THE phone has been ringing off the hook, the letterbox overflowing with cheques and the website’s administrative capability is stretched to the limit. This is because farmers are doing it for themselves.
A month ago I asked farmers to help Pastural Farming Climate Research Inc, the organisation I chair. We want to raise money to refute spurious claims made about livestock emissions and global warming.
Farmers and lifestyle block owners from the Chatham Islands in the west, from the deep south and the far north and just about everywhere in between have responded. Now finally all seems possible.
The letters, the notes and of course the cheques say it all – they are fed up. A community that covers the country has formed to rally against idiocy. Thank you to the person who donated $1000. Thank you to those who donated $500, $250, $100 and the contributions of $50. Thank you to the lady from Albany with 11 cattle who sent $100, the second time she had donated. Thank you to the person who joined up with a donation and a note saying, ‘this is the money the National Party won’t be getting’. I really enjoyed that one. Everyday contributions arrive; I am sure by the time you read this we will have more than the $18,000 we have raised at the time of writing.
The target is $200,000 to fund the academic study we need, and while we are still a way off that, it all seems possible now, finally!
I have attended several meetings of farmers in the last month and universally it is agreed that the notion that emissions of methane from livestock could be causing global warming is ridiculous. “Its political” they say “why else would anyone think such a thing?”
The exasperation is compounded by the fact that those who propagate this nonsense should have been taken to task. The science is clear. Steady-state emissions of enteric methane cause no increase in the concentration of methane in the atmosphere.
So, if the atmospheric concentration of CO2 and methane is not increasing, there is no global warming threat and no global warming industry. And guess what livestock emissions from a steady state do to the atmospheric concentration of CO2 and methane? Nothing!
That is why farmers are rallying and doing it for themselves.
“The best $50 I ever spent” read one of the notes I received. I hope it will be the best $50 this person ever spent, but it is not so yet, we need more help; to get the study started we need lots more $50 spends by lots more people.
The support that is flooding in makes me confident that this will happen. I’m also confident that when commercial sponsors see the groundswell of support for such a study they will realise that they should be involved.
This has to be done, and apart from the fact that to tax livestock emissions is scientifically wrong, this is the next most compelling reason I have.
I had a call from a young person who wanted to know what the ETS would cost him. He wanted to lease some land and run 70 head of cattle in his spare time. He worked during the week and he and his wife would spend their weekends looking after the cattle.
I worked out it would cost $18 per head per year, rising to $180 per head per year per year over time. The seemingly innocuous figure of $18 per head per year totalled $1260, which compared to a budgeted profit of $10,000 is a massive cost. And John Key will stand by and watch his ETS take money from these young people.
To make matters worse the money that is taken from them will not even go to save the planet. Phil Goff is planning a spending spree on non global warming items with it. While National is at the helm the money will subsidise forest plantings, which, with the aid of corrupt carbon accounting processes, help NZ con the world into thinking we are reducing emissions.
We are not; and after watching snow falling in Whangarei I am not sure we need to.
What we do need to do is raise $200k, and then it will be over. We need your help – this is your chance to do something.
Pastural Farming is an internet based society. By joining for a minimum fee of $50 you are doing something. The website is www.farmcarbon.co.nz
People can join online or by posting a cheque made out to Pastural Farming Climate Research, with email and contact details to 165 Simons Rd RD9 Whangarei.
• Robin Grieve is chairman of New Zealand Pastoral Farming Climate Research
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