Climate Commission side-stepped in methane measurements review; Govt tightens settings to slow “unsustainable” migration; Funding stops for Growing up in NZ longitudinal study
Even the creator of GWP* has said we shouldn't be using it instead of GWP100:
"The lead author of the Federated Farmers report, Myles Allen of Oxford University, has stated “We have consistently said we are not advocating the replacement of GWP100 with GWP*. It was proposed as a way of using the information provided by GWP100 to work out warming impacts, and that remains what it is for. It’s a supplement, it’s additional information.” “If you’re trying to use [GWP*] to say what the responsibilities of a sector are, without consideration of anything else — like the history of a sector, the wealth of a sector, and the other impacts that sector might have had on the environment — then I think that’s inappropriate,” he added."
Guess Fed Farmers and the govt just skipped over that bit.
Fed Farmers is not some supreme entity, just another vested interest group, defending a sunset industry. I believe nature itself will have the final say as to the future of food production.
The never ending adjustment of immigration settings is interesting. You want inflation to go down so you bring in more migrants to ease skills shortage and wage inflation. More people come into country and increase demand for goosa ans services and accomodation which increases inflation. Has anyone (may be Bernard in the past?) expressed a formula that balances the competing pressures that are created and resolved through immigration? Certainly requiring a minimum level of English is a good idea in my view.
Thank god for the time-line cleansing pics!... on that note, @Bernard, can you check the link for the Michael Sheen interview (seems to be going to the climate charts for me?)
The reason this government has eliminated funding for the 'Growing up in NZ' survey, (a world famous study) & 'Living in Aotearoa' is that they are committed to worsening child poverty by impoverishing more families but don't want anybody to record this. It's the same reason they repealed the Tax Principles Reporting Act so that IRD no longer has to report on how the wealthy rort our tax system to further enrich themselves. This government is driven by one overwhelming aim - to shift as much wealth as possible from middle & lower income earners up the food chain to the parasites at the top, (like Stephen Joyce on his $4k per day).
Death by 1,000 cuts. Point (36) of the new 36 point action plan to "Take decisions on the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act" left me floored (but not surprised). Nothing to see here, folks:
The other one that gets me is the working groups/policy committee set up to decide what to do now Three Waters has been repealed. Fine repeal it, but to have absolutely no plan on what to do next is so poor.
What idiots. I thought corporate speak a.k.a. Bullshit speak said we cannot change what we do not measure( Bald headed Boardroom Bandit). BS also about methane emissions. Farmers get a free ride to produce what the world does not need. Hope EU simply bans our non sustainable exports of the worst products for a sustainable Planet.
I would have expected "Aotearoa's CEO" would want to keep the longitudinal study as a way to measure to see if their policies are working. Isn't that the way it's done in business? Measure to see if you're being effective?
Certainly is Sarah. The issue here will be the associated cost. I do not have any details but I am guessing from a simple monitoring study it has become a gravy train for consultants so the Coalition is shutting it down, but I expect they will replace it with something more efficient. Otherwise as you say it's very hard to measure progress.
Alister, the issue is not the associated cost of these surveys as such, it is about finding the money to make up for the reduced tax paid by landlords with the resumption of interest deductability.
As for the "I expect they will replace it with something more efficient" that seems to be a remarkably naive hope on your part.
You don't have any details about the study yet you feel comfortable enough to throw accusations about a gravy train. Perhaps bring some evidence? Or are you just like this current govt, bereft of any?
One was carried out by Statistics NZ (government department) and the other by the University of Auckland under contract to the government (funding was budgetted for 3 more years but has been cancelled).
They don't 'do evidence let alone data' to back up their own policies ...why tf would they want to know exactly how they single (or should that be Three) handley destroyed any chance of lifting kids out of poverty or improved longevity amongst our Maori & Pacifica people?
The latest Brooke Sans Health & Safety Minister certainly doesn't want silly old evidence mucking up her reduction in funding for SENZ & Work Safe.
