Open mike 12/08/2013

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, August 12th, 2013 - 90 comments
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90 comments on “Open mike 12/08/2013 ”

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  1. Jenny 1
    12 August 2013 at 6:13 am

    In the last election and possibly in the next election conventional wisdom is that it is a vote loser for the Green Party to play up the danger of climate change as an election issue.

    That raising this issue would be a liability on the hustings.

    At the last election Green Party candidates were told to tone it down about the climate.

    Though I have detected some positive movement away from this view, it seems to be, still, the ruling viewpoint inside the leadership of the Green Party.

    But have the Green Party policy wonks and advisers got it wrong?

    When Gina McCarthy first met with Obama in the Oval Office on Jan. 10 to discuss the prospect of heading the Environmental Protection Agency, she recalled, “the first words out of his mouth was the need for EPA to focus on climate.”

    In his chief of staff, Denis McDonough, Obama has a policy manager who has written and contributed to several pieces on climate change as a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress think tank in 2006 and 2007. He is a sharp contrast to former Obama chiefs of staff William Daley and Rahm Emanuel, who both privately saw global warming as a political liability for the president.

    The shift has alarmed some industry officials, as well as coal allies. Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) described the administration as coal’s “adversary”….

    …..“You cannot describe this any differently than as a war on coal, and not just in West Virginia or the U.S. but on a global scale,” he said. “They’re using every tool they have to destroy the most abundant, reliable and affordable resource that we have.”

    Juliet Eilperin Washington Post: August 11

    Senator Joe Manchin is right. This is, “a war on coal”. And it is, being conducted on a “global scale”.

    Coal is the single greatest cause of climate change. As James Hanson has said “If we can’t stop coal, it is all over for the climate”.

    In talking with Green Party insiders I have been told, (though I have never seen the citation), that it is Green Party policy to oppose all new coal mines. In my opinion this is extremely laudable.

    But will this policy be ditched in the quest for cabinet positions?

    Will Green Party opposition to the huge new open cast coal mine at Denniston be sacrificed to the view, that raising objections to this climate crime will cost votes?

    Will climate change be an election issue in 2014?

    • tc 1.1
      12 August 2013 at 6:41 am

      If its about votes jenny the greens have plenty of other areas that will get them votes as the only coherent alternative to the nact with labour adrift with captain blind and his old boy caucus.

    • Colonial Viper 1.2
      12 August 2013 at 7:15 am

      So you’re ignoring the Obama Administration resuming deep sea drilling straight after Deep Water Horizon? Permitting shale oil fracking right across the country? Continuing to plan large pipelines from the Alberta tar sands? Boasting about becoming a major net exporter of oil again?

      You don’t think that pissing coal off is a device to push investment into shale oil and shale gas plays?

    • Pascal's bookie 1.3
      12 August 2013 at 7:23 am

      At the last election Green Party candidates were told to tone it down about the climate.

      cite?

    • bad12 1.4
      12 August 2013 at 11:10 am

      Still pushing that double negative jenny, the Green Party for your info have a go at National in the House at least once a week over climate change,

      Last week it was Kennedy Graeham grilling Tim Grosser which was only not very enlightening because Grosser simply buries all His answers with a pile of hyperbole,

      The problem the Green Party has is simple to describe as ‘being able to take the wider electorate with them’ as they seek solutions to drastically reduce CO2 atmospheric levels,

      My view is that trying to alter what ‘we’ do now without creating a political backlash is nearly impossible and much more energy should be put into researching and developing the technology with which industrial amounts of CO2 can be removed from the atmosphere and used as a fuel source,

      The science and tech surrounding doing this while in it’s infancy shows that this can be achieved and while an expensive exercise in terms of per tonne of CO2 removed from the atmosphere when compared with the cost of even the mildest negative effects of ongoing climate change would in time prove to have been a small price to pay…

      • Rogue Trooper 1.4.1
        12 August 2013 at 2:04 pm

        it was interesting watching Groser (on behalf of the nats that day) conceding the scientifically supported reality of climate change and it’s relevance to New Zealand economics. Only about a year or so after Bill and Lyn’s excellent posts on The Standard presenting highly probable trends.
        As Jenny identifies, poll-based policy abounds.

    • Lanthanide 1.5
      12 August 2013 at 12:19 pm

      I don’t think Jenny is too far off the mark, in terms of the general populace’s view on climate change.

      Stuff comments are sometimes fairly amenable to left-wing politics, and certainly there are a lot more negative comments about Key/National than there used to be.

