New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern. By Newzild - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, link

New Zealand Introduces a Climate Change Meat Tax

Essay by Eric Worrall

h/t Breitbart; In the face of last month’s UN warning that 49 million people in 43 countries face severe risk of starvation, the New Zealand Government has chosen now to introduce a new climate change food tax.

Climate change: New Zealand’s plan to tax cow and sheep burps

By Peter Hoskins
BBC News

New Zealand has unveiled a plan to tax sheep and cattle burps in a bid to tackle one of the country’s biggest sources of greenhouse gases.

It would make it the first nation to charge farmers for the methane emissions from the animals they keep.

New Zealand is home to just over five million people, along with around 10 million cattle and 26 million sheep.

Almost half the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mainly methane.

However, agricultural emissions have previously not been included in New Zealand’s emissions trading scheme, which has been criticised by those calling for the government to do more to stop global warming.

“There is no question that we need to cut the amount of methane we are putting into the atmosphere, and an effective emissions pricing system for agriculture will play a key part in how we achieve that,” New Zealand’s climate change minister James Shaw said.

Under the proposal farmers will have to pay for their gas emissions from 2025.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61741352

You might think that a tax on New Zealand lamb is a rich person’s problem, starving Africans or Afghans can’t afford New Zealand lamb. But that is not strictly the case – New Zealand exports significant quantities of unfashionable cuts of meat like mutton flaps to poor countries.

This trade is controversial – high fat New Zealand mutton flaps have been blamed for a rise of obesity and diabetes in Pacific Islanders. But worrying about long term excess fat intake, or climate change, is very much tomorrow’s problem, in a world where people face a real risk of running out of food today.

Why would New Zealand’s Prime Minister Ardern wilfully ignore a genuine global hunger crisis, and choose now to impose what is effectively a food tax?

We don’t have to look far back in history for comparable episodes of political blindness and indifference.

Great Irish Potato Famine of 1845-49 was primarily caused by potato blight reaching Europe, but it was also caused by neglect, by British landlords and politicians imposing impossible burdens on their Irish tenant farmers, by politicians ignoring the problems their unreasonable demands were causing.

When I first learned of the Great Irish Potato Famine, I read some of the horrible stories – of a priest who wrote about finding a little girl of his parish wandering the streets by herself. When he asked what she was doing, she complained her dad had gone all quiet and cold, and had stopped speaking. Her mum had died a few years ago, but her dad had struggled on, until he had starved himself to death, giving his last scraps of food to his child in an effort to save his little girl. I don’t know if the little girl survived, but with so many adults dying, it is likely she did not.

It didn’t have to be this way. In the mid 1800s the British Empire controlled half the world, they were near the historic pinnacle of their economic and military power. Likely all the politicians in charge of the Empire needed to do to alleviate the suffering in Ireland was reduce or defer the taxes and tithes they imposed on Irish farmers. But the British of the time chose selfishness over compassion.

I wondered when I read this how the authorities of the time could possibly have been so blind to all the misery and death, how they could have been so careless and unfeeling as to let a million people suffer and die, when a trivial effort on their part could have mitigated the situation.

I guess now we have our answer.

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Ouluman
June 9, 2022 10:03 am

Lunatics running the asylum. What next tax on farting? Ban baked beans?

Reply to  Ouluman
June 9, 2022 10:27 am

Farting is now prohibited. If you hear a FART and smell BANANAS, run for your life……MONKEYPOX!!!

Old Man Winter
Reply to  TEWS_Pilot
June 9, 2022 11:28 am

Donkeypox is even deadlier!

Donkypo0.jpg
James Bull
Reply to  Old Man Winter
June 12, 2022 7:11 am

He aw He aw He a’ways says that.

James Bull

Mr.
Reply to  Ouluman
June 9, 2022 1:54 pm

Ban baked beans?

That would be a tipping point for me.

“From my cold dead spoon . . .”

