Industry a saviour

Re Ardern signals end to oil drilling – sort of (March 20), this report contains the most ignorant, presumptuous, hypocritical cant I have seldom encountered except from other single-agenda faith healers and purveyors of snake oil.

Do these Geenpeace conservationists not realise that the whale, the sea elephant, the fur seal, were hunted to the brink of extinction by a major industry in which New Zealand, along with North America and Australia, was a key participant. All hunting any marine animal with an oilrich body for slaughter and boiling down to feed the insatiable world demand for heat and light.

The march to near-extinction, from which they are only now showing signs of recovery, was halted by the discovery and rapid exploitation of oil and gas supported by the other fossil fuel, coal. Homes, towns and cities could be warmed and lit.

It is indeed ironic that Greenpeace and other conservationists persecute the industry that singlehandedly rescued the whale and its mammalian kind from extinction.

By all means, clean up the atmosphere, clean up the oceans, invent electric cars and bikes, drill for steam, put up solar panels and wind turbines, but be fair, acknowledge the contribution the fossil fuel industries have made to our ecology and our environment and to human happiness. To treat them as pariahs is wrong.

Furthermore, the efforts of the extractive industries will be needed for many years to come and New Zealand would be very unwise to turn its back on them. BARRY DOYLE Karori [abridged]