Boycott NZ until we are clean and green

New Zealand was a friend to Middle Earth, but it's no friend of the earth
As the world prepares for the Copenhagen climate negotiations next month, it is worth checking out the greenwash that has followed the promises made 12 years ago when the Kyoto protocol was signed. A surprising number of countries have succeeded in raising their emissions from 1990 levels despite signing up to reduce them. They include a bundle of countries in the European Union, which collectively agreed to let some nations increase their emissions while others (mainly Britain and Germany) cut theirs. Step forward Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece — all with emissions up by more than a quarter. Then there are the US and Australia, which both reneged on the protocol after signing it. And Canada, which never reneged but still has emissions up by a quarter (worse than the US) and shows no sign of contrition or of being called to account by the other signatories. But my prize for the most shameless two fingers to the global community goes to New Zealand, a country that sells itself round the world as "clean and green". New Zealand secured a generous Kyoto target, which simply required it not to increase its emissions between 1990 and 2010. But the latest UN statistics show its emissions of greenhouse gases up by 22%, or a whopping 39% if you look at emissions from fuel burning alone.

As National allow the wealthy polluters to continue to be subsidized at our expense, the rest of the world is clicking onto how much a lie our clean green claim really is. This piece by the Guardian should terrify the Government into action. The problem is that our Dairy industry has so much power (they were able to censor an entire chapter last year in our environmental report that criticized their industry). It will only be through external pressure like this article attacking our clean green myth before the Dairy industry is forced to change.