A National attack on the environment

Ben Clark
11 years ago
Categories: climate change, Conservation, Environment, farming, national, sustainability, water

Anthony has already mentioned the amazing record of us winning both first and second prize in the first Fossil of the Day awards at the Doha climate talks – quite a remarkable achievement, particularly for a nation that trades on its “100% Pure” environmental credentials.

Over at Pundit Claire Browning has an extensive list of this government’s attacks on the environment. BLiP in the comments on Anthony’s post goes for an even longer list.

The response? To attack the scientists… Russell Brown had a good blog (& Media 3) on the evidenceless attack on Mike Joy. Noticeably John Key never has produced the scientist he said he could when on Hard Talk he had dismissed Joy’s comments because scientists are “like lawyers, I can provide you with another one that will give you a counterview.”

Last year I ran for Parliament against Maggie Barry. Many voted for her because of her gardening credentials, figuring she must be environmentally friendly… But had they turned up to hear her speak they would have heard her repeatedly push the National Party line: we can look after the environment after we’ve sorted out the economy.

Rubbish.

If we don’t have an environment we don’t have an economy. Environmental limits must be considered. We can’t have increasing intensification of our dairy industry without considering its effects on our water – and the 18-34,000 people people annually who contract waterborne diseases. That’s before we even consider the effects on the tourism industry, which the “shoot the messenger” meme seems to be about.

Similarly, as Climate Change looks like it’ll be worse than current estimates, we can’t just let companies pump out greenhouse gases into our air, while weakening the ETS below any sort of market signal. Corporations do not have first right to use and pollute those resources – air, water, the environment – that are held in common for all of us.

But read Claire Browning’s list, consider those Fossil awards, and Nasa’s James Hansen’s need to be an activist for the love of his grandchildren, and think about whether National’s lack of consideration for the environment will be good for our future – both as individuals, and for our economy.