Once again Dennis Horne (Times, March 22, 29) completely misses the point, fails to answer any questions raised, engages in appeals to authority, and makes false claims about me.
I am prepared to answer the headline question: “What do I tell kids born today?”.
I tell them “Do not fear climate change”:
- Climate change has always been around and will always be.
- Humanity has adapted through many climate cycles.
- Recent weather events, while infrequent, are not ‘unprecedented’.
- Death and injury from weather events have decreased dramatically over the last 150 years.
- Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant, but a gas essential to life.
- Increased CO2 means plants grow more quickly with less water – deserts world-wide are retreating and food crops require less farmland for the same yield.
- There are proven benefits of increased CO2, and only theoretical negative outcomes.
As for the rest of his waffle, he claims: “Ryan Price cannot explain why our adding CO2 to the atmosphere does not cause warming”. Since I never said it doesn’t, my response is: “Dennis Horne cannot explain why our adding CO2 to the atmosphere does not cause warming”.
I will not dignify his ramblings any further until he can answer some of the points that I have raised instead of trying to shoot the messenger.
He can start with this one: how will making New Zealanders poor help the global climate?
Every single proposal to reduce New Zealand’s use of oil and coal comes at significant cost to the New Zealand public and/or environment.
While New Zealand’s contribution to CO2 emissions constitutes a fraction of a percentage of the global output, between them China and India have two billion people dependent on burning coal to stay alive.
Never mind that if one factors in all vegetation in New Zealand, including farmland and the DoC estate, the country is already a net carbon sink – i.e. plants in New Zealand soak up more carbon dioxide than our population generates.
Ryan Price, Half Moon Bay