      But on any story about climate change, there’s a talkback taliban effect of huge numbers of denier comments being rated up, and anyone trying to talk science is voted down harshly.

  2. stever 2
    12 August 2013 at 6:38 am

    I like this quote from “Briar” in the comments section below this article

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/11/peter-capaldi-doctor-who-children

    by A L Kennedy in The Guardian:

    “Since when has “aspiration” been such a good thing? I have aspirations, as a matter of fact. I aspire to live in a civilised country where women, gays and people of different colours are treated as equals. I aspire to live in a country where nobody is poor (and nobody is so rich that they have to throw money away on million pound bottles of champagne). I aspire to live in a country where the old can live in comfort, where everyone who is sick gets the treatment they need, regardless of cost, where the mentally ill are not stuffed into prison for lack of any better option, where everyone is actually equal before the law, where everyone who wants to can go to university and not have to pay for it. And so on. These are aspirations. They just don’t happen to be selfish ones. How come they don’t count in this bright and shiny new world of the selfish?”

  3. Wairua 3
    12 August 2013 at 6:55 am

    This is not just about Brand Fonterra.

    It is also about Brand Key.

  4. phillip ure 4
    12 August 2013 at 7:44 am

    brown just had a performance on tvone breakfast..

    ..that after viewing..you must wipe the oil/slime from yr monitor…

    http://whoar.co.nz/2013/ed-could-len-brown-be-more-supercilliouscondescending-and-more-of-a-captive-of-the-roading-lobby/

    phillip ure..

  5. richard 5
    12 August 2013 at 8:14 am

    Change a few names and this analysis of why the Labour party is fumbling in Britain could be written about the New Zealand Labour party

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/11/where-labour-going-wrong-ed-miliband

  6. vto 6
    12 August 2013 at 8:33 am

    Key looked pudgy, grey and tired on the tele at the pillagers conference over the weekend. I reckon he knows he aint gonna get there at the next election.

    Meantime the merry band of looters that was his fawning crowd will continue to take advantage of corporate welfare, business subsidies, tax cuts, weakened RMA, weakened employment laws and take take take. They will offer nothing back to the taxpayers who support these bludgers and will instead blame everyone but themselves for the problems they have exacerbated in their very own communities.

    What a sorry bunch of losers

    • Asterix 6.1
      12 August 2013 at 11:58 am

      I am preparing for the digital changeover by discontinuing
      that monolithic legacy technology known as “tele vision”
      which allows US Billionaires like Murdoch to dominate
      the worldview and politics of mere nations like ours.

    • Tigger 6.2
      12 August 2013 at 3:05 pm

      He’s back to looking pretty deathly. His father died relatively young from a heart attack, yes? Key might want to remember that.

  7. Sanctuary 7
    12 August 2013 at 9:19 am

    It looks like Bradbury and Selwyn both had their meds run out over the weekend, I hope they get to the chemist for the repeat before tomorrow. Martyn Bradbury is a paid hack of Mana, so you can’t expect much else from him than his usual quasi-Marxist politics of resentment, where the designated traitor is the exclusive foam flecked target of those who regard the achievable as the enemy of the perfect, and the the success of the right/defeat of the moderate left is exulted as a radicalising moment on the road to revolutionary nirvana.

    But Tim Selwyn’s piece on farmers is actually a quite disturbing piece of hate speech. No wonder he’s a convicted criminal – if he believes half of the stuff he writes he will inevitably see more of the inside of the holding cells in Albert Street. If it is wrong to objectify and collectively punish beneficiaries, it is equally wrong to objectify farmers.

    Taken as a pair, as a body of work that represents the thinking of two high profile Mana party supporters, a rather disturbing picture of that party emerges. A party of full of resentment, tall poppyism, dogmatic obsessions and anti-white racism. A party of losers who have lost to often. If the twin efforts of Bradbury and Selwyn are any guide, Mana can offer the country nothing.

    • marty mars 7.1
      12 August 2013 at 9:35 am

      so you don’t like Mana, well ho hum, hope you feel better for getting that off your chest.

    • Tiger Mountain 7.2
      12 August 2013 at 9:50 am

      Needn’t be a dick all your life Sanctuary. The healing has begun here at the mighty Standard.

      Bomber may be a political hybrid but you underestimate the longer term concept of Mana. A hard left/Māori nationalist unity in action is the the rights worst nightmare so perhaps it is you that needs the meds.

      • Sanctuary 7.2.1
        12 August 2013 at 1:55 pm

        “…A hard left/Māori nationalist unity in action…”

        What? This is a joke comment, right?