Graham
Reply to  Ouluman
June 9, 2022 2:19 pm

You sure got that right Ouluman.
New Zealand relies on agricultural exports to earn overseas funds to buy a lot of industrial goods that are uneconomic to manufacture in New Zealand .
Our dairy produce from our 5 million cows earns over one third of our export income .
New Zealand relies on our agricultural exports and remember that our dairy herds produce a massive amount of beef and a great number of friesian bull calves and crossbred beef calves which are sold to sheep and cattle farmers to grow and fatten .
NO OTHER COUNTRY IN THE WORLD ARE TAXING THEIR FOOD PRODUCING ANIMALS .
The UNIPCC stated that governments should not take action against climate change that affects food supplies .
For some reason this government states that this does not apply to New Zealand .
Governments are elected to govern their countries and do the best for their peoples welfare but this government is trying to reduce exports and employment .( but increasing bureaucrats )
James Shaw is a traitor to New Zealand butJacinda and her mates rely on the Greens and Maori Parties to govern .
Submissions were called for the governments Zero Carbon Bill three years ago and many concerned citizens appeared before the select committee .
I submitted in person and told the panel that Methane from farmed livestock was a cycle as all fodder that animals consume has absorbed CO2 and the methane that is emitted during digestion is broken down in 8 to 10 years in the upper atmosphere into CO2 and water vapour .
NOT ONE ADDITIONAL ATOM OF CARBON IS EMITTED AS THE PROCESS IS A CLOSED CYCLE .
I then showed the panel a graph of atmospheric methane levels and it shows that for ten years between 1999 and 2008 there was no increase in levels.
Methane levels did not rise for 10 years .Where was the problem ?
There was no problem untill world coal production started to ramp up from 2009 from a steady 4.7 billion tonnes to 8.2 billion tonnes in 2018 .
New Zealand farmers are going to pay levies on methane (TAX ) so that and Asian countries can increase their use of coal .

Reply to  Graham
June 9, 2022 4:07 pm

It was the conservative National Party who signed the country up to the Paris Climate treaty and the then PM said we are going for 30% reduction by 2030 .
The conservatives are now in opposition but voted unanimously for the governments Carbon Zero Act which implements the Paris obligations.

The inclusion of agriculture in NZs carbon budget came from the Kyoto agreement , signed by the then conservative National government in 1997-98.

Theres a consistent double act where the conservative party does almost entirely the ground work for the labour and Greens . Theres only minor differences, usually the farmers want the taxpayers to fund their climate costs, as has happened up till now

Graham
Reply to  Duker
June 9, 2022 6:57 pm

You got that wrong Duker .
Helen Clark singed the Kyoto protocol on the11th of December 2002 .
And this was before the UN had included Methane from farmed livestock .
She actually thought that New Zealand had very low emissions untill the methane lies were introduced .

Reply to  Graham
June 9, 2022 7:07 pm

That was after the Kyoto agreement occurred in late 1997-98.
COP3 Kyoto
There was just a delay when it became ratified by enough countries, The labour supported that and indroduced the legislation but the PM at the time it was signed was Shipley
‘New Zealand’s Permanent Representative in New York signed the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change on behalf of the Government last night”, Hon Simon Upton, Minister for the Environment, said today.[May 1998]”

Similar timing delay for Paris , which was 2015 or 2016 , but the PM at the summit committed the country to 30% reduction. A change in government and the legislation went through in 2019 or so.

So its you my friend who have got it wrong about when these COP treatys are approved and signed. The later legislation just follows from the binding Treatys.

Reply to  Duker
June 9, 2022 10:04 pm

Paris was non-binding.

Reply to  Graham
June 9, 2022 5:38 pm

G’Day Graham,

The UNIPCC stated that governments should not take action against climate change that affects food supplies .
For some reason this government states that this does not apply to New Zealand .

I wasn’t aware of the IPCC statement. I guess the current US administration isn’t either. In the US, government mandated, turn more corn into ethanol – to dilute gasoline. That with a looming world wide food shortage.

(Sydney Morning Herald – reports a shortage of lettuce to put on hamburgers, KFC experimenting with cabbage.)

Tom Halla
June 9, 2022 10:03 am

Jacinda Ardern acts like she would do well in the California Democratic Party.

