My last BLOG
brought a veritable flurry of email comment. The references to Ireland, County
Wicklow and Blessington in particular had great significance for one reader
whose mother spent her early years roaming County Wicklow and the Dublin
Mountains where there is a stately home, Russborough House which was owned by
their family.
As you might imagine, given our interest, I looked it up to
learn that Russborough House was built between 1741 and 1755 is reputed to be
the longest house in Ireland, with a frontage measuring 210m and fine example
of Palladian architecture. The House has been home to a fine art collection and
is an Arts and Culture centre today. It is simply magnificent, but imagine it
being a part of your heritage! It certainly will be a must see the next
time we go to Ireland. It’s worth a look on the inter-webby thing (http://russboroughhouse.ie/).
Another friend
who I had worked with in a past employment life very generously wrote, “I know
absolutely nothing of bloodlines or equestrian do’s and don’ts, but I do love
horses, and thought that your story was really beautiful. So I just wanted to
assure you that when the time comes, I’ll carry out your wish and smother you
with a pillow! "
Another friend had experienced the loss of her loved pet
and emailed “I am typing this while
still balling my eyes out, let’s hope indeed that when our time has come we can
go peacefully like bliss and alby.”
And another sent me a health warning:
When you drink vodka over ice, it can give you kidney failure.
When you drink rum over ice, it can give you liver failure.
When you drink whiskey over ice, it can give you heart problems.
When you drink gin over ice, it can give you brain problems.
Apparently, ice is really bad for you!
I always remember a loved teacher, mentor and boss, the late Brian Bensley. In the second of three companies I worked with him we were in manufacturing. He had succeeded in rescuing a struggling company for Pat and Peter Goodman. He was determined to build a successful company and took great delight in growing it so we could provide more jobs in Porirua where the factory was located.
At that time the
share market was the thing and people were becoming rich seemingly overnight.
They were making their money buying and selling in effect bits of paper. I
brought my first home and was paying around 20% interest on the mortgage. I was
tempted by this apparently easy road to good fortune and remember to this day
Brian’s words, “Their fortunes are
written on paper which they trade. The only real business is that when someone
makes something and someone else is prepared to pay money for it. Although it
is tempting, what is happening does not have a sound sustainable basis.”
I
think my interest rate went up to 21% and then we had the share market crash of
the late 8o's and a lot of good people lost just about everything they ever owned which
they had entrusted to those who promised wealth. And many of the new wealthy
disappeared overnight.
I simply don’t get this emission trading which I think is a system designed by people looking for yet another way of making money with nothing. But more so I can’t help feeling we are being hoodwinked over the biological emissions intentions.
I was attending a shed meeting on a farm in our area. I think these meetings are organised by our Member of Parliament. This particular meeting was in the milking shed of a local dairy farming family and was attended by the Minister of Agriculture.
One of those attending introduced me to the work of Pastural Farming Climate Research Incorporated. This organisation was founded by a farmer, Robin Grieve who was looking for support to help challenge the prevailing thinking about the role livestock play in global warming.
It seemed to me that farming was being swamped by a wave of group think and a Government who either was operating under some sort of environmental politically correct imperative or worse still, believed all the bullshit without subjecting it to any rigorous scrutiny or challenge. The purpose of the Pastural Farming Climate Research organisation is to represent farmers’ interests by highlighting the many discrepancies and misinformation surrounding any role livestock plays in global warming.
The lack of any true scientific evidence, the use of assumptions and theoretical models instead of facts and the reliance on uncertain and questionable information is, in the organisation’s opinion, totally unacceptable and dishonest. The Pastural Farming Climate Research Incorporated intends funding research to provide the facts that are missing from the current debate. So I joined up.
The Government has to bring legislation to alter the ETS before parliament before the end of the year. There is no logic in what they propose.Robin is concerned this legislation change will go unnoticed by the general population because it is too complex for most journalists and will receive no media coverage. “People are also generally not interested which I find bizarre”, says Robin. “It is illogical to me that people are so interested in the issues of the Chinese buying farms and the number of pokie machines in Sky City, neither of which will have any impact on them at all, but the ETS is costing each and every one money each week, and is not on their radar.”
The following is from Robin’s website (http://www.farmcarbon.co.nz/) which I would recommend you visit. Better still, join up.
No cow, sheep, pig, or goat has ever managed to create carbon from nothing. This means greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere cannot increase due to the presence of ruminants; they can only decrease if anything. The agricultural emissions that are claimed to make up 48.5% of NZ's greenhouse gas emissions do not exist. These figures are conjured up in theoretical models and concepts. These theoretical emissions are then confused with real carbon emissions such as those from oil and gas; lumped all together and the result is a complete farce.
