Getting back to Farming

BAH HUMBUG!

“War on farmers!” [Commentary by Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon, Times , April 27]. Do slogans win elections?

Boris Johnson’s “Get Brexit Done” – with the promise of £350 million a week extra for the NHS [healthcare system in England] on leaving the EU [European Union] – won him a massive majority in the House of Commons.

Despite warnings from every economist in the country, bar a onetime advisor Patrick Minford to former Tory Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Liz Truss (remember her?), the public fell for it. The UK lost its main market and people now see it for what it was: lies.

Chief propagandist [Joseph] Goebbels first mastered “The Big Lie”. Millions died as a result. Surely we are not going to fall for that old trick again?

It is simply not true that Labour has declared war on farmers. The number of cows doubled since 1990 – when we pledged to reduce emissions.

Intensive (industrial) farming and on land unsuitable for dairying has resulted in excessive use of fertilisers and severe pollution of waterways –and of course global warming. Farmers broke the law by not tracking their animals off farm. Result? An uncontrollable outbreak of Mycoplasma bovis. How much did the Labour Government allow for rectification? The thick end of a billion dollars.

Bah humbug, Christopher Luxon, if there is a war, it is a war on humanity by de facto climate deniers.

Dennis Horne, Howick

• Recent weather events, while infrequent, are not ‘unprecedented’.

• Death and injury from weather events have decreased dramatically over the last 150 years.

• Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant, but a gas essential to life.

• Increased CO2 means plants grow more quickly with less water – deserts world-wide are retreating and food crops require less farmland for the same yield.

• There are proven benefits of increased CO2, and only theoretical negative outcomes.

As for the rest of his waffle, he claims: “Ryan Price cannot explain why our adding CO2 to the atmosphere does not cause warming”. Since I never said it doesn’t, my response is: “Dennis Horne cannot explain why our adding CO2 to the atmosphere does not cause warming”.

I will not dignify his ramblings any further until he can answer some of the points that I have raised instead of trying to shoot the messenger.

He can start with this one: how will making New Zealanders poor help the global climate?

Every single proposal to reduce New Zealand’s use of oil and coal comes at significant cost to the New Zealand public and/or environment.

While New Zealand’s contribution to CO2 emissions constitutes a fraction of a percentage of the global output, between them China and India have two billion people dependent on burning coal to stay alive.

Never mind that if one factors in all vegetation in New Zealand, including farmland and the DoC estate, the country is already a net carbon sink – i.e. plants in New Zealand soak up more carbon dioxide than our population generates.

Ryan Price, Half Moon Bay

No Money For Busway

Eastern Busway additional funding has not been approved. Here’s hoping they have seen some sense at last. A billion dollar busway for empty buses is a bad decision

Bob Wichman, Botany