Curious George
Reply to  Tom Halla
June 9, 2022 10:16 am

Progressivism takes precedence over reasoning.

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  Curious George
June 10, 2022 8:03 pm

Progressivism and reasoning in the same sentence is an oxymoron.

HOJO
Reply to  Tom Halla
June 9, 2022 11:43 am

well her cousin AOC is already causing a mess, you can tell the buck is hereditary. To bad it won’t stop here

Mike Lowe
Reply to  Tom Halla
June 9, 2022 12:52 pm

They can have her – PLEASE. She’s no longer wanted here in New Zealand, except by her bribed acolytes in the media!

Reply to  Mike Lowe
June 9, 2022 4:11 pm

Then why did the conservative party vote unanimously in favour of Arderns Zero Carbon Act ?
Plus theirs PMs signed wholeheartedly the Kyoto (98) and Paris accords/treatys(2015) mandating the foolish climate goals ?

H.R.
Reply to  Duker
June 9, 2022 7:27 pm

Why? Because $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Reply to  Duker
June 9, 2022 10:05 pm

The Paris Accords are not a treaty.

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  Retired_Engineer_Jim
June 10, 2022 8:05 pm

At least that is what Obama claimed. That way he could donate money without Congressional oversight and approval.

Davidf
Reply to  Tom Halla
June 9, 2022 3:29 pm

Just signed a Climate Change agreeement with California. Recent pictures of her smirking right alongside Gavin Newsome. Committed globalist/NWO stooge

Dennis
Reply to  Tom Halla
June 9, 2022 9:39 pm

President of International Union of Socialist YouthOn 30 January 2008, at 27, Ardern was elected president of the International Union of Socialist (IUSY) at their world congress in the Dominican Republicfor a two-year term until 2010. The role saw her spend time in several countries, including Hungary, Jordan, Israel, Algeria and China. It was mid-way through her presidency term that Ardern became a list MP for the Labour Party. She then continued to manage both roles for the next 15 months.

Allan MacRae
Reply to  Tom Halla
June 10, 2022 1:36 am

 Ardern is so utterly unattractive, with her incessant head-bobbing as she stridently spouts blatant lie after lie about Climate and Covid.
She knows she is lying, but thinks she is credible as she speaks even louder, stares more intently at her victim and bobs her head more and more – characteristics of a sociopath.
The Ultimate Woke Karen Bobblehead!

Climate and Covid are false crises, concocted by wolves to stampede the sheep for political and financial gain.
Global Warming (aka Climate) alarmism is a decades-old scam, exposed as CO2 continues to increase in a now-cooling world.
The Covid-19 Lockdowns and Vaccines were never justified – scams that were proved ineffective and harmful two years ago.
SCIENTIFIC COMPETENCE – THE ABILITY TO CORRECTLY PREDICT
20Oct2021. Update 12May2022
https://correctpredictions.ca/
 
There is a powerful logic that says no rational person or group could be this stupid for this long. Our governments were advised two decades ago that they were doing wrong on Climate and two years ago that they were doing wrong on Covid, and they proceeded anyway. There is a point, long since past, when willful stupidity and colossal incompetence no longer provide a credible defense.
 
Needless harm is being deliberately caused by woke traitors like Biden, Trudeau, Johnson, Macron, Merkel, Morrison, Ardern, etc. who are under the toxic influence of Klaus Schwab and the WEF and the totalitarians who seek control of the world’s population.
 
Given our natural resources, our people and our fortunate location in the world, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand should lead the world in economic success and standard-of-living. We have been dragged down by leftist elites at home and abroad, traitors who have done us enormous harm and will continue to do so unless we respond in a rational and positive manner to end their sabotage of our society.
__________________________
  
This video is from the eminent Dr Robert Malone, co-inventor of mRNA technology:

DR ROBERT MALONE: TIME TO FLUSH OUT ALL WEF MEMBERS FROM OUR GOVERNMENTS (rumble.com)

Our institutions have been infiltrated by these criminals – Dr Malone is correct – it’s time to flush them out and shut them down.

