Facts not emotion
The comment by your correspondent Richard MacManus [September 2] that ‘‘the agriculture sector contributes 47.9 per cent of our total emissions’’ cannot go unchallenged.
A ruminant animal cannot emit any more carbon, in gas, than has already been captured out of the atmosphere by photosynthesis and stored in plants. Unfortunately most of this is cellulose, which humans cannot digest. Our wonderful ruminants with microbial fermentation, convert it to digestible protein as meat and dairy products.
The reumen process will release CO2 and methane belched back into the atmosphere, containing slightly less carbon than has been captured. The majority of the methane will end up in the troposphere where it will gradually be oxidised back to CO2.
Grazing animals are actually carbon sinks, locking up carbon in wool, hides and inedible offal and bones i.e blood and bone. All eventually returned to the soil. It is easy to point the finger. The wetlands, which have almost become reverential, emit 30 per cent of atmospheric methane. The pastoral farmer can be excused for pointing to the 787 jet overhead, carrying 100 tonnes of fuel.
Global warming is here, and may be preferable to another ice age. We will adjust better with scientific facts rather than emotion. antipathy towards Nick Smith than to any appreciable grasp of our worsening peak-time problem.
John Moore’s view that ‘‘the Link is a conspiracy of comfortable Rocks Road residents’’ only just managed to avoid suggestions of plague and pestilence. Will Andrews claimed‘‘all we needed were smart measures like traffic management and high-quality urban planning’’ transparently unaware that magic wands feature only in fairy tales.
From Motueka, Mike Friend, frothed fulsomely on how ‘‘there was simply no need for a Southern Link.’’ He burbled about ‘‘a whole community that doesn’t have a motorway on its doorstep’’ – totally unbothered about other communities that suffer constantly-stalled traffic.
The Link’s been under consideration since the 1980s. St Vincent Street’s re-development completed in the 1990s in anticipation of its connection to Wakatu Drive. Since then, nothing new has been sprung on those who so aimlessly oppose the sense of this development, who’ve added millions to the cost. They’ve putup, but now it’s way past time for them to shut-up and try to get real. several schools, could do valuable psychotherapeutic work with some hand-picked children.