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Fri 5 Sep, 2003 06:05 am
Farmers in New Zealand have led a rag-tag procession of cows, dogs and tractors to protest against plans to tax their cattle's gas emissions.
Around 1,000 farmers gathered in front of parliament in the capital Wellington chanting "We won't pay" what has been dubbed the "Flatulence Tax".
Methane belched by the country's farm herds makes up more than half the total greenhouse gas produced by New Zealand each year.
But Farmer lobby group Federated Farmers' dairy chief Tom Lambie said the tax was "ridiculous" and the rally and petition were "tangible evidence" of serious opposition to it.
"There will be no tax on emissions" he vowed, to loud cheers.
Climate Change Minister Pete Hodgson told farmers the government reserved the right to impose the tax if farmers "failed to step forward with a package" of funds to support research into cutting greenhouse emissions.
As far as I remember, the discussion about this tax is on a couple of weeks. (Wasn't there a thread about it, too?)
All the cows will be required to have Beano sprinkled over their feed and airplanes will cropspray the pastures.......
Are they considering a swamp tax also?
Heheh...reminds me of one of Ali G's shows where he's interviewing Ralph Nader and gets around to asking him if one way to save natural gas might be to get some really gaseous humanoids & get them to let some off in a box. Ralph immediately came back with "We've already got millions & millions of cattle, but no one's figured out yet how to put a box on their asshole."
Cracked me up that he'd actually say that on tv..
Sure, and everyone hit by the swamp tax will drain the swamp. Swell!
You're kidding, dys? New Zealand actually has a Climate Change Minister?
Pete Hodgson is officially "Convenor of the Ministerial Group on Climate Change" in the Ministry of Economic Development.
(Such groups exist in Germany not only in federal but in [nearly] all relevant state ministeries as well.]
Given the vast herds of ungulates and other herbivores which once roamed the open plains of the Americas and Eurasia, i find it more than a little ridiculous to suggest that there is today a greater flatulence effect at work with regard to greenhouses gases than was anciently the case. Perhaps its just my politically incorrect side showing, but i think this is the kind of idiocy which contributes heftily to the scepticism which continues to be expressed about allegations of global warming.
I would agree with you Setanta. The world is definitely warming up but it is less than clear how much humans contribute to that trend.
Well, and the evidence of history points to a significant cooling between 1200 and 1800, so a warming trend now would not be unusual. Proponents of the theory might object that the rate of warming is highly accelerated, but "paeleoclimatology" has in recent years taken the position that such changes, warming and cooling trends, have occurred much more rapidly than was previously believed. Like you, i think the jury is out on the extent to which human activity contributes to greenhouse effects.
ROFLMAO!! Now that's what the politicians need to impose taxes on! I can think of a few people in my family who'd end the budget deficits all by themselves if they were taxed for every fart and belch they emited.
I'm surprised they haven't thought of this in Singapor
Politicians.
They'll tax anything they can manage to stick their head up.
PS -- There's a couple of methane articles shown at a similar thread:
Climate Change must be tackled NOW
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