Reply to  Tom Halla
June 11, 2022 9:42 am

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly modern socialist dictatorships can enact legislation that is an inconvenience to citizens, yet get away with it due to an active social media virtue signalling program by useful idiots. In Canada, pipeline construction to the west coast was shut down within weeks of Trudeau’s election by calling a moratorium on tankers “for the whales”… a week after pics of the turtle with a straw in its nostril hit the media, we had a ban on single use plastics and now only get nearly useless soft soggy collapsed paper straws with a soft drink order or none at all, plus pay a hidden tax on bread bags…Ardern’s tax on farm animal methane is just a scam to collect tax pennies that will be passed along to the consumer while enabling a virtue signalling justification campaign, actually accomplishing nothing environmental….against a background of economic Ph.D sycophants saying that increased prices will decrease demand resulting in lower methane emissions, blah, blah, completely missing the fact that cows don’t belch less methane just because a steak costs you a dollar more (or do they know that ?)…..

velcro
Reply to  Tom Halla
June 11, 2022 6:41 pm

She was all smiles and kisses a week or so ago with Governor Newsom

Editor
June 9, 2022 10:05 am

And in response, the vegans’ bovine friends say, “MOOOOOOOO”.

Regards,
Bob

Vuk
Reply to  Bob Tisdale
June 9, 2022 11:11 am

BLM (bovine lives meter) as a sheep might say.

Greytide
June 9, 2022 10:11 am

Is there also going to be a tax on Vegans? I suspect that they produce more methane than the average omnivore.

Mike Lowe
Reply to  Greytide
June 9, 2022 12:53 pm

Very likely – they certainly produce more BS!

Mr.
Reply to  Greytide
June 9, 2022 2:00 pm

One particular religion believes that men get 72 vegans when they die and get to paradise.

They probably need 6 dozen of them for a comfortable romp because they’re usually quite skinny.

Alexy Scherbakoff
Reply to  Mr.
June 9, 2022 4:17 pm

Don’t put your D…in crazy.

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  Greytide
June 10, 2022 8:09 pm

Especially if they substitute cabbage for lettuce.

June 9, 2022 10:18 am

Wait until she promotes a tax on eating bugs.
The WEF not available for comment.

Disputin
June 9, 2022 10:25 am

I’m not sure the stories of the Irish potato famine are quite correct. According to Cecil Woodham-Smith (who is in fact a woman), the Irish peasants could live very well on potatoes, but nothing else. Most housewives knew only how to cook potatoes but were clueless about anything else. Many landlords went to a great deal of trouble to alleviate the misery and although Ireland exported wheat throughout the famine the Irish couldn’t deal with it.

The outbreak was at least Europe-wide. and the only available grain was maize, and the mills couldn’t handle it, so the government had to get maize milled in Gibraltar!

Reply to  Disputin
June 9, 2022 12:40 pm

The Irish new very well how to use wheat as well as the butter, meat, oats, and other food that was being exported out of Ireland under the protection of soldiers. They did not know how to use the maize that was brought in from America. For every ship coming in with food to Ireland five were leaving with food. Lord Trevalians corn (wheat etc. Was called corn) tax was a major cause of starvation and his name is cursed to this day. Over reliance on potato was a problem, but you had to pay taxes and rent with your other crops.

PeterW
Reply to  macdara bryan
June 9, 2022 2:35 pm

Much of the criticism of the British Government relies on some form of argument that it should have “robbed Peter to feed Paul”. It’s an easy one to make now, but that relies on hindsight.

The following should be kept in mind.
(1) The “Corn Laws” were designed to keep production high, despite fluctuations in international trade and politics. Grain-based famines were not unusual in Europe and attempts to reduce dependence on imports were not unreasonable.

(2) The British Government did attempt to supply relief, in the form of work-houses and soup-kitchens, as well as imports of Indian Corn. Yes, they got a lot wrong (the work-houses spread the same diseases as Army camps had done for millennia, and solutions were not then understood.) but neither the expertise nor the systems to provide effective relief on that scale existed.
There is an argument that government programs reduced the normal private, community-level response to famine, as people being taxed to pay for programs, believe that they have already contributed and have no moral responsibility to contribute further.

