Friday, March 29, 2024

ALTERNATIVE VIEW: Councils do one thing, say another

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Bless their little cotton socks, Wellington City Council has declared a climate emergency. What that means is a little beyond me but the list of other councils joining the club is long.
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Auckland, Dunedin, Nelson and Queenstown Lakes are all in there and Canterbury Regional Council proudly claims it was the first to declare a climate emergency.

I’m pleased to say the madness hasn’t affected the Masterton District Council. 

We have good councillors and a great Mayor in Lyn Patterson. They’re committed to doing not talking so don’t expect a climate emergency here anytime soon.

Considering the Wellington declaration first, the stupidity of the announcement is deafening.

For a start we heard the Wellington mayor, another councillor, staff and Associate Transport Minister Julie-Anne Genter were going to fly to China to look at trackless trams.

That will almost double the annual carbon footprint of all participants. I’d doubt if they’d fly cattle class. It is hardly the attitude of a city in a state of emergency.

Putting it in perspective, my dictionary describes emergency as an unforeseen or sudden occurrence, especially of danger demanding immediate action.

Swanning off to China doesn’t achieve that really.

Then we are told the Wellington City Council is going to apply to extend the airport runway next year.

We are further informed the council has identified direct, long-haul flights as one of the big ideas to help Wellington thrive.

The official line is extending the runway will mean about 65% of the world’s population will be able to fly in one stop to Wellington.

Why would you extend a runway to encourage infinitely more carbon dioxide polluting air travel when you have a state of emergency?

Flying here to Rome or the equivalent distance economy doubles your annual carbon footprint and business class is twice that.

In addition, Wellington city’s population of 212,700 is about to increase, according to Statistics New Zealand, by 46,000.

That’s around a 25% increase with a corresponding increase in carbon emissions.

Council documents are effusive about the increase but at almost 10 tonnes of carbon an individual a year that’s an annual increase in carbon emissions of 460,000 tonnes. 

So what’s all this rubbish about a climate emergency in Wellington? 

The actions of the council are all about increasing the carbon footprint and, with it, accelerating global warming. 

Queenstown Lakes council is in the same boat.

In 2018 Queenstown airport serviced 2.25 million passengers from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland and that’s a lot of carbon.

In addition, they’re talking about building a brand new airport with the carbon that will generate.

Mind you, Nelson received a big tick from Greenpeace no less because it put $250,000 of ratepayers’ money aside for a climate taskforce and a climate champion.

What that will actually achieve is beyond me.

So it isn’t about mitigating climate change, it is just about rhetoric. 

To quote the Bard, it is full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

I have the same problem with the Zero Carbon Bill, about which I’ve written. I simply can’t take it seriously because it is based on political whim and not solid science.

It also discriminates against farming.

The Paris Accord, on which the legislation is based, is specific on supporting food production and generating measures to mitigate the effects of climate change on food production.

Our legislation threatens food production with unrealistic methane targets and mentions nothing about measures to mitigate climate change to support food production.

It’s actually worse than that as the Government, in the form of Climate Change Minister James Shaw, is crying crocodile tears over global warming while preventing farmers from mitigating climate change.

The most obvious is irrigation, which the Greens are vehemently opposed to but fits in well with the Paris Accord. 

If you’re not being selective that is.

In addition, our scientists have developed a gene-edited ryegrass that considerably reduces methane emissions.

The problem is that it’s gene-edited and Shaw and Eugenie Sage won’t have a bar of it even though it will help mitigate the climate-changing effects of methane.

Again, the Greens are highly selective over their climate change position.

The final piece of madness came recently with Genter and her proposal to tax motor vehicles.

For a start they’re going to discount electric vehicles by $8000 for those who can afford the initial outlay.

Ford Rangers get hit with an additional $2250 and a Hilux $2000.

Correspondingly, a Prius will be $1700 cheaper, a new Corolla $800 and a used Swift $1100.

Great for farming.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tow bar on a Prius and I’d hate to tow a tandem trailer full of calves with a Corolla or Swift but it’s like everything else – feel good as against do good.

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