A generation betrayed

Written By: - Date published: 6:40 am, May 9th, 2015 - 38 comments
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National Ltd™ is currently going through the motions of seeking public feedback on what steps New Zealand should take about climate change. By all means, contribute if you want but be advised: the process is a charade.

In fact, everything that has been presented to the public about our elected governments’ concern for the environment, particularly in regard to climate change, has been a charade for 25 years.

Watch and weep . . . then get angry enough to take action to force the change that’s required.

(Hat Tip: Scoop http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1505/S00096/nz-climate-change-documentary-hot-air-now-free-on-youtube.htm )

38 comments on “A generation betrayed ”

  1. Wensleydale 1

    Kudos to Pete Hodgson and Simon Upton (and I never thought I’d say that about Upton) for actually attempting to do their jobs. Sickening to see their efforts come to nought due to the chicanery and misrepresentation of the carbon barons.

    Interestingly, Maria Robertson, who served as a paid mouthpiece for the big polluters, now has a sweet job with the Department of Internal Affairs. Prior to that, she worked for Rio Tinto, Comalco and Carter Holt Harvey.

    Funny how that works out, isn’t it?

  2. good post/heads-up! – i’ve linked to it..

  3. Corokia 3

    ALL future generations of most species sold out because the dumb, greedy rich bastards refused to change anything and have set us all on a course to sail on to climate chaos and ocean acidification.

  4. Murray Simmonds 4

    Watched it in full – its long but brilliant. Yes, its exactly as you say, “A Generation Betrayed”!

    All thanks to those who made the program available to the public free and in full on Youtube, and no thanks at all to the MSM (apart from Maori TV) for refusing to show it.

    And by so refusing, they compound the travesty of natural justice and the public betrayal that the documentary so clearly depicts.

    • Paul 4.1

      Corporate media never gave Alister Barry’s other film ‘Someone Else’s Country’ a proper airing.
      It showed how the crooks took over in the 80s and TVNZ did not want to show it.

  5. Colonial Rawshark 5

    Paying our leadership class more will fix the problems

    • gsays 5.1

      hi col, apparently after ghandi had gained independence for india, the new politicians were upset that they werent trusted by the public.

      the solution ghandi gave was to take a 30% pay cut and to continue the same job as they were doing currently.
      i understand this worked and the pollys got the trust of the public

    • emergency mike 5.2

      Remove all regulations and levies and the market will take care of everything

  6. Maui 6

    Great it’s online in full, I’ll have to watch it again. The sad thing is that the people that are already concerned about the issue will watch it, but the people yet to learn won’t (the masses). Big ups to Alister Barry for giving it the best exposure he can though :).

  7. US Based 8

    it is shameful when States in the US are kicking our backsides and leading the way, 40% below 1990 levels (while I bet they do not get close at least they seem committed)

    http://www.calepa.ca.gov/

    • Colonial Viper 8.1

      the US is in the Great Recession, and they outsourced all their industry to China.

  8. Colonial Viper 9

    Tories in the UK are about to discard climate change goals, wreck government initiatives on renewables, and can the Human Rights Act. And this is the outfit which smashed UK Labour.

  9. Lets pretend we got our shit together way back when doing something, might have helped reduce our chances of going extinct (soon),
    For arguments sake, lets ‘date’ it @ 300 ppm C02.
    Even back then ‘we’ would have needed 80% unemployment, 0 to reverse growth, a moratorium on breeding, no private car use, an organic vegetarian local food produced diet, depopulating the cities, reduce exports to a minim.
    Absolutely 100 % what no one (except me) would come up with, or vote for.
    WASF

  10. They said in this doco that farming is 47% of our emissions, most of that is raising meat and dairy, according to Cowspiracy.com that would mean ‘our’ fossil fuel contribution is about 14 – 16%.
    I can’t play the holier than thou with this, being a vegetarian, caus I feed my dog meat, but just saying.
    Let them without blood on their lips cast the first stone.
    And if you’ve added a human to ‘the game’, then you have no right to complain 😉

    • weka 11.1

      Cowspiracy is part of the problem. It’s vegan propaganda instead of looking at solutions that will actually work. Swapping industrial beef for industrial soy is BAU and won’t solve CC problems. One thing I am curious about is whether the makers and the pro-vegan people they interview have radically downsized their consumption-based lives, or whether they want the whole world to become vegan so they can keep driving their cars and playing on their iphones.

      Try this review for a critical analysis of the flaws in the film (esp with regards to how it doesn’t cite its references and doesn’t back up its claims).

      http://cairncrestfarm.blogspot.co.nz/2014/10/cowspiracy-movie-review.html

  11. Sorry our transport fossil fuel contribution to the atmosphere = about 14 – 16 % of the total, and 47% is from animal agriculture.
    So if you are cycling for the planet and eating meat you just kidding yourself.

    • weka 12.1

      Depends on what kind of meat you eat and how much vs what kind of non-meat, and where it comes from.

  12. Rosemary McDonald 13

    Brilliant chronology of the construction of a path to hell.

    The bit that really got me…the gas fired power plant in Stratford with a Consent that required them to plant trees to offset their CO2 emissions….and never planted a single tree.

    And Hart….