        One thing I wish a website like would have is a place to more robustly debate ideology, because this is ideological nonsense of the highest order.

        Maori nationalists a la the Harawiras seems to me to be an incredibly reactionary, backward looking movement grounded in the belief that Maori society was this undynamic thing and in a perfect stasis of noble savagery until it was torn asunder by contact with wicked (but more technologically advanced) European cultures. The hard left meanwhile is a bunch of variegated Marxists whose inability to come to terms with the genocides of the USSR and mass murder of Mao let alone the welfare state has seen them floundering about like drowning men in a sea of denial and wishful thinking for the last forty years.

        What unites the Māori nationalists and the hard left is a hard line utopianism that pines for a world that never was and a world that can never be respectively, and a desire for revolutionary revenge/redistribution which allows them both to present their ideas using similar revolutionary rhetoric.

        The clash between the reactionary Maori nationalism of Turia and the socialist Maori nationalism of Hone Harawira is not one of left vs. right one in the sense either of them is more inclusive than the other. Harawira and co want an apartheid society with a new bunch of brown faces in charge of the means of production; Turia’s model is an apartheid society with an invented Iwi aristocracy in charge. To my mind, neither of these backward looking, racist and nepotistic visions should be particularly attractive to a modern socialist whose primarily interest should be the creation of a society with equality of opportunity for everyone and one that defends the positive liberties that equality of opportunity unlocks for everyone.

        At the end of the day, the wider left lost the debate over the last thirty years because it was unable to tell a story of a positive future. The agenda was inverted and socialism was the new conservatism, tiredly defending status quo pragmatism against the message of the zealous change agents of the new right. Socialism became the ideology of the already defeated, seeking constantly to mitigate the disaster via identity politics or accommodation rather than trying to win the war.

        I would put it to you that the ambient politics of resentment – or as I call it “loserist politics” – that you get from a lot of Mana supporters is the result of the ideological contradictions that lie at the heart of the alliance of the margins that is Mana. What unites them is what they resent and oppose, and that negativity seeps through to almost all their conversations. To my way of looking at it, the tonal loserism of Mana is just the fag end of that sorry tale of left wing defeat, not the flag bearer of a new socialist way of thinking about the future.

        • Rogue Trooper 7.2.1.1
          12 August 2013 at 2:12 pm

          thought-provoking Sanctuary, reminds me of Chris Trotter’s style, applied with another perspective.

          • Ennui 7.2.1.1.1
            12 August 2013 at 3:02 pm

            Actually Rogue, I have some sympathy with Sanctuarys interpretation. It exposes some raw edges of the Left that as he says would greatly benefit from some robust debate. There are some sacred cows to be led to the slaughter.

            Conversely Santuary’s triumphalism for the Right might also have to go on ice, they have merely generated the same seeds of their own demise as their mirror image, the ideological Left.

            • Rogue Trooper 7.2.1.1.1.1
              12 August 2013 at 3:46 pm

              re Bonds for earthquake strengthening, echoes some of our own thoughts and discussions on this, and the rental warrant-of-fitness issue. Failure to maintain safety of income-generating assets by property investors in a country that experiences regular, predicted seismic activity and has researched, documented, comparatively cold and damp residential rental stock. (all that extra water vapour in the atmosphere joe transcribes in the climate update below).
              and on, and on, Ennfinitum. 🙂

              ps. Coleman not gonna cut Defence funding for a few more years, maybe some more Theatres to go with those Sports Stadiums, “over the top Lads, let’s give Gerry what ho!”.

              • Ennui …
                12 August 2013 at 4:15 pm

                Just been on Gerry’s home turf….we should send Coleman there to be subject to their tender mercies…..really liked the Germans, they might civilise him!

                • Rogue Trooper …
                  12 August 2013 at 4:44 pm

                  been reading more books instead of blogs. Like on Passchendaele and other tragedies of human history. With an igloo box my friend gets el-cheapo pay-tv (National Geographic, BBC Knowledge etc); there was this programme yesterday on what Wales was like during the copper and iron smelting stages of their industrial (capital) revolution – the ore was shipped to the coal- with the puddling process developed by Cort being adopted in the Ruhr. What was striking was all the chimneys in Wales, belching smoke into the sky at the time, with social conditions such that (maybe only one university) ‘intellectuals’ had to leave the predominantly working-class country to receive higher education.
                  Yet, all those chimneys – ominous.