I live in rural hill country, although not a farmer. At the moment most sheep and beef farmers are running at a considerable loss because Australian drought conditions have led to too much sheep meat being dumped onto the international market, with resultant very low prices. And farms have still not recovered from Cyclone Gabrielle, followed by a drought. Farmers are very anxious about their future.
Our local farmers continue to win environmental awards; each winter they plant thousands of native and deciduous trees.
Ramming emissions discussions down their throat right now and making the usual urban observations that farmers aren't doing anything is plain wrong. That notwithstanding, there are some deeply reactionary conservative elements of rural advocacy - particularly in the deep south - that give entirely the wrong impression of modern, forward-thinking, environmentally aware farmers.
Carbon-emitting companies - airlines, fuel companies, power generators, etc - are waiting with boatloads of money to buy up hill country land for carbon farming. Half our district's highly productive farmland has gone into pine trees. Some will be harvested, some will be left to rot on its own.
Push sheep and beef farmers too hard and they will sell up, confident there's a well-heeled buyer for their farm waiting in the wings. Rural supply companies have their backs to the wall as well, as farmers aren't spending. Everytime a farm goes into forestry, that means fewer lambs, fewer export dollars and a reduced regional economy.
And with so many pine trees wildfires are a considerable risk.
And Right On for pointing to the risk of fires in pine forests.
One summer very soon we’ll experience more forest fires than our fire crews can respond to, and the resulting erosion from the bare ground will result in downstream devastation.
Indeed. Some years ago the NZ Forest Service was killed off. That group managed forests throughout the country, ensured they were optimised for fire protection and monitored all forests closely during dry weather.
Since then the forest industry has had minimal government control, hence the slash problem at Wairoa and other unreported issues. I'm sure a decent wildfire will happen in one or other of these forests sooner than later.
Good point Caryl. Dramatic change is frightening to contemplate for farmers and non-farmers alike. It would be interesting to reconcile what seems to be political reluctance to sacrifice farming with processors and banking demands on scope 3 emission reporting and expectation. I wonder how important EU expectations are in the face of the rules based order being consigned to the dust bin as reflected by the Palestinian genocide. Perish the thought that our government and farming lobby advocate for a future FTA with fascist Israeli Zionist entity. Personally I don’t fancy synthetic agriculture products based on the blood and bone of innocent indigenous Palestinians.
Also, I'm curious, do the sheep and beef farmers think the droughts and the floods will do away one day to make the farms profitable?
And wouldn't that land be better off being replanted or regrowing into natives, especially if it helped reduce our international climate liabilities and the benefits of that were passed on to farmers, especially for the without their houses?
Bernard there are as Caryl said, many on the ball farmers fully tuned in to climate change and the need to nourish the land. They are the ones to advise about land use. I think they are no more the groundswell folk than you are a ford ranger cowboy.
I’ve heard some really interesting rural people on RNZ National’s Country Life. Just google weekly episodes each played 3 times per week. I find it supplements more domestic nature.
Great points there Caryl. I wish our governments would acknowledge this struggle and actually provide real assistance to support farmers to transition to more sustainable types of farming producing planet friendly nutritious foods like grains, pulses, plant oils and vegetables
When looking at consequences for the planet, overseas sources are usually referring to grain-based feedlot operations for growing beef which are absolutely not planet-friendly. Grass fed beef and lamb are in a different league. They are farmed extensively, rather than intensively, like dairy farming.
The other issue is that only a very tiny amount of land where I live is suitable for growing grain. It isn't called the hill country for nothing.
Vitamin B12 - essential for our wellbeing - can only be obtained from animal protein. Although I love eating grains and legumes, I also include a moderate amount of meat in my diet.
I also eat meat sometimes and usually wild venison which needs to be culled to protect native biodiversity but globally we don’t need 70-100kg per year which is the per capita meat intake of many rich countries. B12 is in animal protein as you say (meat, milk, eggs) but also found in fortified cereals, plant milks and nutritional yeast. environmentally intensive red meat can therefore safely be left for special occasions or not at all. I acknowledge women and children have a greater need for iron which may need careful attention/supplements if vegetarian.
