Winston announces $1billion corporate welfare cuddle for oil and gas industry vs Green Party Kiwipower for all

NZFirst’s big announcement was a a $1billion corporate welfare cuddle for the oil and gas industry to map what is below the sea in a move that might find nothing and won’t come into any actual effect for at least a decade.

It’s akin to Winston telling us he’s traded our clean green brand for a bunch of magic beans FFS.

This is a insane amount of money to spend for NZFirst’s big polluter donors and it’s being sold as a solution.

The level of climate change that its damaging the planet  right now is so bad they are outside the realms of natural probability…

Shocking Revelations Out of West Antarctica

It’s mid-winter but a large area of West Antarctica that should be frozen solid is not frozen. What’s up?

Antarctica is the coldest spot on the planet where the average winter temperature is -34.4°C (-30°F), but it does vary by region. For example, inland locations like the South Pole average around -60°C (-76°F), while coastal areas such as the Antarctic Peninsula range between -12°C and -20°C (10°F to -4°F).

The area recently experienced a winter heatwave, but that has passed. Winter heatwaves happen on occasion, but the ice always, always, always refreezes for as long as anybody can remember. But satellite photos d/d July 12, 2026, by the University of Colorado Boulder’s Snow and Ice Data Center show a large portion of West Antarctica 150,000 square miles that’s typically frozen this time of year shockingly ice free! Something is wrong.

Scientists Identify Thin Vulnerability of West Antarctica

Of even more concern than failure of refreezing in the dead of winter, the following headline appears in Space Daily d/d June 20, 2026 and serves as a shocking backdrop to the recent news: Scientists say the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Could Collapse With Very Little Additional Warming and the Four Metres of Sea Level Rise that Would Follow Cannot be Stopped Once it Begins.

“A modelling study published in Communications Earth & Environment in June 2025 found that West Antarctic Ice Sheet could begin an irreversible collapse at ocean temperatures between zero and 0.25°C above current levels — meaning the threshold may have already been reached,” Ibid.

Still, nobody really knows for sure how soon or how far sea levels will rise, but the direction is known. It’s up!

That was then. Today, parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet don’t refreeze. Hmm.

Civilization is currently living through break-neck climate change. It’s reflected in erratic climate system behavior. The entire global system has gone bonkers, unpredictable, ecosystems threatened everywhere. As it happens, science has isolated the main culprit as too much heat; it’s excessive greenhouse gas emissions CO2 from burning fossil fuels.

CO2 has been on a rampage as oil and gas companies crank up production.

Based Upon AI Analyses, July 2026: “Carbon dioxide is the main driver of climate change. It traps heat, so the more of it in the air, the warmer the planet runs, which is why its concentration is the most closely watched number in climate science. Almost everyone has seen the chart of that number climbing since the 1950s.But the line is not just going up, it is getting steeper. The air took on more CO2 in the last decade than in any 10-year stretch since record-keeping began in 1959, and this past May the monthly average at Mauna Loa hit 432 parts per million, the highest ever measured.”

It’s hard for scientists to accept global warming so pervasive, so unexpected that it halts Antarctic refreezing in the dead of winter. No scientific models predicted this.

As a prelude, the past couple of years science did provide clues. An article in Inside Ecology d/d May 11, 2026 describes the background: Antarctic Sea Ice Defied Global Warming for Decades – Now Hidden Ocean Heat is Breaking Through, to wit: “For decades, Antarctica seemed to defy global warming. Since satellites began monitoring the poles in the late 1970s, the seasonal growth and retreat of Antarctic sea ice – frozen seawater that expands around the continent each winter – appeared remarkably resilient. It was often described as the ‘heartbeat of the planet.”

The “one-in-3.5 million” Happenstance

“Since 2015 Antarctic sea ice has declined sharply. In 2023, winter sea ice extent fell to record lows — so far below the long-term average that scientists considered it an event with roughly a one-in-3.5 million probability of occurring by chance,” Ibid.

A “one-in-3.5 million” proposition demands attention. Those odds demand analysis, a wake-up call, an omen of change, and sure enough, three years later the strangest thing happens, refreeze fails in a region of brutally cold West Antarctica.