                • Rogue Trooper …
                  12 August 2013 at 4:46 pm

                  sorry about the all bold ; It’s a Neverending Story .

        • marty mars 7.2.1.2
          12 August 2013 at 4:47 pm

          sanc all your assumptions are wrong imo but you build a nice little rant platform from them.

          Tino rangatiratanga is about looking forwards not backwards.

          The last people imo that believe in a non-dynamic Māori perspective are tino rangatiratanga adherents, let alone the ‘perfect stasis’ you propose.

          Tino rangatiratanga is not about revenge it is about the opposite of that.

          What unites those who believe in tino rangatiratanga and the left are belief in equality and fairness especially for those disregarded in our society – whatever ethnicity.

          Mana don’t want an apartheid society.

          The Mana Movement is much more than the ‘resent and oppose’ description you use and it isn’t negative at all.

          Anyway your big words and puffed-up language cannot disguise your own resentments and your last paragraph is defeatest in tone and content. Great I say because Mana doesn’t need or want people like you imo, you’re better off trying 1law4all.

        • Tiger Mountain 7.2.1.3
          12 August 2013 at 5:22 pm

          Rave on; Sanctuary. Neo liberalist capitalism is the fag end of human development, unwilling to even feed and water the worlds people. US imperialism’s annual military budget could do just that laddie.

    • Ennui 7.3
      12 August 2013 at 10:05 am

      Just read Tim Selwyn’s column, actually it is uncommonly accurate. It is not hate speech, it merely points out valid realities that should be of real concern to any society seeking some cogency. The farmers advantages are real, the corollary is that others don’t have these advantages. Whether that is good or bad depends on your viewpoint, but it does not make them any less real.

      • weka 7.3.1
        12 August 2013 at 11:46 am

        Seemed pretty accurate to me too, apart from the generalisation (I’ve seen some of the ‘green’ CC episodes).

    • richard 7.4
      12 August 2013 at 10:09 am

      Santuary, is this all your own work? I’m sure I’ve read the same thing written by someone else. Though I suppose if you haven’t got the sense to think for yourself, you may as well copy and paste what someone else has thought.

      • Sanctuary 7.4.1
        12 August 2013 at 10:54 am

        Errrr… Righto sport. I guess you have a clue what you are talking about, which makes one of us.

    • karol 7.5
      12 August 2013 at 10:19 am

      Thanks for you clever example of Hate Speech double-speak hypocrisy, Sanctuary.

      Actually, Bomber is a long term activists, who has embraced the Mana approach to politics, because it is in keeping with his values. From his about page:

      He has appeared at numerous political and union functions over the last few years. He is a political consultant to organisations of the left and centre-left and argued for the creation of the MANA Party as a party to the Left of the Greens as a means for the Left to win back Parliament. Mr Bradbury also hosts the current affairs show ‘Citizen A’ on Face TV and was Editor in Residence at the Wintec School of Journalism.

      Sanct – your hate-loaded spin avoids mentioning the range of organisations Bradbury hires his services to, and the range of work he does.

    • millsy 7.6
      12 August 2013 at 10:46 am

      I thought Tim Selwyn was Maori Party/ACT?

    • phillip ure 7.7
      12 August 2013 at 11:02 am

      sanctuary..as the farmers and the beneficiaries are both being persecuted…

      ..’d’yareckon they should join forces..?

      ..y’know..!..as in..my enemies’ enemy is my friend..?

      ..maybe working together as ‘pity the poor farmers!’..(geddit..?..geddit..?..)

      ..or..maybe farmers should try to get a bigger voice in wellington..?

      ..(oh..!..hang on..!..)

      phillip ure..

    • Wairua 7.8
      12 August 2013 at 11:20 am

      Well, I can’t say I agree – but I like your powerful style of polemic.

    • Murray Olsen 7.9
      12 August 2013 at 4:40 pm

      Mana is a bit of a mixture, but they are building a movement which will be capable of worthwhile changes. As a low profile supporter, I’m hopeful.

      By the way, how the hell do you label John Minto as a loser? He is responsible more than any other one person for changing the way we thought about apartheid. Hone is prepared to stand with the people to halt evictions, to protect working class communities that have grown over many years. Mallard is prepared to sell overpriced tickets to them on Trademe. I know who I consider the loser.

    • Paul 7.10
      12 August 2013 at 8:44 pm

      Why are right wingers so full of hatred?