(3) The reform of the Corn Laws led to a reduction in grain-growing, an increase in the land reverting to pasture, and hence a reduction in available employment in agricultural areas.

It is far easier take a one-eyed view of history than it is to propose solutions that were practical under the legal and social conditions of the time….. and yes, I trace my ancestry back to County Cork.

Reply to  PeterW
June 9, 2022 3:18 pm

Successive ‘superior’ British Governments got a lot very wrong in their colonies … we suffer their curse to this day.

Mr.
Reply to  Eric Worrall
June 9, 2022 2:08 pm

My great grandfather and his brothers escaped the famine to Australia and quickly established a viable living from running sheep, cattle and country pubs.

Opportunity free from taxes & restrictions was all they needed.

Reply to  Eric Worrall
June 9, 2022 3:19 pm

The British deliberately prevented education of the Irish.

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  Eric Worrall
June 10, 2022 8:12 pm

And quick to adopt new foods.

June 9, 2022 10:26 am

Well, this should solve the problem…..
.

comment image 

Reply to  TEWS_Pilot
June 9, 2022 1:45 pm

Style looks like a ‘Private Eye’ “advert” . . . .
They also did a ‘Pyramid of Power’ that sharpened razor blades, replenished toothpaste, and cured zits, IIRC!
Only £129-99p.

Auto

Fraizer
Reply to  TEWS_Pilot
June 9, 2022 2:41 pm

Cows making veggies taste like meat since… forever.

Reply to  TEWS_Pilot
June 9, 2022 10:58 pm

Well the cows are vegetarian, so from vegetarian cows one gets vegetarian beef.

Grass goes in, green poop patties fall out, beef remains.

Vuk
June 9, 2022 10:27 am

New acronym required, I suggest:
FT– Fart Tax (not to be confused with ‘f… them’)
Average New Zealander (vegetarians and many of the NZ politicians even more so) probably fart as mach as one average sheep.
So FT the lot.
On more serious note:
Methane has a relatively short life of 12 years compared to the hundreds or even thousands of years that CO2 hangs around.
If a herd of cattle emits the same amount of methane over 12 years, they are contributing to warming for (only) those 12 years.
https://clear.ucdavis.edu/explainers/why-methane-cattle-warms-climate-differently-co2-fossil-fuels#:~:text=Methane%20stays%20in%20our%20atmosphere,that%20CO2%20hangs%20around.

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  Vuk
June 10, 2022 8:22 pm

From what I have read, methane has an abundance about three orders of magnitude less than CO2, albeit it is less than 2 orders of magnitude more effective as a greenhouse gas, molecule for molecule. Thus, it is about 10% as effective as CO2 in reducing cooling. Considering that most methane comes from wetlands, with recent increasing amounts from the tundra, attempts to reduce ruminant and fossil fuel emissions become virtue signaling. It appears to me to have been a last-minute attempt by COP26 to claim that they actually accomplished something.

June 9, 2022 10:28 am

If anyone reading this is from New Zealand I would recommend them to read this recent post from David Siegel which shows that methane has zero effect on the climate:

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/05/28/climate-science-101-david-siegel/

The video is worth watching in it’s entirety, but he talks about methane around 20 minutes in. So all you Kiwis out there, send the link to your MP, or indeed direct to the idiot Ahern. If you know any cattle farmers, send it to them too. Imposing taxes for a phenomenon that doesn’t exist is fraud, I would advise you make your MP’s aware of that fact.

Reply to  Right-Handed Shark
June 9, 2022 1:44 pm

I suspect our NZ politicians know all this already. They simply don’t care. I’m not sure there is even a single MP either in power or in opposition who is prepared to call BS on the climate fraud being perpetrated upon us, so we can’t even vote this nonsense out. I have to watch Sky news Australia to hear from a politician prepared to call it out (e.g. Matt Canavan).

NZ spent a pile of money a while back producing a climate change report that included a graph showing how much our methane contributed to global warming.
From memory it was about 0.00006’C, declining rapidly from there after a year or so to a really small amount ;).
They could be correct though when they say agriculture accounts for about 1/2 our emissions. It’s likely to be about 1/2 of not very much.

