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John Quiggin believes the Kyoto Protocol is good news good news good news good news good news good news! So did New Zealand, which anticipated hundreds of millions of dollars in carbon credits.
But now New Zealand faces a massive carbon-trading debt, kind of like that predicted by Bjorn Lomborg (who Quiggin has argued against). It might run to billions. By one estimate, the bill for each New Zealand family will be $900. Which is a little unjust, as Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O’Reilly points out:
“New Zealand produces only 0.2% of world greenhouse gas emissions yet is being penalised as if we were big time polluters.”
Just shut up and pay your billions, New Zealander! Remember, Kyoto is good news! Except if you want to build the Taiwanese economy or grow trees:
Some forests planted before 1990 are being cut down early because owners are worried about Kyoto liabilities.
The New Zealand debacle has been unfolding over the past few weeks. It’ll be interesting to read what Quiggin has to say about it. Meanwhile, in other frightening Kiwi news:
Helen Clark put herself in the hands of Australian style experts for a photo-shoot for the cover of the New Zealand edition of the latest Australian Women’s Weekly. The result is “Helen Clark, the woman”.
My God she looks human now.
Still, this sort of thing is born out of desperation, which is good as all she’s done is run NZ into the ground with incredible stupidty.
And why the hell isn’t Kyoto dead yet?
Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 07 04 at 02:30 PM • permalinkAnd that’s the second reason I’ve never had sex with a Kiwi.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 07 04 at 02:59 PM • permalinkand here I was thinking you can’t polish a turd…
Posted by Jay Santos on 2005 07 04 at 06:26 PM • permalinkUh… you mean people who have supported it in the past are actually starting to twig that Kyoto is a money-grabbing scam?
Wow :). Took them long enough!
Anyway, given that the whole point of Kyoto was to grab some money from the US tax payer, it’s probably a good thing Congress said, “Hell no!” to Kyoto. And I mean “good” for the rest of the world.
You see, scientists are starting to work on a theory that the US is actually a carbon sink... that we use more CO2 than we produce due to our dense forest lands.
If we were a Kyoto signatory and the “US as a carbon sink” theory proves to be true… well…*Trying to visualize the look on the French’s faces when they ended up having to pay the US for carbon credits after decades of calling us the carbon hogs.* ;) *snicker*
Posted by mamapajamas on 2005 07 04 at 06:58 PM • permalinkCurious that north-america is still sopping up more CO2 than it exhales. Granted, the measurements are “iffy” (samples of air as it traverses west to east across the continent show 5% or so less carbon dioxide than when the air came over the pacific beaches), but there’s more certainty of these numbers than those claimed to justify kyoto.
Nz folks, I’ll take my money in U.S. currency, small bills only, please.
My guess is it’s the co2 sequestration of US and Canadian forests, very high efficiency (gigantic) agri-business (grown using lots of CO2 and ship it by the boatload elsewhere), and unmatched home ownership, aka free-enterprise under freedom.
:-)
They should be honored to pay $900 per family.
Posted by Mystery Meat on 2005 07 04 at 07:25 PM • permalinkRE #3, richard. And how do you know if the feathers itch?
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 07 05 at 12:55 AM • permalinkThis stuff about countries lining up to benefit from carbon credits was such a huge furphy. When I was working in Japan ex-pat Aussies were fretting how not signing Kyoto was going to stop Japanese companies investing in Australian forests. The fact that Oz is not a net carbon sink, so that any credits bought by Japan through planting trees would have to be offset by more economically expensive reductions elsewhere in the Oz economy just escaped them.
With any luck they will be out on their collective ear by the end of the year.
Hmm, the snap election here in Germany is scheduled for September as well…could be a one-two punch of lefty governments being sent packing. Not on the same order as both Howard and Bush getting reelected within a month last year, but sure would be nice anyway.
Speechless. Make up can make Helen Clark look human? Without photoshopping? Hell, without an angle grinder??
They are good. REALLY good. Credit where it is due, I have to admire their ability.
kiwinick, I hope you do toss her out. I’d hate to be in your shoes as a rational conservative in NZ right now. Hang in there! A lot of us remember NZ as a proud, punch-above-its-weight member of the Alliance, and really miss that NZ a hell of a lot.
The present irrelevant, lost NZ contemplating its navel and reaching for the bong again is a pathetic and flabby excuse for what it used to be.
Really hope we get the old NZ back, and soon.
MarkL
Canberrathe latest carbon credit scam in south gippsland is being perpetrated by the landmark “personal growth” charlatans - they have bought a couple of properties & are busy planting trees & claiming tax breaks that will go to fund seminar centres to attract the emotionally needy so they can hoover the cash out of their wallets for dodgy “courses” - scientology for the 21st century
fyi, I blame Enron on the clintonistas, incl. the late Ron Brown (may he rest in peace), and the attitude that the dems and corporations could “do business together” - including exploiting / arbitrage of regulation written by those that had never run a business or seen a free-market in operation (e.g. California’s screwy power company regulations that invited the games that went on), and Enron building a trading floor to demonstrate it’s bleeding edge ability to cash in on carbon credits and nimby (political v. market) created opportunities.
Thank goodness Mr. Gore and Mr. Rubin didn’t get a chance to play wallstreet off against mainstreet (and a real friend of mainstreet was (s)elected in the 2000 coin toss). The public almost got what they deserved. What else can explain the number that did vote for those fools? (I almost lost a wager, having spent a little time observing the now-ex VP and seen him decide some important issues in the worst possible way, I just couldn’t believe anyone would vote for him).
Kyoto has been such a mantra - the greens, the moonbat left, the ABC, all saying what a shameful thing it is to be in a country which has not endorsed Kyoto!
At present they are preoccupied with saying how Australia must give more aid - like Fran Kelly on this morning’s breakfast session on Radio National. It degenerated into a schoolyard face off with her refusing to move on and ask another question while Downer similarly refused to be budged from saying that good governance was more important.
She tried to say “yes, good governance, but what about more aid?” like a terrier. It was very poor radio, very repetitious barrow pushing, but very revealing to anyone who has recently watched Ellen Fanning’s excellent series about journos: “Fine Line” which SBS bravely repeated.
It seems that media organisations of all colours want to be players, not just observers and reporters. Being a partisan commentator is not enough power! We must run this story now! During the election campaign!
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(After J.R.R. Tolkien.)