There are other omens, e.g., Hektoria Glacier (Antarctica) retreated 8 kilometers (5 miles) in only two months; one-half of the structure collapsing in record time. This is the fastest glacier collapse ever, and the message to the world is very clear: Global Warming looks like it’s ahead of schedule. (Antarctica Just Saw the Fastest Glacier Collapse Ever Recorded, ScienceDaily d/d February 26, 2026)

Another early warning signal: “Researchers have discovered dozens of new methane seeps littering the ocean floor in the Ross Sea coastal region of Antarctica, raising concerns of an unknown positive climate feedback loop that could accelerate global warming,” a decidedly negative configuration. (Methane Leaks Multiplying Beneath Antarctic Ocean Spark Fears of Climate Doom Loop, LiveScience d/d Oct. 15, 2025)

Counterpunch

… a one in 3.5million probability is something that demands attention!

Catastrophic climate change is on its way and NZ First want to spend a billion to search for MORE oil and gas for something we won’t even see the results of for 10 years???

If the climate is damaged now, what do you think it will be like in 10 years time?

While Winston was filling you into subsidising the oil and gas industry, the Greens were releasing actual policy…

Green Party Launches Plan To Cut Power Bills And Take Power Back From The Big Energy Companies

The Green Party has today launched its election energy policy, a plan to cut household power bills and establish Kiwipower, a publicly owned company to deliver the affordable, secure, renewable power the market has failed to build.

“The Greens will lower bills, cut emissions and put power back in the hands of New Zealanders. That means Warmer Kiwi Homes, community-owned power, solar on rooftops and a new generation company, designed to solve our dry-year problem, owned by New Zealanders: Kiwipower,” says Green Party Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.

The full plan includes:

• Establishing Kiwipower, a publicly owned entity to ensure affordable power and energy security, fill the gaps the market has failed to fill, and speed up the renewable energy transition.
• Zero-interest clean energy loans to install solar and batteries.
• A renters’ right to solar, and legalising plug-in solar.
• Expanding Warmer Kiwi Homes to cover more upgrades, including gas transitions, so more low-income people live in homes that are warm and dry.
• $200 million for community-owned renewable energy, to build resilience, make local power more affordable, and share the benefits of ownership.
• Solar on more than half of all public homes within four years, and $80 million for renewable energy for Māori housing.

“200,000 households are unable to afford to heat their homes while four big power companies control over 85 per cent of the market and rake in massive profits. New Zealanders need a Government willing to fix the real basics, and that’s what the Greens are here to do.”

“Kiwipower will invest directly in new renewable generation and sort out our dry-year problem sensibly, without a billion-dollar LNG facility, and support new, independent players coming into the market.”

“Generations of New Zealanders built our energy infrastructure, and two National Governments have sold it off for parts, driving up bills and reducing New Zealanders’ power and control. The Greens will fix that by investing in putting power directly in the hands of our communities.”

“Nearly 20 years ago, the Greens established Warmer Kiwi Homes, insulating hundreds of thousands of households. We will expand this incredibly successful programme, supporting the transition from gas.”

“Hope is not a plan. Successive Governments, including and especially this one, have failed to plan for a renewable energy transition to give certainty, stability and resilience to households and industry. Today, the Greens are proud to launch the plan our country needs, for abundant, affordable renewable energy, for all of us.”

Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson says the plan puts ownership back in the hands of communities.

“We will invest $200 million in community-owned renewable energy, solar on your local school, marae, papakāinga or library, with the benefits flowing back to your community,” says Davidson.

“Our plan will put solar on more than half of all public homes within four years, and invest $80 million in renewable energy for Māori housing, because tangata whenua are two to three times more likely to face energy hardship.”

“This is about rangatiratanga over energy, and it is part of our enduring commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”

The Green Party launched the plan at the Dunedin Gasworks Museum, the first and last place in Aotearoa where coal gas was manufactured.

Swarbrick says “Gas belongs in a museum. But Luxon’s Government wants to lock us into 15 more years of imported fossil fuels and higher prices with their expensive LNG terminal. That is a choice, and it is the wrong one.”

“When the market won’t deliver affordable, secure, renewable power, a responsible Government should step in. We can pay for all of this by making corporations and the super-rich pay their fair share.”

“A warm, dry home powered by clean energy should be within everyone’s reach. That is the country we can build, and this is how we do it,” says Swarbrick.

Greens

…here you have an actual plan based on the realities confronting us that help all Kiwis, while NZF is promising more corporate welfare to their big polluter donors which utterly denies climate change is even happening!

The Green policy is real while NZF is a fantasy.

That NZF is outpolling the Greens shows you how far backwards we have gone and how far NZF Gumboot Fascism has marched onwards.

Redneck NZ is allowing their petty bigotries to be manipulated by the big polluters.

 

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