David Wood
Timaru Businessman, Historian, Sociologist
Personal observations on Climate Change following the meeting at Caroline Bay on September 21st, 2022
Hosted by Timaru District Council Professor James Renwick (Atmosphere), Professor Tim Naish (Oceans & Coastline), Professor Bronwyn Hayward (Social Impacts), Peter Cochraine (Canterbury Risk Assessment) and Mr James Driver (Psychotherapist).
New Zealand today is absorbing uncritically the opinions served up by a politically corrupted press. Many opinions are delivered by academics with great records of achievement, but a closer look at the credentials of – say Naish and Renwick – reveals they have little interest in all the other fields of science which are applicable when reviewing the power of nature to influence the weather of the world. The influence of astrophysics, geophysics, volcanology etc on the world’s weather is ignored, but despite the evidence of other factors, the ‘political’ scientists prefer to stick to the sole narrative of fossil fuels as it is so convenient to their scaremongering agenda.
There are few who deny that weather patterns and temperature are changing, but to propose that one aspect alone is contributing to all of this is not a balanced approach.
The changing weather patterns of the world are a complex scientific problem which is not going to be resolved by censoring dissenting opinions, deleting alternative views from the internet and banning scientists and authors who wish to present information to the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Organising meetings which push a very narrow view at which no questions are tolerated simply creates distrust.
Solutions will only come from open-minded research and constant review.
Political intrigue complicates the issue with the Labour-Greens government following diligently the insane path of the American Democrat Party, intent on ripping up all their existing fossil fuel energy components (e.g. Keystone pipeline) overnight, and expecting the entire USA to transition immediately to alternative energy sources which are not yet available.
The consequence is out of control inflation (check your natural gas bill). Limiting power supply to charge electric cars or to use lights and air-con will become commonplace.
This is a green energy catastrophe similar to that being experienced in Europe, UK and California. We should take heed.
There is general agreement that New Zealand’s contribution to the production of greenhouse gas is totally insignificant in relation to the total proportion of the world’s greenhouse gas.
Despite the obvious irrelevance of New Zealand’s carbon contribution, the New Zealand government recommends immediate, disastrous changes to New Zealand lives to follow a pattern of “virtue signalling” to the rest of the world.
These changes will choke food production and bring ruinous changes to New Zealand business.
We are prohibited from using clean, quality New Zealand coal but continue to import dirty, low quality coal from Indonesia to supplement our power supply. Already, our deteriorating hydro energy sources are overwhelmed with demand with no plans to expand this grand source of energy.
The linking of climate change to the use of fossil fuels is a conclusion reached without a balanced view and a genuine scientific analysis.
The left-wing governments of New Zealand and the USA (and others) have happily seized this emotional and shallow approach to a complex issue using gross exaggeration and unbalanced news. Anyone questioning the carbon narrative is labelled a “climate denier”.
Everyday examples of nature’s normal weather patterns are exaggerated and published as “evidence” of “climate change”. In Timaru we built a very large harbour protruding out into the sea and, unsurprisingly, Caroline Bay has been filling up with sand ever since on the north side. Meanwhile, on the south side, the southerlies swirl in and reduce the beach, exposing the clay cliffs at Caledonian Grounds.
The natural erosion has been used by this Council committee to promote their one-eyed approach to carbon emission control. It is seriously stupid misinformation conflating two very separate issues to provoke public hysteria. And of course, no questions are allowed.
Meanwhile this panel on Monday night, continually promoted “conclusions” of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which has itself continually excluded from its discussions, all heretics who dare to propose alternatives to the greenhouse gas theory.
The role of the sun in climate change until now has been studied and debated by a number of scientists, but they find themselves shut out by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the IPCC. As a result, there is a huge knowledge deficit in our schools, colleges and universities and of course also showing up in public forums of debate.
Summary
The discussion at Caroline Bay was unbalanced, scientifically questionable and infected with political intrigue, foretelling an economically disastrous outcome. Ominous signs are being completely ignored.
To continue with these unbalanced public forums and discussions is a poor state of affairs. Our Council would be better served ditching all of this nonsense immediately because the science is highly debatable. Having a psychotherapist conclude the evening was timely because if this pattern of politics continues, many people will be forced into doing really dumb things against their better judgement, and they are going to need help.
It is not too late to stop this bus and take stock of all the pieces of the puzzle, giving them equal examination, and most importantly, never losing sight of the fact that New Zealand is contributing next to nothing with respect to greenhouse gas.