Reply to  Chris Nisbet
June 9, 2022 3:22 pm

Might this be a political strategy to destroy the powerful agricultural organisations? I suspect that it is, they are already fractured by Astern.

Bob Close
Reply to  Chris Nisbet
June 9, 2022 4:32 pm

Yes Chris, it’s very alarming that ordinary folks in Oz and NZ cannot get any decent climate change media coverage except on Sky. Matt Canavan is one of very few politicians down under who tells it how it is, and he is even on the outer with his Nationals party who represent the rural conservatives/ liberals. What a weak bunch of hypocrites they are, to say nothing of the woke inner city liberals who voted for Teals and Turnbull inspired scientifically ignorant climate alarmists.
This latest charge to tax animal produced methane really takes the cake for stupidity and moral nonsense by this neo-marxist Prime Minister, its disgraceful and will hopefully cause pushball by the silent conservatives.

Rich Morton
June 9, 2022 10:28 am

Why don’t we just start referring to these animals as ‘Assault Livestock’???

-SMH

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  Rich Morton
June 10, 2022 8:27 pm

I was once charged by a free-ranging bull in my thesis area. When I shot into the ground right in front of him, kicking rocks into his face, he decided he’d rather go back to eating grass than escalate the situation. Wise decision on his part.

fretslider
June 9, 2022 10:29 am

Sri Lanka tried organic and got a WEF approved result

Morticia Arden is going to tax and hit the least well off the most

June 9, 2022 10:36 am

She has her Flying Monkeys at the ready for all who dare to disobey her Royal Decrees.
.

flying monkeys.gif
TBeholder
Reply to  TEWS_Pilot
June 11, 2022 4:59 pm

The problem is, Flying Monkeys need to eat too.

June 9, 2022 10:38 am

I thought one of the main exports of the earthquake prone island was NZ lamb and meat products.
It’s not a climate much good for much else.

WTF is going on down there?
They are gonna tax their own success stories so that they fail?

Mike Lowe
Reply to  pigs_in_space
June 9, 2022 1:01 pm

It’s actually a wonderful climate – that’s why so many of us migrated here from other places (including our Maori friends).. Not too dry, not too wet, few floods, few droughts. Just a few earthquakes, not many eruptions – despite what the sensationalist MSM might say. In fact, our main present problem is that communist-inclined politician Ardern, plus her idiot Greenie mate Shaw!

Leslie MacMillan
Reply to  Mike Lowe
June 9, 2022 1:57 pm

New Zealand lamb is delicious. It comes to Canada in freezer ships. I like the flavour better than our own fresh lamb. Just mentioning this because some American friends had never seen NZ lamb in grocery stores.
If your government makes it more expensive by taxing it, I suppose I will stop buying it.

Peter East
Reply to  Leslie MacMillan
June 9, 2022 3:47 pm

I live in NZ, and I’ve stopped buying as much beef and lamb as I used to because the price is so high. I believe the rationale is along the lines of “we can get this much overseas” so bugger the locals! The sooner this greenie BS is seen to be what it is, the better the world will be!

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  Peter East
June 10, 2022 8:33 pm

I’m unhappy with the price of beef in the US also. I recently saw a package of beef with a price tag of $100 for the first time in my life. I’m cutting back on eating beef out of principle. I can afford it, but just don’t want to support inflation by paying that much.

Reply to  pigs_in_space
June 9, 2022 1:46 pm

It seems so. Farmers here get quite a hammering. They have been taking to the streets in recent times because of the various impositions put upon them.

Reply to  pigs_in_space
June 9, 2022 11:04 pm

“WTF is going on down there?
They are gonna tax their own success stories so that they fail?”

Isn’t that the definition of socialism? Why did the voters expect anything else? Did the voters actually believe the cow patties coming out of the politicians’ mouths?

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  pigs_in_space
June 10, 2022 8:29 pm

Mutton and venison. Are they going to tax the people harvesting the wild deer?