I completely agree that industrial feedlots are horrendous and also hear you that hills are a challenge. Same doesn’t hold true for all our agricultural landscapes though
I think you mean 'asterisk', Bernard. Asterix is the hero of a wonderful French cartoon series set in ancient Gaul. His best mate is a very rotund Obelix and the druid who keeps them all happy with his potions is called Getafix (I'd put a big smiley face here if I knew how) :-).
I love the Seeing Stars report. We should also note that the 'report back' time is 'by the end of the year', when they could do it in a couple of days (yes, really) - a classic delaying tactic.
Even the creator of GWP* has said we shouldn't be using it instead of GWP100:
"The lead author of the Federated Farmers report, Myles Allen of Oxford University, has stated “We have consistently said we are not advocating the replacement of GWP100 with GWP*. It was proposed as a way of using the information provided by GWP100 to work out warming impacts, and that remains what it is for. It’s a supplement, it’s additional information.” “If you’re trying to use [GWP*] to say what the responsibilities of a sector are, without consideration of anything else — like the history of a sector, the wealth of a sector, and the other impacts that sector might have had on the environment — then I think that’s inappropriate,” he added."
Guess Fed Farmers and the govt just skipped over that bit.
https://enviroaccounts.com/2024/01/07/the-methane-debate-navigating-new-zealands-agricultural-emission-reductions/
I do wonder what the EU will think. Will they let us keep the FTA if we change to GWP*? Could be self-defeating.
I’m more worried about backtracking from the EU. They have recently capitulated to farmers protesting.
Fed Farmers is not some supreme entity, just another vested interest group, defending a sunset industry. I believe nature itself will have the final say as to the future of food production.
The former head of Fed Farmers is the Associate Minister of Agriculture, and Environment. They do have some power currently.
With this govt for sure, but not against the disruptive climate changes that are coming their way.
It really is a case of the fox in charge of the chickens isn't it...this Government is beyond unbelievable
Methane has a higher impact on warming by about 4x compared to CO2..yet farmers think their 800 cow herd isn't contributing?
The never ending adjustment of immigration settings is interesting. You want inflation to go down so you bring in more migrants to ease skills shortage and wage inflation. More people come into country and increase demand for goosa ans services and accomodation which increases inflation. Has anyone (may be Bernard in the past?) expressed a formula that balances the competing pressures that are created and resolved through immigration? Certainly requiring a minimum level of English is a good idea in my view.
Thank god for the time-line cleansing pics!... on that note, @Bernard, can you check the link for the Michael Sheen interview (seems to be going to the climate charts for me?)
Oh No. Will fix. Here's the correct link. https://twitter.com/emmccatt/status/1776891017758699851?s=12&t=i8emQzcYtJjV3n2AVp0WsQ
https://twitter.com/emmccatt/status/1776891017758699851
Michael Sheen /Leos question
The reason this government has eliminated funding for the 'Growing up in NZ' survey, (a world famous study) & 'Living in Aotearoa' is that they are committed to worsening child poverty by impoverishing more families but don't want anybody to record this. It's the same reason they repealed the Tax Principles Reporting Act so that IRD no longer has to report on how the wealthy rort our tax system to further enrich themselves. This government is driven by one overwhelming aim - to shift as much wealth as possible from middle & lower income earners up the food chain to the parasites at the top, (like Stephen Joyce on his $4k per day).
Death by 1,000 cuts. Point (36) of the new 36 point action plan to "Take decisions on the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act" left me floored (but not surprised). Nothing to see here, folks:
https://www.orangatamariki.govt.nz/about-us/performance-and-monitoring/section-7aa/what-we-do-section-7aa/
some disgusting obscenities in New Zealand:
1) ANZ bank chief executive (Antonia Watson) income 2023 $2,698,369
2) ASB bank chief executive (Vittoria Shortt) income 2023 $3,562,357
3) BNZ bank chief executive (Daniel Huggins) income 2023 $2,696,765
4) Westpac bank chief executive (Catherine McGrath) income 2023 $2,046,864
published in the Weekend Herald Saturday 06 April 2024
Get your point but isn't it great that three of our four biggest bank CEOs are women?
only if they were the most qualified applicants for the positions.