    • ropata 13.1

      Yup Graham Hart made over $200 million by cutting down forests
      NZ taxpayers were liable for $66 mill in deforestation charges under Kyoto
      https://youtu.be/IGf4maDU7Ps?t=1h05s

      • Rosemary McDonald 13.1.1

        And “shiny bottom” Ardern…the MP with an outstanding record of polishing the backbenches without any effort at all…did nothing, said nothing…well, just the once as depicted.

        I was told, that on the day, the security detail on duty debated the option of allowing the tractor to go all the way.

        Even when it was obvious that the tractor was going to tip over backwards….

        Lost opportunities…

  13. One thing I was trying to get the politicians to do was get Climate Change/peak oil/ overpopulation/resource depletion, etc, stuff into schools.
    I tried to get 30k out of them to assemble an info pack and distribute to high schools
    http://oilcrash.com/articles/concernd.htm
    We need at least $30,000, to get 5 DVDs, a 20 page booklet, and a CD with PDF type displays and literature as teacher’s aides, into 800-1,000 secondary schools and public libraries.

    The DVDs are:

    The End of Suburbia
    The Oil Factor
    Peak Oil — Imposed by Nature
    The Power of Community
    A lecture by Dr Peter Lloyd called Peak Oil meets Climate Change
    I am including The Power of Community and 45 minutes of Dr Peter Lloyd’s 85 minute lecture with this request, please take the time to watch these DVDs and then consider what is the best thing you can do for our community?

    Since the government has over $40 million to spend on Buy NZ made, Environmental issues (PCE), and Energy issues, we trust you will recognise the fantastic return on investment this offer represents. A mere $30,000 for the wide dissemination of a considerable volume of valuable information.

    We look forward to hearing from you,
    The Oilcrash Group
    At the time that was about all the info I had ?
    I know just pissing in the wind

    • weka 14.1

      It’s a good idea but maybe you need to change tack.

      • Robert Atack 14.1.1

        Oh I did Weka, in 2005-6 I gave up )

        • weka 14.1.1.1

          If you handed that pack to NZ MPs in the mid 2000s then I can’t see how you’ve changed tack. MPs then would have no way to do anything with the kind of information you presented them with. Softly softly catch the monkey. Not that I think your scare the shit out of people is completely without merit, I think we do need people on that particular edge, but it’s never going to convince the mainstream directly.

          • Robert Atack 14.1.1.1.1

            If the politicians and leaders can’t react to facts and do something who should?
            That is why they are called leaders, to discover unpalatable information, and prepare the people they ‘lead’ for what is coming, educating the general dumb public was/is the least they could have done, but no they gave us Kiwi Saver.

    • And I gave out 100 info packs at the Al Gore talk fest in Auckland http://oilcrash.com/articles/algore01.htm
      I handed a pack to Tipper Gore, Jim B …. well at least 90 of the attendees, another waste of time and effort.

      • Rosemary McDonald 14.2.1

        With regards to farming, especially dairy, how about more promotion of farmers who HAVE reduced stock numbers, who HAVE reduced fertilizer use, who DO take responsibility for mitigation of the environmental effects of their business.

        And do so profitably.

        Country Calendar (TVNZ) and Country Life(Natrad) have both done some serious reporting on these farmers…..then….

        A clever person could generate a league table of dairy companies who DO insist their farmer suppliers farm responsibly….and then ensure the ‘good’ brands are highlighted.

        In fact…it could be part of their branding…

        Insistance on country of origin labelling….consumers would rather buy NZ grown…and object to paying less for imported food….ffs…

        Government funding for fuel saving/alternate fuel technologies. There are some good ideas out there,,,but your average person is reluctant to take the plunge without some independant research to back up claims….which the inventors often can’t afford to have done.

        Vicious circle which must be broken.

        • weka 14.2.1.1

          I agree a lot more could be done with enouraginge farmers (backed up by adequate legislation). However export dairy from NZ will never be sustainable in a CC context, and neither will farming that is dependent on fossil fuels, which is every farm that uses artificial fertiliser and high tech irrigation. Ploughing both damages soil and releases carbon into the atmosphere. The good news is we don’t need to do any of those things, but there is a gulf between where we are now and where we need to be and time is running out.

          • Rosemary McDonald 14.2.1.1.1

            “However export dairy from NZ will never be sustainable in a CC context,”

            I think it could be, with, as you say, legislation.

            Those farmers who ARE doing it right should be given more attention.

            Trouble is, and this is across the board, we tend to have a ‘baby out with the bathwater’ mentality.

            That, and almost NEVER focussing on what works…we almost always focus on what does’nt.

            • weka 14.2.1.1.1.1

              +1 to that last sentitment.

              The problem with exporting food is there is always going to be a net loss of fertility if that is done in bulk with something like dairy. We get around that presently by using fossil fuels and artificial fertiliser and importing supplemental feed, but that just disguises the fact that we are destroying soil fertility and the general ecosystem. All that has to stop if we want to avoid the worst case scenario with CC.

              That leaves use with various forms of sustainable agriculture, which don’t do the above, but there is still the issue of net loss of fertility. Then it becomes about scale. In other words we can’t just replace conventional dairying with sustainable dairying, because there is no such thing at that level.

              That really isn’t a problem though, there are plenty of other ways of making a living.

  14. Shona 15

    Hey thanks Blip. Missed out on this when it was on Maori TV. Have linked to this as well.

  15. Sable 16

    Its my belief no one in Nationals cabinet really cares about the environment. I do not think any negotiation with them on climate change would yield anything useful.

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