- the 2007 report card from
new zealand's ministry of
environment is out already
- and there are only two -
count them - "urgent" issues.
REACTION
At times, reading official documents from the government of New Zealand is almost Kremlinesque - finding out real issues by assessing patterns among glowing platitudes.
Full marks, then, to Environment minister Trevor Mallard for an annual report that admits what the clean, green 100% New Zealand ad campaign could not - gasp- imagine.
"This report ... highlights the decline in water quality New Zealand faces as a consequence of the increasing intensity of agricultural production."
TOO MUCH POO
In other words: too many farms, too much poo. Apparently, the worst "pastoral" pollution is worse than anything "urban" city slickers can muster.
Fascinating factoid: "One study has shown that if cows cross a stream on their way to and from milking, they are 50 times more likely to defecate in the water than on adjacent raceways." Fifty times!
Aquatically-prompted faecal verbosity is unlikely to become a sticky point among farm-loving opposition MPs, however. Cow cockies and sheep fanciers, all, National has an apalling environmental record, matched handsomely by Labour throwing away the country's GE-free status in its free trade game of 'chicken' with China and the United States.
INSCRUTABILITY
Fascinating factvoid: promising a "summary" for "decision-makers" of the "most urgent pressures" Secretary Hugh Logan's report only uses the word "urgent" twice more in the 456 page annual report. Twice! In 456 pages! Now that's a summary.
Mismatch alert: unfortunately, only one urgent item - global warming - coincides with the minister's foreword. The other urgency - failing inshore fisheries - does not. Aha! Maybe all that cow poo is killing those poor, little fish.
Not so much Kremlin ideology, then, as an approach of some inscrutability, at least judging by the Secretary's official foreword.
See:
- html and pdf versions of the new zealand environment report 2007
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