Why Do The Greens Do Nothing About The Environment?

"A scaremongering armageddon freak show" is how Libertarianz Leader and Tauranga Candidate Russell Watkins described the Greens' "State of the Environment Report" today.

"The Greens refuse to acknowledge that the best environmental conditions are almost always in free countries on private land - landowners care about the water, land and air on their properties. Hundreds of thousands of land-owning New Zealanders look after the plant and animal life on their own properties. Where are they in this 'report'?" asks Watkins.

"The hypocrisy and anti-scientific hysteria regurgitated time and time again by the Green Party is demonstrated in their demand that everyone else be forced to do something about what the Greens don't like, while the Greens themselves never lift a finger to raise their own money for what they value, or take their own steps to protect what they value." Says Watkins. "Their kneejerk solution to everything is authoritarianism."

Watkins says that private property rights are the best way to protect the environment, as people who own what they care about will do everything they can to look after it. "It is no coincidence that privately-owned land and animals are typically better looked after than the government owned alternatives - bureaucrats just don't care as much as property owners do."

Taking a deep breath, Watkins then responded point by point to the Green's report, providing questions - many of them clearly rhetorical - to the points contained in the 'report':

"- Why don't the Greens raise money to buy forests with native timber if they value it so much? - Little South Island high country land has been protected, they say. Why don't the Greens buy the land from the foreigners if it has such value to them? (And who but a racist xenophobe cares where the owners are from anyway?) unless you are racist?) - If the Greens want to protect individual species, why aren't they raising money for breeding programmes? Why don't they buy land to allow them to be protected? Why isn't it legal to farm these species, therefore encouraging individuals to raise their numbers and create new incentives to breed them, or haven't they noticed that chickens, cows and sheep don't need protection for that reason? - If the short-tailed bat and the Blue Duck are internationally important, why aren't the people internationally paying for someone to protect them? To whom precisely are they important? - Why doe the Greens think that taxpayer-funded bureaucrats protect species better than do organisations voluntarily funded with members that have a personal commitment and passion to do so? - Who cares if 0.1% of mainland coastal waters are in marine reserves? How many Greens have dedicated half their own private property to government-mandated land reserves? - Why should people get consent for using a fishing rod? Why can't ocean space be privatised - or are fish more important than people? - Why don't the Greens set up their own fishing company and ensure they don't kill marine mammals and seabirds, advertise the fact, and use the money to pay for other conservation projects? - Why do Greens still eat fish when the fishing industry allegedly is so destructive to species the Greens value? - Noxious plants, animals and insects from overseas may threaten agriculture, but the Greens oppose pesticides and oppose using genetic modification technologies to make species resistant to many of these pests. Why? - If exhaust emissions kill people, why do Green MPs travel in cars and planes, instead of walking, cycling and skateboarding? - If industries and consumers are buying so many of the organic and other Green products that the Greens support, then why must we all be forced to buy them, or forced to not be able to choose alternatives? - Private property is almost always cleaner and environmentally healthier than public areas like rivers. Why not privatise interests in rivers to ensure that someone has a vested interest in protecting them? - If energy demand has increased 90% since 1980, will the Greens celebrate this increase in production, or instead tell factories to close, people to switch off lights and heater, not travel and huddle together in their woolies? - Why is dependency on fossil fuels a problem? When supplies run out, prices will go up and new sources of fuels will become economic. - Why are trains (that consume more fuel than buses per-person-carried) and buses (that take people away from walking and cycling) so environmentally friendly? - If energy efficiency is so important, why do the Greens oppose market pricing for electricity which charges people for what they actually use and encourages people to save? - How many Green MPs are fully 'sustainable' with their own domestic energy consumption, and if they are not, why must the country be? - If waste disposal is a concern, why do the Greens continue to support local government owning and subsidising landfills? - Where is the evidence that genetic engineering causes harm? Why do the Greens support the current prohibition on the right to sue for personal injury by accident that would provide one safeguard against harm to human?"

"Answers on a postcard please," says Watkins.

It's enough to make you vote Libertarianz!

ENDS

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