Whatever their gender, ethnicity, or age, their overly inflated incomes are because banks are sucking money out of our society. Not praiseworthy.
Knocked it out of the park today Bernard. Brilliant job finding that Seeing Stars report.
How many working groups has this government set up now?
Not to mention the increase in public servants in and around the beehive to support the Act pet project Ministry of Regulation.
The other one that gets me is the working groups/policy committee set up to decide what to do now Three Waters has been repealed. Fine repeal it, but to have absolutely no plan on what to do next is so poor.
Thanks Bernard,
What idiots. I thought corporate speak a.k.a. Bullshit speak said we cannot change what we do not measure( Bald headed Boardroom Bandit). BS also about methane emissions. Farmers get a free ride to produce what the world does not need. Hope EU simply bans our non sustainable exports of the worst products for a sustainable Planet.
Patrick Medlicott
the EU is going to charge New Zealand millions of dollars for not meeting our reduction targets
I would have expected "Aotearoa's CEO" would want to keep the longitudinal study as a way to measure to see if their policies are working. Isn't that the way it's done in business? Measure to see if you're being effective?
Certainly is Sarah. The issue here will be the associated cost. I do not have any details but I am guessing from a simple monitoring study it has become a gravy train for consultants so the Coalition is shutting it down, but I expect they will replace it with something more efficient. Otherwise as you say it's very hard to measure progress.
Alister, the issue is not the associated cost of these surveys as such, it is about finding the money to make up for the reduced tax paid by landlords with the resumption of interest deductability.
As for the "I expect they will replace it with something more efficient" that seems to be a remarkably naive hope on your part.
Cheers
The new me ignores provocative comments Andrew.
Something I need to learn.
It was a rhetorical question, Alister. And I don't see any mention of gravy train in the reporting.
You don't have any details about the study yet you feel comfortable enough to throw accusations about a gravy train. Perhaps bring some evidence? Or are you just like this current govt, bereft of any?
I did say "I am guessing" Merav.
Confucius said "Don't do unto others what you don't want done unto you.”
Mōrena Alister
Here is some background about these two longitudinal surveys: https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018933352/measuring-poverty-just-got-harder
One was carried out by Statistics NZ (government department) and the other by the University of Auckland under contract to the government (funding was budgetted for 3 more years but has been cancelled).
If you subscribe to Newsroom there is also an informative opinion piece about the value of these longitudinal surveys in this morning's Newsroom - https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/04/09/poverty-and-inequity-no-data-no-delivery/
Thanks Andrew will certainly have a look.
No, I don’t think so Sarah. If you don’t know then it doesn’t exist…..
They don't 'do evidence let alone data' to back up their own policies ...why tf would they want to know exactly how they single (or should that be Three) handley destroyed any chance of lifting kids out of poverty or improved longevity amongst our Maori & Pacifica people?
The latest Brooke Sans Health & Safety Minister certainly doesn't want silly old evidence mucking up her reduction in funding for SENZ & Work Safe.
I live in rural hill country, although not a farmer. At the moment most sheep and beef farmers are running at a considerable loss because Australian drought conditions have led to too much sheep meat being dumped onto the international market, with resultant very low prices. And farms have still not recovered from Cyclone Gabrielle, followed by a drought. Farmers are very anxious about their future.
Our local farmers continue to win environmental awards; each winter they plant thousands of native and deciduous trees.
Ramming emissions discussions down their throat right now and making the usual urban observations that farmers aren't doing anything is plain wrong. That notwithstanding, there are some deeply reactionary conservative elements of rural advocacy - particularly in the deep south - that give entirely the wrong impression of modern, forward-thinking, environmentally aware farmers.
Carbon-emitting companies - airlines, fuel companies, power generators, etc - are waiting with boatloads of money to buy up hill country land for carbon farming. Half our district's highly productive farmland has gone into pine trees. Some will be harvested, some will be left to rot on its own.
Push sheep and beef farmers too hard and they will sell up, confident there's a well-heeled buyer for their farm waiting in the wings. Rural supply companies have their backs to the wall as well, as farmers aren't spending. Everytime a farm goes into forestry, that means fewer lambs, fewer export dollars and a reduced regional economy.