  8. Ennui 8
    12 August 2013 at 9:47 am

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/commercial-property/9028917/Bond-proposal-for-earthquake-strengthening

    Whilst out of town I heard there had been a significant quake in Wellington. The first thing I thought was “bugger, the rent seekers will now try and make me, Mr Ratepayer pay”. So the above came as no surprise. On the news during the week was another owner (Ian Cassels) calling for earthquake strengthening to be tax deductible.

    Ho fekkin hum.

    Did you see these self same building owners putting money from their rents aside to pay for strengthening before the Chch quake made the situation urgent? No sir.

    Did you see the owners offer to set up a strengthening fund, or some form of buying group to spread the risk? Nope.

    Did you see the see the owners actually do any work to mitigate risk whilst there were engineers and trades available (they are now all in Chch)? Hell no, just take the rent and play the risk.

    Now you and I are supposed to bail the bastards out of an entirely predictable scenario. Same old story, privatize the profits, socialise the cost. How do we keep these bastards out of our pockets?

    • Greywarbler 8.1
      12 August 2013 at 11:40 am

      And what is more they want to leave things till 2020. One sector commenter said that would create a bottleneck about that time as they will tend to put the work off. Sounds like the old laissez faire that they apply to closing times in the ‘hospitalit-ising’ industry with everyone emerging drunk and stupid and irritable all at the same time.

      The chap in Christchurch whose wife was killed in the building collapse there and has been advocating for action ever since is, luckily, not yet speechless at the lack of integrity of the government in its strange and uneven treatment of business, affected by the earthquakes.

      • Ennui 8.1.1
        12 August 2013 at 12:00 pm

        My sympathies rest with the man in question: he has been let down by this total lack of integrity. When our wifes, husbands, children die in some red stickered building in Wellington we can expect the same “business” focused response. My take is actually shut the bastards down now before someone dies, and if they cannot strengthen the buildings under the current commercial conditions they should be bull dozed.

        • vto 8.1.1.1
          12 August 2013 at 12:27 pm

          In Christchurch many buildings are simply being ignored by workers – they will not work in them as they consider them too dangerous. Makes them worthless and the landlords sharpen up.

    • Draco T Bastard 8.2
      12 August 2013 at 2:01 pm

      The city councillor has unveiled a plan to make strengthening the city’s heritage buildings easier by allowing owners to borrow money using council assets as security.

      Central government politicians have welcomed the idea, which would enable building owners to borrow for strengthening work and repay the bonds through a special rate that would be attached to the building, Mr Morrison said.

      And when the building owners fail to pay back the bonds will allow central government to force WCC to sell those assets. So, yeah, I can see why this government would be in favour of it.

  9. North 9
    12 August 2013 at 10:06 am

    Sanctuary@7 – the following portions of your comment above are but glaring non-sequitur;

    “Taken as a pair, as a body of work that represents the thinking of TWO high profile Mana party supporters, a rather disturbing picture of that party emerges.” – (capitalisation is mine).

    TWO high profile…….supporters ? Just TWO ?

    That justifies your assertion – “…….Mana can offer the country nothing.” ?

    Glaring non-sequitur as I say. Deployed to deliver a good old rant against a political party you don’t like. That’s fine. We all do it from time to time. It can’t pass as sensible analysis however.

    • bad12 9.1
      12 August 2013 at 10:54 am

      Lolz, thank you sanctuary, your efforts have reinforced my position that the Mana Party in 2014 will be getting my Party Vote, and any other help i can offer them…

  10. millsy 10
    12 August 2013 at 10:50 am

    I see Pete George is running for Dunedin City Council. Good on him, but doesnt seem to state what policies he will push for? Though, judging from his record, I am picking he will vote to sell assets, and make cuts to libaries and the like, etc.

    Like they all do. Seems that council candidates are more into making negative promises (ie cutting this and that to keep rates down) than positive promise. More parks, etc. Apart from when it comes to subsidising professional sports or ‘festivals’ for middle classes of course.

    • Te Reo Putake 10.1
      12 August 2013 at 11:35 am

      Ha, poor old Pete. Still fixated on LPrent and disingenously claiming that he’s banned from TS. Yawn.

      • Veutoviper 10.1.1
        12 August 2013 at 1:52 pm

        I did a rare visit to KB on Saturday, where he announced his candidacy on their equivalent of OM to rave support (not) there. Some interesting comments, though!

  11. Molly 11
    12 August 2013 at 11:29 am

    When I can be bothered commenting on the NZ Herald site to assertions of the economic superiority of National, I often refer to the Reserve Bank’s historical data spreadsheet on government debt. When viewed in tandem with elected governments, it becomes apparent that National-led governments tend to drastically increase debt, while Labour-led governments systematically chip away at it.

