It’s not new. In 1841 a Scottish journalist was writing essays on Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. There have been many attempts since to capture this crowd condition and try and understand it.
The phenomena is currently manifest right here in New Zealand. We are spending over a billion dollars of taxpayers’ earnings on trying to stop a rise in temperatures of 4 millionths of one degree. It is not like we have surplus funds to spend on a whim or some vanity project. We are about to suffer an austerity budget because of past profligacy. Unnecessary expenditure should be cut immediately.
New Zealand is so obsessed with saving this impossible-to-measure, amount of warmth that we are prepared to put the major part of their export earnings at risk by playing with genetic manipulation regulations in an attempt to find ways to reduce this insanely miniscule amount of heating. We are assured that GMO’s and a fast track to their release will give us new mitigation tools to deal with the pesky 4 millionths of a degree.
Right now, our Government is creating the most deregulated regime for Genetically Modified Organism research and development of any country in the world. Gene editing can often be a one-way street. Once a new modified organism is out of the lab it can never be recaptured. It does not pay to get it wrong. A negative outcome, an unplanned byproduct of a seemingly safe manipulation could be catastrophic for farming and exports. Proper considered process for any changes is vital.
But the obsession with saving the 4 millionths of a degree is supported by green zealots, a bunch of scientists who are feeding on the frenzy and a growing army of bureaucrats at national, regional and local level who can find one hundred and one ways to regulate, write reports, advise mesmerised politicians with ever increasing absurdities about sea level rise, storms, floods, pestilences and large sections of the sky falling – all from 4 millionths of a degree of warming.
The Government has been warned about the loosening of sensible constraints around the gene manipulation work. All our major export and industry bodies stressed caution, demanded more time to study the potential risks and were turned down flat.
Scientists well respected in the genetic editing field are horrified at our cowboy approach. And such a relaxed regime will attract more cowboys to come and undertake their risky genetic modification work here exacerbating the problem.
The Prime Minister is very committed to growing the economy and so he should be. The nation needs to be performing better and new technological developments and the regulatory freedom to adopt them play a vital role in such improvements. But, not at any cost. Not by taking unnecessary risks. Not by rushing legislation on complex and potentially dangerous issues.
There are many areas where R and D on GMO’s is and will bring significant gains for the wider society. No one is pushing a Luddite approach. It is the area of practical agriculture and the lack of clear checks and balances, proper accountability and lack of clarity that rings alarm bells.
There are unanswered critical questions arising from the Bill being pushed through the House. Questions about where liability lies in the situation of an escaping a GMO (think Wuhan Lab). There must be strict liability for any unforeseen harm as a handbrake and to ensure equitability. Why aren’t economic risks included as mandatory in assessments? Why are some gene editing processes left unregulated? Why are there inadequate systems in place to have the most affected sector – agriculture – involved in the regulatory pathway?
This proposed change has been rushed for reasons unknown. Farmers are rightly asking who benefits from this fast tracking of such a sensitive and potentially devastating business. There should have been an independent group established outside of the politics of Wellington, with adequate time for all submissions and discussion.
The desperate chase for mitigation of methane emissions and their 4 millionths of a degree warming is putting our largest and most successful sector in an invidious position. New technologies are needed in agriculture. But the price on this is too high, far too high.
Mr Prime Minister, Stop, look, listen.
Former MP.Owen Jennings, a former Member of Parliament and President of Federated Farmers, maintains a keen interest in ensuring agricultural policies are sensible and fit for purpose. This article was first published HERE
The phenomena is currently manifest right here in New Zealand. We are spending over a billion dollars of taxpayers’ earnings on trying to stop a rise in temperatures of 4 millionths of one degree. It is not like we have surplus funds to spend on a whim or some vanity project. We are about to suffer an austerity budget because of past profligacy. Unnecessary expenditure should be cut immediately.
New Zealand is so obsessed with saving this impossible-to-measure, amount of warmth that we are prepared to put the major part of their export earnings at risk by playing with genetic manipulation regulations in an attempt to find ways to reduce this insanely miniscule amount of heating. We are assured that GMO’s and a fast track to their release will give us new mitigation tools to deal with the pesky 4 millionths of a degree.
Right now, our Government is creating the most deregulated regime for Genetically Modified Organism research and development of any country in the world. Gene editing can often be a one-way street. Once a new modified organism is out of the lab it can never be recaptured. It does not pay to get it wrong. A negative outcome, an unplanned byproduct of a seemingly safe manipulation could be catastrophic for farming and exports. Proper considered process for any changes is vital.