Rod Evans
June 9, 2022 10:40 am

If you want to destroy the farming industry in NZ then taxing the head count of the animals you own is a sure fire way of doing it.
Historically if you herd increased that was a positive event. Now if the herd increases it costs you a fine, or a tax as they euphemistically call it.
The unscientific assault of meat eating currently being carried out by the likes of the Greens and the Woke advocates must stop before real damage to society is done by these ignoramuses.
As for Jacinda, well she is well known for being thick so we should expect her policies on healthy eating to be as equally ridiculous, as her believe in global warming.
Once upon a time, I would happily consider moving to NZ as a sensible country for a pale skin European to live in. Now it is off the list, because the virtue signalling attitude of the political class makes it an intolerable place to live.

Mike Lowe
Reply to  Rod Evans
June 9, 2022 1:03 pm

More than 50% of us think this unscientific madness will only last until the next national election!

Reply to  Mike Lowe
June 9, 2022 1:54 pm

There might be a few disappointed NZers then. I haven’t heard anything from National to indicate they think net zero is a nonsense.
I’d be very pleased to be mistaken though.

Reply to  Chris Nisbet
June 9, 2022 3:25 pm

Indeed, look what has happened to us in Australia … it won’t be long before our socialista tax livestock too.

Davidf
Reply to  Chris Nisbet
June 9, 2022 3:36 pm

Unfortunately, have to agree. However, the promotion of a race based aristocracy is likely to bury them in the next election, maybe then we can at least get rid of the Fabian Socialist/UN/WEF lunacy thats currently oppressing us.

H B
Reply to  Chris Nisbet
June 9, 2022 4:15 pm

let every Kiwi see this especially 19 minutes in
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/05/28/climate-science-101-david-siegel/

June 9, 2022 10:45 am

Let them eat Kiwis

Davidf
Reply to  Redge
June 9, 2022 3:38 pm

Ive always thought that if you truly wanted to preserve a threatened species, most effective way is to farm them! Never heard they were terribly good eating though

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  Redge
June 10, 2022 8:36 pm

Surely you aren’t suggesting Soylent Green! 🙂

Reply to  Clyde Spencer
June 10, 2022 11:03 pm

Got it in one
😂

June 9, 2022 10:51 am

We truly are in a political, social, scientific and medical Dark Age

June 9, 2022 10:51 am

New Zealand mutton flaps have been blamed for a rise of obesity and diabetes in Pacific Islanders”

They eat what!

Old Man Winter
Reply to  Matthew Sykes
June 9, 2022 12:19 pm

France has a great solution for fatty foods- red wine!

Notanacademic
Reply to  Old Man Winter
June 9, 2022 12:45 pm

Thats my solution to most things.

PeterW
Reply to  Matthew Sykes
June 9, 2022 2:44 pm

The old myth that “fat makes you fat” has no scientific basis. The US has now concluded that fat and cholesterol are not “nutrients of concern”, and there is ample evidence that it is high-carbohydrate (sugar and starch) diets that have driven the rise in obesity over the last 50 years.

Personally speaking, I have been eating 1.5-2kg of medium-high fat meat for years, have a perfect Coronary plaque score and am so lean and healthy that my Doctor’s advice is “Whatever you are doing, keep doing it.”

Seems like another excuse to “Blame Whitey for everything”.

Graham
Reply to  PeterW
June 9, 2022 7:03 pm

Well said Peter .It is carbohydrates that fatten people Fat is essential for many parts of the body . Brains are one that comes to mind .

rah
Reply to  PeterW
June 10, 2022 8:23 am

They just need to outlaw spoons! I mean they blame guns for shootings and so by the same distorted “logic” it has to be cooking and eating utensils that cause obesity.

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  rah
June 10, 2022 8:40 pm

And soda straws. They can also be used as semi-automatic spit-wad shooters and they don’t come with serial numbers.

Eric H.
Reply to  PeterW
June 10, 2022 8:55 am

Calories and genetics.

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  PeterW
June 10, 2022 8:38 pm

Sugar or high-fructose corn syrup? It seems that the US plague of obesity developed after the introduction of H-F corn syrup into everything.

