Fighting Climate Crime - Activists Lock Down Logging Operation
Early this morning Greenpeace activists took action to stop corporate dairy’s assault on New Zealand forests and the climate.
In the central North Island huge swathes of forest are being cleared to make way for industrial dairy mega farms.
Well before dawn this morning, in the forest near Tokoroa, several activists halted the sharp end of the logging operation by locking themselves to heavy equipment.
Meanwhile, on nearby land recently converted from forest to dairy pasture, another team have used rotary hoes to write CLIMATE CRIME in 5m-high letters into the fresh pasture.
We are calling for the main political parties to commit to an immediate halt to forest conversion for intensive dairy in the face of the worsening global climate crisis.
New Zealand’s agriculture sector already emits 50 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions - more than double the emissions of all transport combined. Deforestation releases huge amounts of greenhouse gas. We estimate that annual emissions from the two largest corporate conversion projects in the Central North Island alone equate to the annual emissions from the Huntly coal fired power station.
Forests trap carbon beneath the soil and in trees. Like a sponge, they soak up carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere - the main greenhouse gas contributing to climate change.
Dairy conversion of forestry land functions as a ‘double whammy’ on the climate destroying forests and replacing them with one of the most greenhouse gas intensive forms of land use.
This chainsaw massacre and the ongoing expansion of corporate, intensive dairy farming in New Zealand has got to stop.
Stay tuned for updates.
The press release and related documents are here
Video: Agriculture and Climate
Related posts
Email This Post
Chur Greenpeace!!
So good to see someone actually doing more than just talk about this stuff.
Great stuff guys!
Wish I was there.
R
U
S
T
Y
Woop Woop! Wish I was there too!!!
love love
Tia
Well done Greenpeace for hindering deforestation and conversion of land to climate changing dairy.
Yes I agree and we need to protest about rice or paddy fields too, as they are producing just as high amounts of methane gas as the dairy and the rubbish dumps. So people protest by eating potatoes and kumera instead.
Good stuff Greenpeace!
If Fonterra can be believed, rising global demand for dairy products is causing rising dairy prices. It seems to me that this would also be driving the dairy expansion. I suspect that the rising demand is to some extent due to Fonterra’s own marketing efforts. The situation needs to be addressed somehow. To what extent would an ETS help? Or does NZ need some kind of financial compensation to protect forests, similar to the ones that some rainforest countries have negotiated? In any case, highlighting the effects on the ground is a good way to bring attention to these issues.
Thank you Greenpeace and well done for highlighting this important issue!
Good stuff.
Excellent initiative. However, I somehow think we are dealing with just another symptom of our society. Why do people eat so much dairy if a large proportion of the community is lactose intolerant to some degree. Why do people eat so much meat if it’s proven to increase heart desease and rates of obesity. Dairy = big money and power. Yes, we do need to protest against the deforestation. At the same time we need to make an even greater effort to address the cause of the issue. We need to educate people about making more responsible decicions about their own consumption and lifestyle that affect their own health and that of the planet.
1. What about sustainable farming in NZ by 2015.
2. And forrestry replanting at the rate of twice the area cleared by 2012.
3. And all road vehicles in NZ being run on water based fuel or at least hybrid versions (car-kit costs around $95 + fitting) Saving all or at least 60% of fuel costs and emissions .
The latter I am dedicating myself to do on a promo basis with a large engined car next year. (hopefully with an oil-co’s backing too).
aww I wish I was there!
Good on you all!
I wish i was there and i wish to see greenpeace in my nation!!!
Im from Venezuela and we have very important forest that are being exploted!
Well done! The farms that will replace the trees will all contribute to our carbon footprint, not because they are dairy farms, but because of the synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and insecticides that will be used on the environment.
If they are farmed organically this will be reversed, and I quote from the Rodale Institute ‘ if only 10,000 medium sized farms in the U.S converted to organic production, they would store so much carbon in the soil that it would be equivalent to taking 1,174,400 cars off the road’ and ‘converting all U.S cropland to organic would not only wipe out agriculture’s massive emission problem, but by eliminating chemical fertilizers it would actually give us a net increase in soil carbon of 734 billion pounds!’
This data is the result of a 23year study.
My Congratulations to Greenpeace ativists !
Hoping this type of action in every part of globe in comming future.
I have just built a house on a 4030sq meter section, half of which is to be left as is with the natural bush and trees to promote the birdlife, and I am planting more NZ trees as well. Burns a hole in my heart to see the trees being eradicated in the North Island. Good on yer GREENPEACE for making a stand. I am an ex Oil Refinery worker and know what pollution is all about. Trees are a major correction factor in repairing the air we have polluted. Birds, forrest animals and insects which are all part of the food chain all rely on the trees. Destroy the trees and we destroy life itself. For every action there is a reaction and I am glad to see GREENPEACE knows how to react in times of crisis.