Jim Salinger as a Nobel Prize winner needs exploring.
Alf – uncharacteristically – might have been a tad dismissive two days ago.
At the time of the award, The NZ Herald recognised the work of Salinger (who composts his food scraps and uses energy-efficient light bulbs) and Dr David Wratt (who uses public transport and plants trees):
But the personal contributions of the Niwa climate scientists in tackling the issue of global warming go way beyond commitments to reduce their carbon footprints.
For years the pair have devoted huge amounts of time to the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which was this month awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
The organisation shares the prize with former United States Vice-President Al Gore for his film An Inconvenient Truth, in recognition of their efforts to raise awareness and impetus around the threat of climate change.
NIWA curbs talk about the weather
April 27, 2009Sounds like that Barmy Banana bloke – or one of the Fijian strongman’s henchmen – has taken over our National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.
The result is the muzzling of NIWA scientists, most obviously manifest in the sacking of well known climate scientist Jim Salinger.
The story has been nudged along by Green Party expressions of outrage, although – true to form – if the Greens have a hot flush, they turn up the heat to grab a more sizzling headline. They described Salinger as a Nobel Prize winner.
Bollocks. But more of that later.
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Chauvel’s caution had already been sounded
April 15, 2009From the Labour side of the political divide comes a media statement headed “Latest NZ carbon position no cause for complacency”.
The statement was issued by Labour’s Climate Change Issues Spokesperson Charles Chauvel, who said there were four reasons why the Government’s announcement of a better-than-expected carbon emissions position should be treated with caution.
Alf was pleasantly surprised by Chauvel’s numerical skills. Obviously he misunderstood when – in a chat with mates in Bellamy’s about Labour leadership prospects – someone said Chauvel didn’t count.
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