    Have never had a reply to this that disputes this trend.

    However, it is interesting to see that the Reserve Bank website update has coincided with a decision to discontinue this statistic as of June 2013, and searching for “government debt” on the site, results in a lot of ambiguous results.

    Another source of relevant information, removed from the voting public.

  12. Veutoviper 12
    12 August 2013 at 12:31 pm

    Well, MRPP shares are doing well aren’t they.

    IIRC, they started last Monday at about $2.37/2.38, ended the week at $2.26. And now? $2.20. Ouch!

    • Lanthanide 12.1
      12 August 2013 at 1:09 pm

      Meridian is on the horizon.

      I never understood why various commentators were was saying MRP was the “best” of the power companies to be sold, when apparently it actually isn’t all that good?

      • Veutoviper 12.1.1
        12 August 2013 at 1:49 pm

        Sadly, yes, Meridian is on the horizon, but from the little that has come out so far, there will changes to the way this much bigger one is marketed. I heard some mention of these changes on RNZ National this morning but cannot remember when/which programme as I was only half listening.
        Re MRP, I am not clued up enough to give any possible explanation re why MRP was considered the “best” – but the performance of the shares so far would not appear to support this.

  13. joe90 13
    12 August 2013 at 1:06 pm

    The American Geophysical Union have released their revised position statement on climate change.

    Full release:

    Human-induced climate change requires urgent action.

    Humanity is the major influence on the global climate change observed over the past 50 years.
    Rapid societal responses can significantly lessen negative outcomes.

    “Human activities are changing Earth’s climate. At the global level, atmospheric
    concentrations of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases have increased
    sharply since the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuel burning dominates this increase.
    Human-caused increases in greenhouse gases are responsible for most of the observed
    global average surface warming of roughly 0.8°C (1.5°F) over the past 140 years. Because
    natural processes cannot quickly remove some of these gases (notably carbon dioxide)
    from the atmosphere, our past, present, and future emissions will influence the climate
    system for millennia.

    Extensive, independent observations confirm the reality of global warming. These
    observations show large-scale increases in air and sea temperatures, sea level, and
    atmospheric water vapor; they document decreases in the extent of mountain glaciers,
    snow cover, permafrost, and Arctic sea ice. These changes are broadly consistent with longunderstood physics and predictions of how the climate system is expected to respond to
    human-caused increases in greenhouse gases. The changes are inconsistent with
    explanations of climate change that rely on known natural influences.

    Climate models predict that global temperatures will continue to rise, with the amount of
    warming primarily determined by the level of emissions. Higher emissions of greenhouse
    gases will lead to larger warming, and greater risks to society and ecosystems. Some
    additional warming is unavoidable due to past emissions.
    Climate change is not expected to be uniform over space or time. Deforestation,
    urbanization, and particulate pollution can have complex geographical, seasonal, and
    longer-term effects on temperature, precipitation, and cloud properties. In addition,
    human-induced climate change may alter atmospheric circulation, dislocating historical
    patterns of natural variability and storminess.

    In the current climate, weather experienced at a given location or region varies from year
    to year; in a changing climate, both the nature of that variability and the basic patterns of
    weather experienced can change, sometimes in counterintuitive ways — some areas may
    experience cooling, for instance. This raises no challenge to the reality of human-induced
    climate change.
    Impacts harmful to society, including increased extremes of heat, precipitation, and coastal
    high water are currently being experienced, and are projected to increase. Other projected
    outcomes involve threats to public health, water availability, agricultural productivity
    (particularly in low-latitude developing countries), and coastal infrastructure, though some
    benefits may be seen at some times and places. Biodiversity loss is expected to accelerate
    due to both climate change and acidification of the oceans, which is a direct result of
    increasing carbon dioxide levels.

    While important scientific uncertainties remain as to which particular impacts will be
    experienced where, no uncertainties are known that could make the impacts of climate
    change inconsequential. Furthermore, surprise outcomes, such as the unexpectedly rapid
    loss of Arctic summer sea ice, may entail even more dramatic changes than anticipated.
    Actions that could diminish the threats posed by climate change to society and ecosystems
    include substantial emissions cuts to reduce the magnitude of climate change, as well as
    preparing for changes that are now unavoidable. The community of scientists has
    responsibilities to improve overall understanding of climate change and its impacts.
    Improvements will come from pursuing the research needed to understand climate change,
    working with stakeholders to identify relevant information, and conveying understanding
    clearly and accurately, both to decision makers and to the general public.

    http://www.agu.org/sci_pol/pdf/position_statements/AGU_Climate_Statement_new.pdf

    • muzza 13.1
      13 August 2013 at 8:35 am

      Yup, geo-engineering is playing it’s part very well.

