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NEW DEBTLAND

Latest on New Zealand’s Kyoto debacle:

The Kyoto Forestry Association has backed away from its initial claim that the forest industry could “rescue the Government from its predicament by doubling the size of the Kyoto forest estate by 2012”.

Because of the time it takes to acquire suitable land, grow seedlings and grow trees, it is too late to get us out of the hole for the climate change treaty’s “first commitment period”, 2008 to 2012.

That hole is potentially $1.5 billion deep. Greenpeace, whose alarmism helped sucker New Zealand into this, now pleads for reason:

Greenpeace today called for some sanity in the debate over New Zealand’s potential Kyoto deficit ...

A little late for that, isn’t it?

“This is bordering on the ridiculous – the entire debate following the revelation that New Zealand may not meet it’s Kyoto target has assumed that we will do nothing further to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions,” said Greenpeace climate campaigner Vanessa Atkinson (tilty compassion picture here.)

“But let’s get real - New Zealand must reduce it’s emissions urgently to help avoid dangerous levels of climate change. If we fail to do that, we will face the double whammy of having to buy carbon credits as well as paying the costs of increased floods, droughts and other climate change impacts.”

What “climate change impacts” is Buffy the Environment Saver talking about? New Zealand’s population is only four million; and, according to its leading business group, “New Zealand produces only 0.2% of world greenhouse gas emissions.” Forget Kyoto; if you closed the whole country down, the reduction in greenhouse emissions would be just one-fifth of one percent. New Zealand is so freaky clean and non globally-warmed that glaciers actually grow there.

(Other recent views on Kyoto and/or this ridiculous New Zealand situation may be found here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

Posted by Tim B. on 07/09/2005 at 01:39 PM
  1. Methinks “Scoop News” should fire it’s [sic] editor for having it’s [sic] head up it’s [sic] ass.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 07 09 at 02:49 PM • permalink

  2. What would be the benefit to the environment if the entire NZ Green movement lined up in column of fours and marched into the Tasman Sea?

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 07 09 at 04:22 PM • permalink

  3. Their coral-like density would make them an ideal habitat for aquatic life.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2005 07 09 at 05:06 PM • permalink

  4. Forget Kyoto; if you closed the whole country down, the reduction in greenhouse emissions would be just one-fifth of one percent.

    I’m sure Greenpeace would consider that a good start. One country down, approximately 200 to go…

    Posted by PW on 2005 07 09 at 05:47 PM • permalink

  5. There is no such place as New Zealand. No flight to Auckland has ever arrived.

    Posted by harry hutton on 2005 07 09 at 06:11 PM • permalink

  6. Unless they are harvesting mature trees, their forests are adding to their greenhouse gas problem. Mature trees use much less CO2 than young growing trees. And rotting trees spews forth large quantities of greenhouse gases.

    Only the lumber industry can save New Zealand.

    Posted by Jake on 2005 07 09 at 06:34 PM • permalink

  7. Save us from an abundance of Airborne plant food!

    Posted by Rob Read on 2005 07 09 at 07:02 PM • permalink

  8. If the glaciers were retreating as rapidly as they are now growing there wouldn’t be quotation marks around the quote. A little editorializing me thinks.

    Posted by zefal on 2005 07 09 at 08:22 PM • permalink

  9. If only Ms Atkinson had used her love of coastal windswept weather to go fishing instead of causing New Zealand’s economic ruination, I would’ve forgiven her that pathetic semi head tilt.

    Posted by gubbaboy on 2005 07 09 at 09:43 PM • permalink

  10. You reap what you sow, you’d think a greenie would at least understand that

    Posted by Nic on 2005 07 09 at 10:39 PM • permalink

  11. Greens are like the Mrs. Jellybys of the ecology-loving set. They live in apartments full of dead and dying houseplants because they’re too busy typing up anti-SUV screeds on their expensive Mac G4s.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 07 09 at 10:46 PM • permalink

  12. Those houseplants probably deserved it.

    Posted by PW on 2005 07 09 at 11:23 PM • permalink

  13. The Greenpeace caption reminded me that yesterday the collective reported that “tomorrow” would be the 20th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior sinking. Today they reported exactly the same bulletin substituting “today” for “tomorrow”. Dumb and lazy.

    Posted by slatts on 2005 07 09 at 11:27 PM • permalink

  14. The solution is simple. New Zealand can meet their Kyoto obligations by closing down, with all the New Zealanders moving to non-Kyoto Australia. A $1.5 billion hit on their very small economy, which will send it into reverse, means that that’s going to happen over time anyway.

    Posted by Tempo on 2005 07 09 at 11:28 PM • permalink

  15. I pity the dead and dying houseplants, having to breathe the CO2 of the greenies.  Must be hell.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 07 10 at 01:54 AM • permalink

  16. Even worse, the houseplants have to listen to the Greenies talking: ever seen a plant trying to hold its leaves over..well over whatever a plant hears with?

    Posted by cuckoo on 2005 07 10 at 02:56 AM • permalink

  17. CAUTION!

    My anti-viral software started screaming the minute I tried to connect to that Greenpeace website at http://www.greenpeace.gen.nz.

    You might want to be careful.

    Posted by Secret Agent X-9 on 2005 07 10 at 03:51 AM • permalink

  18. CRAP!

    Ok, why did the system auto-link that?!  Don’t follow that link up above.

