28 August 2008
To: The Editor
Straight Furrow
Re: ETS a casino
Dear Editor
It was good to read Andrew Walker’s and Bronwyn Savage’s excellent articles in your recent issue. The Forest Service, had done more for conservation than any other organization in New Zealand, but had been forced into some bad practices in native bush operations by political demands for cheap timber for the building trade. It became a prime target for an unscrupulous Government wanting to pander to the Green vote.
Since its demise the Farm Forestry Association has become the only organization with a voice strong enough to speak for the forest industry. MAF has too broad a spectrum to cover to cater adequately for its weaker segment, and the Forest Owners Association misses the broad picture because its interest is confined to commercial plantations.
Andrew raised one point, but did not highlight it; that our negotiators have accepted the Kyoto principle that trees, when felled, immediately burst into flames and release all their carbon. From this stupidity stems much of the injustice done to various categories of forest owners.
Another point that most have missed is the fact that, instead of a simple tax on emissions, Kyoto has set up a carbon trading scheme that supplies another “casino for the wide boys to play in”. Like the futures market, undoubtedly responsible for recent dramatic rises in oil prices, it could be manipulated by people with little interest in forestry and none whatever in conservation. Forest owners will simply be pawns alongside those who manufacture the world’s money and use it for their own game of power manipulation.
It could be very important to New Zealand that this year we again elect a few monetary reformers who understand the background to these events.
Yours Sincerely
John G. Rawson
Forestry Spokesman
Democrats for social credit
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