Saturday, July 09, 2005
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.)