INVESTIGATE Aug/Sep 2014, $8.60 Aug/Sep NEW ZEALAND’S BEST NEWS MAGAZINE Winston Revealed New biography a ‘first’ Smart Meters What do you really know about the new electricity meters? Snakes Gingko On A Drain Biloba Aussie snakes found Dinosaur tree helps in old NZ West Coast thinking smarter goldfields MARK STEYN / AMY BROOKE / & MORE contents features Aug/Sep 2014 14 WINSTON’S LIFE The most comprehensive and entertaining biography of NZ’s most colourful politician. What do we really know about Winston Peters? 20 TREE OF LIFE A tree that dates back to the dinosaurs is making medical waves. The story of gingko biloba 24 SMART ATTACK Your power companies are rolling out smart meters everywhere, but you may not know what they are capable of 32 SNAKES ON A DRAIN The long held belief that NZ is free of snakes is wrong. A colony of Victorian copperheads has been discovered at a South Island goldmine, a relic of the days when cargo wasn’t checked for biosecurity 14 contents departments OPINION EDITOR 4 Speaks for itself, really COMMUNIQUES 6 Your say STEYNPOST 8 Mark Steyn RIGHT & WRONG 10 David Garrett SOAPBOX 12 John McLean ACTION MUSIC 44 Pop Stardom: Ed Sheeran MOVIES 46 Road to Paloma & Snowpiercer GADGETS The latest toys 36 The Mall 37 8 New Fire phone 40 MINDFUEL BOOKCASE 42 Michael Morrissey CONSIDER THIS 48 46 Amy Brooke 48 40 www.epson.co.nz/precisioncore www.epson.co.nz/precisioncore Editor Climate of fear It’s been a winter of fools in the public debate about climate change in New Zealand. The public trough-snorters at NIWA and other bastions of climate ‘research’ who rely on taxpayer funding to maintain their exotic lifestyles have been hyping up their ‘warmest winter’ and ‘extreme weather’ talking points for an ever-sillier news media. First reality check, there is no global CO2 warming the oceans but sunlight. exceeded the natural range of climate “climate”. While NZ enjoyed a warmer The fewer clouds or the less dust in the variability in the context of the past winter than usual, there was still ice on atmosphere, the more the ocean heats ~300 years.” Lake Superior in the United States into up. The cloudier or dustier it gets, the That finding is backed up by yet the middle of the northern summer. cooler the oceans become. another this year, which reports Cold records were shattered across the The New Zealand Herald recently warming cycles in Antarctica like the northern hemisphere. published “Climate Tipping Points to current one have occurred five times Second reality check, if you read the Watch For”, kind of an idiot’s guide to in the past 350 years alone: “The data fine print in the official climate reports, climate change, written by an eco-bible suggest that during the past 350 years and I have, you’ll find that the impact waving believer. He warns us that the such events have taken place at least of human-caused CO2 emissions West Antarctic region is on the brink five times.” on New Zealand will be negligible, of a tipping point that could rise sea We are being conned, daily, by activ- because our climate is dominated by levels up to 40m. ists trying to get funding, aided and oceanic heat cycles, not atmospheric But that’s not what the peer reviewed abetted by media who have given up ones. While Europe, North America science is telling us. doing their job. Roll on summer, we and Asia are huge landmasses whose “The record shows that this region could do with some warming. interiors are far from direct oceanic has warmed since the late 1950s, at a influence, New Zealand is an island similar magnitude to that observed in state bathed in the Pacific to the north the Antarctic Peninsula and central and East, and the Southern Ocean to West Antarctica; however, this warm- the rear. ing trend is not unique. More dramatic Oceanic heat is primarily driven by isotopic warming (and cooling) trends the impact of direct sunlight on the occurred in the mid-nineteenth and surface of the ocean, which is many eighteenth centuries, suggesting that times more powerful than secondary at present, the effect of anthropogenic heat from trace gas molecules – it is not climate drivers at this location has not We are being conned, daily, by activists trying to get funding, aided and abetted by media who have given up doing their job. Roll on summer, we could do with some warming 4 INVESTIGATEMAGAZINE.COM | Aug /Sep 2014 imagine comfort Imagine a place for mindfulness and wellbeing that includes all the calm and relaxation you could ever dream of. A personal oasis of tranquillity where time is your own and every movement is in slow motion. A place to lean back, close your eyes Climate of fear and enjoy total peace of mind. Imagine this place no longer. 