    Posted by Secret Agent X-9 on 2005 07 10 at 03:52 AM • permalink

  19. Don’t mention the French connection tho’

    Posted by crash on 2005 07 10 at 05:40 AM • permalink

  20. OTOH Andrea, some of us RWDBs have expensive mac G5s!

    Posted by entropy on 2005 07 10 at 06:42 AM • permalink

  21. Gosh you mac owners are touchy, not to mention you have broken irony meters. The point of what I said had nothing to do with the brand name of the computer. Though I will note that a large number of mac owners also seem to be in the arty-farty greenpeace-‘n’-love set.

    Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 07 10 at 12:44 PM • permalink

  22. I have a great way for New Zealand to help meet their committments. They can slaughter all of their sheep. They produce lots of methane, you know.

    Posted by Ann's Fuse Box on 2005 07 10 at 01:01 PM • permalink

  23. That penalty means that New Zealand will have to pay 1.63% of their annual GDP to the Kyoto Kreeps every year.

    If the US were required to pay a similar penalty, its annual payment would be $175 billion a year.

    Posted by Jake on 2005 07 10 at 01:04 PM • permalink

  24. As a charter member of Mac Owners for Global Death I have to protest, Andrea…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 07 10 at 02:02 PM • permalink

  25. Convert to windows or we will ritually re-install your OS!

    Posted by Rob Read on 2005 07 10 at 02:24 PM • permalink

  26. Rob Read — I thought you had to do that every week with your PC’s…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 07 10 at 04:56 PM • permalink

  27. Richard - No I run with the free spyware that seems to come with using IE.

    I welcome this “internet site suggestion” facility that seems built into every version of Internet spyware Explorer.

    1 4m t3h h4><0r !

    Posted by Rob Read on 2005 07 10 at 05:12 PM • permalink

  28. Rob Read — All your BIOS are belong to us.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 07 11 at 01:31 AM • permalink

  29. New Zealand is so freaky clean and non globally-warmed that glaciers actually grow there.

    I do hope you’re kidding. The effects of global warming, if any, would be global. It’s not something one nation can experience or not in isolation.

    Posted by Nathan on 2005 07 11 at 09:20 AM • permalink

  30. The effects of global warming, if any, would be global.

    You should really check that with those global warming proponents who argue that even cases of local cooling are evidence for global warming.

    Posted by PW on 2005 07 11 at 10:20 AM • permalink

  31. Since those proponents are generally unreliable, their claims offer no cover for Tim’s false assumption that a small nation’s environmental impact can be evaluated in isolation. A relatively short chain of islands oriented perpendicular to the prevailing wind does not determine its own greenhouse fate, one way or the other.

    Many specious arguments are made by those who use fear of global warming to promote a socialist agenda. Having equally specious arguments on our side doesn’t make refuting the crackpots any easier.

    Posted by Nathan on 2005 07 11 at 11:52 AM • permalink

  32. Having equally specious arguments on our side doesn’t make refuting the crackpots any easier.

    Tim, better have Andrea break out the sarcasm and humor tags. Looks like we need them posted on the blog again.  I suggest placing them between the “line” and “quote” buttons.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 07 11 at 12:02 PM • permalink

  33. /sarcasm

    Ooops!  Forgot that!  8^D

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 07 11 at 12:02 PM • permalink

  34. The use of sarcasm and humour in writing is yet more proof of the degeneration of serious political thought among conservatives. As if the absense of pretension, self-consious irony, and morbid predictions of doom weren’t enough to convince anyone with a functioning brain-stem. Ted Rall is truely a voice crying in the wilderness.

    Posted by Nathan on 2005 07 11 at 12:36 PM • permalink

  35. I’m not sure if he’s out in the wilderness, but Ted Rall sure does strike me as a bit of a crybaby, I’ll give you that.

    Posted by PW on 2005 07 11 at 01:04 PM • permalink

  36. I thought you wrote “titty picture” (damn astigmatism), but when I looked at the picture I decided I had not missed anything.

    Posted by pedro on 2005 07 11 at 08:57 PM • permalink

  37. The use of sarcasm and humour in writing is yet more proof of the degeneration of serious political thought among conservatives.

    {snip}

    Ted Rall is truely [sic] a voice crying in the wilderness.

    Whereas most other people simply use it as a tool, Ted Rall lives for sarcasm in his scribblings.  His blogs tend to be less sarcastic, but not noticeably so. 

    Therefore, Ted Rall suffers from “...degeneration of serious political thought…”, and to a greater degree as well. 

    Of course, Ted Rall is a hate filled, soul-less, whining assembly of protoplasm to begin with.  That’s why I’m boggling at Nathan’s concept that “conservatives” are degenerating, and Ted Rall is a “voice in the wilderness”.  That’s true only if you assume the wilderness is in Ted’s mind.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 07 12 at 02:24 AM • permalink

  38. The first man to use a wooden ax doubtless considered it merely a tool at first, unaware that his discovery would profoundly impact the history of mankind. He probably had no capacity for serious political thought, either. What makes us human is the realization that each individual is part of a whole, that our actions determine the fate of others, that if we hit people with the ax we can take their food and bask in the lamentations of their women. It is then that we begin to live for the ax, and our voice—the collective voice of humanity—can be heard crying in the wilderness. Like the first man to understand the true nature of the ax, Ted Rall uses sarcasm not only as a tool, but to bludgeon his opponents. In that sense—as in so many others—Ted Rall is not only a hero of the revolution, but a precursor of the next link in human evolution.

    Posted by Nathan on 2005 07 12 at 11:18 AM • permalink

  39. Ted Rall is not only a hero of the revolution, but a precursor of the next link in human evolution.

    BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

    God, but you’re hilarious!  Ever think of going on stage?

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2005 07 12 at 12:03 PM • permalink

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