Members' Contributions

Recently a series of three hour meetings entitled “Train the Trainer” was held around the country. They were funded by MAF and led by DairyNZ, with Beef and Lamb providing a senior staff member to assist with the presentation. The purpose of the meetings was to provide farm consultants and rural professionals with information on climate change issues and the ETS so they can in turn advise their clients on mitigation and adaptation options.

The presentation is based around a grossly inaccurate representation of the carbon cycle. A series of four slides shows how an initial 20 tonnes of carbon, in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, flows through plants, plant litter, animals and animal products and back to the atmosphere as 20 tonnes of carbon. The cycle stops with 19.84 tonnes carbon in carbon dioxide, and 160 kg of carbon in methane. It fails to show the last step. In that step the 160 kg of carbon in the methane reverts to 160 kg of carbon in carbon dioxide, thus giving 20 tonnes of carbon, all in carbon dioxide which is exactly what we started with. Sure, it takes time. According to a reply to a written question to Climate Change Issues Minister, Dr. Nick Smith, the half life of methane is seven years. This means that after 21 years only one eighth of the methane our livestock produce this year will be left in the atmosphere. A constant number of livestock will produce a constant quantity of methane each year, and a constant amount of methane will break down each year. The two amounts will be equal. This means there is absolutely no global warming as a result of animal emissions.

President Obama’s decision to abandon his planned Emissions Trading Scheme is further proof that New Zealand is now completely isolated from its major trading partners; the National Government’s ETS chickens are predictably coming home to roost – to the detriment of all New Zealanders, ACT Deputy Leader and Climate Change Spokesman John Boscawen said today.

“National originally claimed that New Zealand would be a fast follower on climate change: we would wait to see what our major trading partners – the US, China, Japan and Australia – would do before we implemented an ETS,” Mr Boscawen said.

“But, like Helen Clark before him, Climate Change Minister Dr Nick Smith became blinded by the desire to be a world-beater; to make New Zealand the first country to implement a comprehensive ETS – no matter the cost to the nation.