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Lewis • McKenzie & Willis Ashburton Redmonds Furnishing & Flooring Timaru Ken Wills Furniture Dunedin McKenzie & Willis Queenstown & Invercargill H & J Smith www.stressless.co.nz 113943 Investigate Jun-Jul14 stressless.indd 1 4/16/14 10:39:54 AM Communiques A HAIRY ISSUE The recent case of the iconoclastic schoolboy philosopher and his simi- larly enlightened father/mentor, who required that the boy’s school (and by Volume 11, Issue 145, ISSN 1175-1290 [Print] implication or legal precedent, society as a whole) should reinvent itself to accommodate their personal preference regarding hair style - is only the latest example of a civilisation hell-bent upon undermining its bed-rock Chief Executive Officer Heidi Wishart Group Managing Editor Ian Wishart Christian principles and condemning itself to social anarchy. Incredibly, the disgruntled complainants took their unbearable psycho- NZ EDITION logical trauma all the way to the High Court... and won! Advertising Josephine Martin The school declined “mediation”, and no wonder. This would have 09 373-3676 amounted to its acceptance that there can be no “rules” at all in future [email protected] unless every man and his dog, not to mention the usual quota of disturbed Contributing Writers: Hal Colebatch, Amy social agitators of every stripe, agrees with them ! Brooke, Chris Forster, Peter Hensley, Mark Steyn, Yes, another sure-fire recipe for social disaster to add to the endless list! Chris Philpott, Michael Morrissey, Miranda The fundamental question underlying this particular can of worms is Devine, Richard Prosser, Claire Morrow, James not whether the rules of a school (or of any other social institution ranging Morrow, Len Restall, Laura Wilson, and the worldwide resources of MCTribune Group, UPI from the local tiddlywinks club to parliament) are good, bad, or indiffer- and Newscom ent. Not at all. In the aftermath of this extremely ill-starred ruling the real underlying question is: are human beings and the institutions they create Art Direction Heidi Wishart entitled to make and enforce rules at all? - and if not, who says so? Design & Layout Bozidar Jokanovic Lawyers? judges? politicians? Let’s hope not, because as individuals these Tel: +64 9 373 3676 folk disagree with each other as much as anyone else does. Fax: +64 9 373 3667 Actually, like so many other pseudo “problems” these days, this one was Investigate Magazine, PO Box 188, done and dusted centuries ago. However, the widespread disrespect for Kaukapakapa, Auckland 0843, NEW ZEALAND the great founders of Western civilisation which has been surreptitiously instilled into post 1960’s generations is now so entrenched that magnifi- AUSTRALIAN EDITION Editor Ian Wishart cent, hard-won achievements like the Magna Carta and the American Advertising [email protected] Constitution and Declaration of Independence (which ensured certain Tel/Fax: 1-800 123 983 human rights and freedoms, but within ancient socially sanctioned limits), are simply ignored. SUBSCRIPTIONS The sadly bygone aphorism : “If I have seen further than other men it is Online: www.investigatemagazine.com By Phone: Australia 1-800 123 983 because I stood on the shoulders of giants” once commonly voiced by many NZ 09 373 3676 a great soul, is not often heard these days. Could this be because so many By Post: To the PO Box of us have been misled into NZ Edition: $85; believing that modern thought AU Edition: A$96 POETRY is in every respect superior to Email: that of our forebears ? [email protected], Naturally, before the demise Autumn in Serifos [email protected], of the late-lamented “com- [email protected], mon-sense” and the conse- The terraces perch on homeric walls [email protected], quent rise of those twin evils deserted now of all but dignity and weeds [email protected] - political correctness and the farmers are down in the harbour All content in this magazine is copyright, and moral relativism, such ridicu- selling fast food and beads. may not be reproduced in any form without lous non-predicaments such On the south beach that September day the written permission of the publisher.