And with so many pine trees wildfires are a considerable risk.
Well said Caryl.
Good to see some balance in the debate!
And Right On for pointing to the risk of fires in pine forests.
One summer very soon we’ll experience more forest fires than our fire crews can respond to, and the resulting erosion from the bare ground will result in downstream devastation.
Indeed. Some years ago the NZ Forest Service was killed off. That group managed forests throughout the country, ensured they were optimised for fire protection and monitored all forests closely during dry weather.
Since then the forest industry has had minimal government control, hence the slash problem at Wairoa and other unreported issues. I'm sure a decent wildfire will happen in one or other of these forests sooner than later.
Good point Caryl. Dramatic change is frightening to contemplate for farmers and non-farmers alike. It would be interesting to reconcile what seems to be political reluctance to sacrifice farming with processors and banking demands on scope 3 emission reporting and expectation. I wonder how important EU expectations are in the face of the rules based order being consigned to the dust bin as reflected by the Palestinian genocide. Perish the thought that our government and farming lobby advocate for a future FTA with fascist Israeli Zionist entity. Personally I don’t fancy synthetic agriculture products based on the blood and bone of innocent indigenous Palestinians.
Thanks Caryl
And dairy farmers?
Also, I'm curious, do the sheep and beef farmers think the droughts and the floods will do away one day to make the farms profitable?
And wouldn't that land be better off being replanted or regrowing into natives, especially if it helped reduce our international climate liabilities and the benefits of that were passed on to farmers, especially for the without their houses?
cheers
Bernard there are as Caryl said, many on the ball farmers fully tuned in to climate change and the need to nourish the land. They are the ones to advise about land use. I think they are no more the groundswell folk than you are a ford ranger cowboy.
I’ve heard some really interesting rural people on RNZ National’s Country Life. Just google weekly episodes each played 3 times per week. I find it supplements more domestic nature.
Getting rid of child poverty by not measuring it. Genius! 🫤
Great points there Caryl. I wish our governments would acknowledge this struggle and actually provide real assistance to support farmers to transition to more sustainable types of farming producing planet friendly nutritious foods like grains, pulses, plant oils and vegetables
When looking at consequences for the planet, overseas sources are usually referring to grain-based feedlot operations for growing beef which are absolutely not planet-friendly. Grass fed beef and lamb are in a different league. They are farmed extensively, rather than intensively, like dairy farming.
The other issue is that only a very tiny amount of land where I live is suitable for growing grain. It isn't called the hill country for nothing.
Vitamin B12 - essential for our wellbeing - can only be obtained from animal protein. Although I love eating grains and legumes, I also include a moderate amount of meat in my diet.
I also eat meat sometimes and usually wild venison which needs to be culled to protect native biodiversity but globally we don’t need 70-100kg per year which is the per capita meat intake of many rich countries. B12 is in animal protein as you say (meat, milk, eggs) but also found in fortified cereals, plant milks and nutritional yeast. environmentally intensive red meat can therefore safely be left for special occasions or not at all. I acknowledge women and children have a greater need for iron which may need careful attention/supplements if vegetarian.
I completely agree that industrial feedlots are horrendous and also hear you that hills are a challenge. Same doesn’t hold true for all our agricultural landscapes though
I think you mean 'asterisk', Bernard. Asterix is the hero of a wonderful French cartoon series set in ancient Gaul. His best mate is a very rotund Obelix and the druid who keeps them all happy with his potions is called Getafix (I'd put a big smiley face here if I knew how) :-).
I love the Seeing Stars report. We should also note that the 'report back' time is 'by the end of the year', when they could do it in a couple of days (yes, really) - a classic delaying tactic.
Oh my goodness you just time warped me back to the 80's reading Asterix!
Thankyou for the feel good memories Mikec
....as you were
The Asterix comic books are still available in good book stores today and they are as funny and clever as ever.
Thanks I will check them out 👍
We made it! Over 100 likes so I’ve opened it up. Many thanks again to our paying subscribers.