      The so called weaponized science industry has obliterated the earths protective layers, nuclear tests, meltdowns , lasers, you name it, that industry has done it, so of course human interference is causing problems, it could not be any other way!

      Thank you military industrial complex for choosing to contribute to wrecking planet earth, and thanks to the bankers who finance it all, but most of all, thanks for the criminals who control the lot.

      The average human being has contributed squat to climate change Joe, but is being told they have!

  14. Colonial Viper 14
    12 August 2013 at 1:16 pm

    With just 21 months to election day, only 5% points ahead, UK Labour supporters are worried that their leadership team just isn’t firing

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/11/where-labour-going-wrong-ed-miliband

    We’re all pretty cool over here on this side of the world though.

    • Rogue Trooper 14.1
      12 August 2013 at 2:54 pm

      …as cucumbers being used inappropriately. 😀 (another day, another coal-slore). Wow! didn’t realize what a n0rty word ‘slore’ is until checking that bible of post-modern philology, Urban Dictionary.

      • Colonial Viper 14.1.1
        12 August 2013 at 3:35 pm

        You learn something new every day at The Standard.

        • Rogue Trooper 14.1.1.1
          12 August 2013 at 3:49 pm

          Correct. (kinda like a P.G Dip. / M.A) if ya hang around the campus 😉 long enough )…and as useful 😀

  15. Winston Smith 15
    12 August 2013 at 3:02 pm

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/9025221/MPs-unite-to-keep-travel-perk-in-house

    – Well it seems the parties can work together when it suits…

  16. vto 16
    12 August 2013 at 3:17 pm

    Why aren’t all forms of money-making taxed?

  17. tricledrown 17
    12 August 2013 at 3:18 pm

    Sanctamonious you have been wheeled out by Mathew Hooten
    and co the rights selfishness will be hidden by painting the left as far to radical to be in power the same BS Muldoon used in 1975 marching commies!

  18. Tautoko Viper 18
    12 August 2013 at 4:03 pm

    Peter Dunne is looking to rebrand United Future.
    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/216760/united-future-looks-to-revamp-image
    Perhaps we could help him out with some name change suggestions.

  19. Rogue Trooper 19
    12 August 2013 at 4:17 pm

    Division Bell (in a pavlovian sense).

  20. Morrissey 20
    12 August 2013 at 5:21 pm

    The Angel of Death makes another appearance
    The Panel, Radio NZ National, Monday 12 August 2013
    Jim Mora, Neil Miller, Catherine Robertson

    It’s mid-morning on a gloomy Monday, a slow news day. Jim Mora and his producer Chris Reid are cogitating seriously about the lineup for today’s show. Each man nurses a cup of coffee and thinks long and hard and seriously. Then the producer breaks the silence…

    CHRIS REID: Mate, the first topic for today is this nasty little abduction of a two-year-old in Auckland, perpetrated by a man who has murdered in the past.
    JIM MORA: Oh yes, we need to talk about that!
    CHRIS REID: Happily, the child is safe, but the hunt for the criminal goes on.
    JIM MORA: What talent have you lined up, Chris?
    CHRIS REID: Gotta be honest with you, Jim: this is a tough one!
    JIM MORA: Hmmmm….
    CHRIS REID: Now, we can go to one of the universities, we can interview a lawyer, a judge, a human rights advocate. Kim Workman?
    JIM MORA: No, let’s face it: they’re all too…. soft, too… complex.
    CHRIS REID: I know, how about you interview Garth “The Knife” McFucker!?!!
    JIM MORA: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! “Garth McFucker”. That’s very good!
    CHRIS REID: I thought you’d like that one! Anyway, mate, I’ve lined up the bloodthirsty psychopath for ten past four this arvo.
    JIM MORA: Oh Christ, you’re serious…

    Yes, that’s right: Garth McVicar. Although the head of the S.S. Trust has still not apologized for his bloodthirsty support of the 2008 knife-slaying of a boy in Manurewa, and despite the fact he is despised, loathed and feared by all decent people, those considerations have clearly not deterred the wise folk at Radio New Zealand National’s Panel, who got Jim Mora to interview the knife enthusiast for about the twentieth time. Unfortunately, Jim’s guests today were not people who have demonstrated any capacity or desire to confront such a brute. Or maybe that’s WHY they were chosen. Anyway, I sent off the following email to Jim Mora, pronto…

    Garth McVicar? You cannot be serious.

