GREENIES VERSUS THE ENVIRONMENT AGAIN

"This is a story about a small town in New Zealand I visited over Easter, whose river is threatened by the unintended consequences of the Kyoto global warming treaty. The Waitahuna River runs through one of the prettiest and most pristine corners of the world, the green rolling hills of Otago, in the deep south of the South Island. Even after recent heavy rainfall, it is little more than a creek which flows for about 30 kilometres into a bigger river, the "mighty Clutha", but it irrigates the local sheep-and-deer farming district and marks a natural boundary between farms. Locals catch big, juicy trout in its deep waters, and in summer, social activity revolves around its willow-lined banks.

But last November, strangers from the North Island came to the Waitahuna town hall bearing pavlovas and sandwiches. The representatives of the energy company TrustPower had arrived to present their plans to "steal our river", says local deer farmer Steven Martin. "We might be simple country people, but we're not stupid." TrustPower wants to pump the headwaters of the Waitahuna River and nearby Bungtown Creek uphill out of the valley and over two ridges into a lake to feed the existing Waipori hydro-electric power scheme. Martin says the proposal makes little commercial sense, except that it is subsidised by valuable carbon credits the New Zealand Government has awarded for the project and a similar but smaller one near the North Island province of Taranaki.

Unlike Australia and the US, New Zealand has signed the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty negotiated in 1997 and ratified by 141 nations, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5 per cent by 2012 compared with 1990 levels. The treaty came into force last month, a few weeks after a European Union system of carbon trading that began on January 1.

Carbon credits or "emission units" have been called the world's newest commodity. They are a measurement of the amount of carbon dioxide a company or country is allowed to emit into the atmosphere each year under the treaty. They can be traded, and companies, such as TrustPower, can be awarded carbon credits for investing in "clean" energy projects that replace greenhouse gas-producing projects, such as those fired by coal or gas. They can then sell these credits on the world market.....

So the New Zealand Government, in an effort to meet its Kyoto target, effectively uses carbon credits to subsidise companies that invest in "clean" electricity generation schemes that would not otherwise be commercially viable. TrustPower's pumping proposals for Waitahuna and Taranaki have won it a reported 114,258 carbon credits, worth almost $2 million on today's prices....

Many residents of the sparsely populated South Island, which generates two-thirds of the nation's hydro-electricity, blame the crisis on power-greedy Aucklanders with air-conditioners. They say the solution is a nuclear power station in Auckland, not squeezing the last drop of hydro capacity out of South Island creeks. But nuclear power does not have a place in the green, nuke-free New Zealand of the Labor Prime Minister, Helen Clark.

In any case, there is no consensus that the Kyoto Protocol is anything more than an expensive feel-good exercise. When caught up in the complex game of carbon trading, it may lead to the opposite outcome to those that its framers intended.....

For New Zealanders, being ostentatiously green makes sense, as much as a marketing tool as a lifestyle choice. They have a pristine country on the edge of the world, with a small population, dwindling number of sheep and growing number of tourists who drive around in Winnebagos. But the threat to the Waitahuna River is a cautionary tale of how the best intentions can backfire. In an attempt to play the virtuous global citizen and enhance its green image New Zealand risks hurting its backyard."

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Duuhhh.. I read it in The Guardian...

Eugene Underground has some more derisive comments about the latest Greenie scare:

Does anyone actually read The Guardian?

A whole mess of un-tenured wannabees have signed on to a report that predicted the end of the world yet again. After their litany of meaningless statements, they propose a solution: Lots of Socialism and a planned economy. (No suprise there)

I'm really scared. I hope people will stop doing anything until all the future generations get their share of resources.

Here are some of the more idiotic points:

Because of human demand for food, fresh water, timber, fibre and fuel, more land has been claimed for agriculture in the last 60 years than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined.

Is that a bad thing? How much more? One hectare? Three million? Advanced technology allows us to raise food on formerly unproductive land, feeding Billions more souls, while actually using fewer inputs. -Relax

Water withdrawals from lakes and rivers has doubled in the last 40 years. Humans now use between 40% and 50% of all available freshwater running off the land.

We all know that, once it is used for human purposes, "water running off the land" disappears. Poof! Annihilated! I expect all of Europe to be a lifeless desert by next year.

At least a quarter of all fish stocks are overharvested. In some areas, the
catch is now less than a hundredth of that before industrial fishing.

No more yummy fish!?!?!? Somebody do something!!!! Not to worry though, "overfishing" always solves itself. People don't risk the massive investment necessary to seek fish where they are not. The remaining, clever, fishies make lots of little fishies, and everybody is happy again.

Markets and free choice will solve all the world's ills. -Not a bunch of self-anointed experts.

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

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