Letter to the Editor

28 Mar, 2022

Emissions position

Many years ago when I was in third form at high school, my biology teacher told me that every time I breathed out, I made a little flower happy.

When we moved onto the farm I took that concept with me and over twenty years we have planted more than a thousand trees, mainly evergreen, and there is a good stand of native bush with some exotics. The paddocks are covered in grass with just a few thistles and some carrot weed but they are generally in good condition which I think is partly due to all the people who are breathing in and out in the area.

When I evaluate the balance between the need for carbon dioxide for the process of photosynthesis and the stock numbers we generally maintain, according to my calculations, we are a nett importer of atmospheric gases. I’m happy, the animals are happy and the flowers bloom all year round.

Now that brings me to the question of why should I be paying a tax on a commodity that I am helping to reduce for the benefit of mankind, and my second question is what happens to the tax money that I will be forced to pay. Please don’t give me the crap about saving the planet because I waved a ten dollar bill at the atmosphere the other day and behold, nothing happened. No claps of thunder, no flashes of lightning, nothing!

May I suggest that a better result for reducing the gas would be for the elimination of many government officials, greenies and associated “hangers on” that dream up these astounding, costly and time consuming meetings, country tours, surveys and additional bureaucratic nonsense that will not alter the climate one bit. The “climate” will do what it wants to do as it has done since the beginning of time.

So I await with some anticipation for some logical and common sense answers to my questions, but I will not be holding my breath.

Peter Matheson
Maungaturoto