But the obsession with saving the 4 millionths of a degree is supported by green zealots, a bunch of scientists who are feeding on the frenzy and a growing army of bureaucrats at national, regional and local level who can find one hundred and one ways to regulate, write reports, advise mesmerised politicians with ever increasing absurdities about sea level rise, storms, floods, pestilences and large sections of the sky falling – all from 4 millionths of a degree of warming.
The Government has been warned about the loosening of sensible constraints around the gene manipulation work. All our major export and industry bodies stressed caution, demanded more time to study the potential risks and were turned down flat.
Scientists well respected in the genetic editing field are horrified at our cowboy approach. And such a relaxed regime will attract more cowboys to come and undertake their risky genetic modification work here exacerbating the problem.
The Prime Minister is very committed to growing the economy and so he should be. The nation needs to be performing better and new technological developments and the regulatory freedom to adopt them play a vital role in such improvements. But, not at any cost. Not by taking unnecessary risks. Not by rushing legislation on complex and potentially dangerous issues.
There are many areas where R and D on GMO’s is and will bring significant gains for the wider society. No one is pushing a Luddite approach. It is the area of practical agriculture and the lack of clear checks and balances, proper accountability and lack of clarity that rings alarm bells.
There are unanswered critical questions arising from the Bill being pushed through the House. Questions about where liability lies in the situation of an escaping a GMO (think Wuhan Lab). There must be strict liability for any unforeseen harm as a handbrake and to ensure equitability. Why aren’t economic risks included as mandatory in assessments? Why are some gene editing processes left unregulated? Why are there inadequate systems in place to have the most affected sector – agriculture – involved in the regulatory pathway?
This proposed change has been rushed for reasons unknown. Farmers are rightly asking who benefits from this fast tracking of such a sensitive and potentially devastating business. There should have been an independent group established outside of the politics of Wellington, with adequate time for all submissions and discussion.
The desperate chase for mitigation of methane emissions and their 4 millionths of a degree warming is putting our largest and most successful sector in an invidious position. New technologies are needed in agriculture. But the price on this is too high, far too high.
Mr Prime Minister, Stop, look, listen.
Former MP.Owen Jennings, a former Member of Parliament and President of Federated Farmers, maintains a keen interest in ensuring agricultural policies are sensible and fit for purpose. This article was first published HERE
7 comments:
Luxon is proving he doesn’t intend to listen anytime soon about climate or Treaty issues and ongoing illegitimate claims causing division in NZ.
Owen is right about methane and the link below shows he has a couple of Kiwi scientists to support what he says.
https://omny.fm/shows/the-country-wide-podcast/episode-64-gene-editing-in-agriculture-navigating-risks-and-regulation
Apparently, NZs contribution to global emissions is about 0.17 %.
If NZ was subducted under the Australian Plate tomorrow and nothing was ever again to be seen of this country, what would the effect be on global emissions ?
Nada, nothing.
So why are we suffering this self inflicted pain ?
Just to make our eco warriors feel better?
A major policy paper, titled "Absolute Zero," was published on 29 November 2019 as a collaboration between the leading British universities including Cambridge, Oxford, Nottingham, Bath and the Imperial College of London.
The Absolute Zeros recommended that, "In addition to reducing our energy demand, delivering zero emissions with today's technologies requires the phasing out of flying, shipping, lamb and beef, blast furnace steel and cement."
The Absolute Zero agenda is that between 2020 and 2029, the consumption of beef and lamb must drop by 50% and by 2050 it must be "phased out." Also, all construction of new buildings must cease by 2050. "Absolute Zero" agenda has the full support and commitment of the British government, the same government that has incentivized billions of pounds to be invested in solar energy and is now planning to spray the skies to dim the sun.
Very well written.
Mr Luxon and his cronies, are captured by an Auckland voting base that has no practical understanding. They are ideologists rather than realists.
Is there any chance we could have an honest cost benefit analysis or even a economists assessment of ROI as Owen so rightly said ? Its starting to sound like our government borrowing is linked to CC policy conditions. Otherwise its utter madness.
Snap Owen, I have that Scottish Philosopher's quote at the top of my page on Climate https://www.daragrennie.com/climate/. The problem, as I see it, is that The Madness Of this particular Crowd has been created by our captured scientific and academic institutions that have been pushing the man made CO2 driven climate change scam for decades. Therefore many people believe in it and MSM and politicians are demanded to believe in it. Even our coalitions agreement has support of Net Zero goals enshrined in it. The challenge is how do we reverse the mis and dis information coming from our educational system before they wreck our economy? TO add a couple of questions: How come we don't leave agriculture alone? Isn't that in the Paris Agreement (as faulty and illegitimate as it is)? And what exactly do you mean by 'new technologies are needed in agriculture"? I hope you don't mean tech to reduce CO2.
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