Reply to  Matthew Sykes
June 9, 2022 3:26 pm

They were always a LARGE nation.

June 9, 2022 10:53 am

Tax brewing, beer, wine, spirits, massive source of CO2.

Then tax swamps. They produce huge amounts.

Not to mention Mexicans. OK, just kidding, but those beans! 🙂

This woman is an idiot, but seriously, the UK gov signed a methane pledge a few months back, without asking us at all. So expect a meat tax in Britain soon.

curly
June 9, 2022 11:10 am

The wicked witch of the WEF.

Bet those sheep farmers and occasional beef farmers are thrilled.

Thomas Gasloli
June 9, 2022 11:14 am

The entire country of New Zealand has fewer people than a single city in China. New Zealand’s GHG emission, even assuming Climate Change is true, cannot be significant.

So, what the heck is wrong with the people of New Zealand that they keep this odious woman in power.

David S
Reply to  Thomas Gasloli
June 9, 2022 12:05 pm

“So, what the heck is wrong with the people of New Zealand?”
The word dopes comes to mind. Also liberals

Mike Lowe
Reply to  David S
June 9, 2022 1:10 pm

We have much to blame Covid for, including her continuance in the top job.

Graham
Reply to  David S
June 9, 2022 2:49 pm

Unfortunatly to many of them live in our cities and are duped by our News Media that “climate change is real and a threat “

Mike Lowe
Reply to  Thomas Gasloli
June 9, 2022 1:09 pm

It’s called DEMOCRACY, which few of those Chinese city-dwellers experience. Ardern is window dressing to prepare for her attempt at the United Nations, following the example of her adviser Helen Clarke. We wish her the best of luck, and as soon as possible!

Reply to  Mike Lowe
June 9, 2022 4:00 pm

Silicon Valley more likely, as she is quite young and they are more family friendly
Clark was much older when at UN

PeterW
Reply to  Thomas Gasloli
June 9, 2022 2:46 pm

NZ is a prosperous country in which too many voters are insulated from the consequences of the policies for which they vote.

H B
Reply to  PeterW
June 9, 2022 4:17 pm

Not any more

Reply to  PeterW
June 10, 2022 8:04 am

“insulated from the consequences of the policies for which they vote.”

Sounds like several states in the US

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  Thomas Gasloli
June 10, 2022 8:44 pm

California and New Zealand are about the same size. However, the ratio of sheep to people are inverse. New Zealand has more sheep, but the Californians act like sheep.

June 9, 2022 11:33 am

One step away from taxing citizens for the air we exhale. These political cretins know no limits to their anti-humanist fantasies.

Reply to  Andy Pattullo
June 9, 2022 1:57 pm

First things first. They’re in the process of dealing with water right now.

Davidf
Reply to  Chris Nisbet
June 9, 2022 3:44 pm

Thats got more to do with regressive class policies than anything else – transfer of effective power to a small, race based aristocracy. Actually, given the iwi are big business these days, more like and oligarchy. And, theres a technical term for Government run by a combination of Socialism and Business – starts with F, and was a big thing early last century.

markl
June 9, 2022 11:37 am

When will people start revolting against loss of simple freedoms like …. what you can eat? This is getting out of hand and ludicrous.

June 9, 2022 11:49 am

More gaslighting from lunatic leftists trying to convince themselves that a “tax” will stop global warming. A tax has only one useful function: giving money to the government. That’s it. It’s side effect is the initiation of creative efforts by the citizenry to avoid paying the tax, almost always defeating the supposed purpose of the tax.

Brian J. BAKER
June 9, 2022 11:50 am

Just remember the Indian Famines which killed more that the population of Ireland Timeline of major famines in India during British rule – Wikipedia

Clyde Spencer
Reply to  Brian J. BAKER
June 10, 2022 8:48 pm

Were these famines the result of ‘unprecedented’ heat waves?

jacques serge Lemiere
June 9, 2022 11:57 am

taxes don’t change behavior that much…so..what will be the result of the tax regarding methane from cows? how the money of the tax will be used? no emissions associated??

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