    Dear Jim,
    You have, yet again, in spite of protests by many people, deferred to Garth McVicar as some sort of “expert” on matters of crime and punishment. Since it appears that you apply no standards in your selection of “talent” for your programme, can we expect to hear you deferring respectfully to Kyle Chapman, of the NZ National Front, and seeking his opinion on matters related to marae-burning and arson in general?

    And if not, why not?

    Yours in disgust,
    Morrissey Breen
    Northcote Point

  21. North 21
    12 August 2013 at 7:39 pm

    Morrissey Morrissey Morrisey you’re responsible for late dinner at my place……..and I still don’t know whether “McFucker The Knife” was actually hosted by Mensa Mora today. I think not. But anyway………excellent contribution !

    Helps me laugh at the disgraceful spectacle of National Party MPs at their conference telling Campbell Live why we need the GCSB bill.

    Frankly, most of them seemed pissed ! Wonder if that was why Brownlee was uncharacteristically camera shy. It couldn’t be because he’s anti the bill. Lends weight that it was……

    The absolute Flying Circus riot was Koretake Troughing Tau Henare though. Such a learned trougher, getting all loftily Cold War about things. My God what an egg !

    And just now an interview with Key. Pathetic ! His demeanour positively screaming that there’s some shit goin’ down with this bill but he’s gonna do it no matter what.

    “I’m embarrassed but Fuck You All !” sort of thing

    We must be afraid !

    • Morrissey 21.1
      12 August 2013 at 8:32 pm

      …..and I still don’t know whether “McFucker The Knife” was actually hosted by Mensa Mora today. I think not.

      Actually, North, he WAS interviewed by an extra-solicitous and absurdly respectful Mora. That’s why I sent the angry email; it wasn’t the crawling that angered me, it was the fact that this lout is not considered as persona non grata. I cannot believe that it was Jim Mora who chose him as a guest (yet again) for his programme; it must have been the producer. Clearly, Radio New Zealand has no standards.

      Your analysis of Key, Brownlee and co. is spot on, as always.

  22. tricledrown 22
    12 August 2013 at 7:40 pm

    tonights news revealed the true cost of Tiwae point bail out $480 million in total including meridians selling eclectricity at a loss tokeep asset sales on track and national voters in Blingishs electorate bribed!

  23. Brett Dale 23
    12 August 2013 at 7:41 pm

    How many people against or for the GSCB bill ,have read the actual Bill?

    • Colonial Viper 23.1
      12 August 2013 at 7:46 pm

      How many Right Wing commentators on the Standard can even spell “GCSB”?

      • geoff 23.1.1
        12 August 2013 at 7:51 pm

        Harr! 😀

      • fender 23.1.2
        12 August 2013 at 9:50 pm

        Apart from loving Key and all he does, Brett knows nothing about politics or policy that’s good, bad or otherwise. Calling him right wing will go over his head like a runaway hoverboard.

    • Morrissey 23.2
      12 August 2013 at 8:35 pm

      One thing is certain: you have not read it.

    • Paul 23.3
      12 August 2013 at 8:39 pm

      Have you?
      And if so which parts have so reassured you about your civil rights being protected?

    • Molly 23.4
      12 August 2013 at 10:53 pm

      … more than you obviously assume.

      You can assume – however, that most who do read it and then follow it up with the Human Rights report, the Law Society submission, and the NZ Internet submission would be compelled to continue researching.

      For the non-reader, they have access to video submissions and the video on demand of the open public meeting held several weeks ago at Mt Albert.

      If someone has done all these things, I would say that they are more than likely to oppose the bill.

      Interesting that those on Campbell Live who supported it, were more than likely to admit they knew very little about it. So wags the world away.

  24. Morrissey 24
    12 August 2013 at 8:46 pm

    Moronic article from the New York Times

    As you read the following insult to the intelligence, remember that this is the newspaper constantly quoted and referred to by, among many others, Jim Mora…..

    http://972mag.com/a-new-york-times-investigation-into-a-palestinian-hobby/76973/

  25. phillip ure 25
    12 August 2013 at 9:06 pm

    bennet just made a skin-crawling/gastric-reflux-inducing appearance on native affairs…

    phillip ure..

  26. tricledrown 26
    12 August 2013 at 9:11 pm

    Paul why are right wingers so angry they are like spoiled brats at school who don’t want to share having a tantrum!