Fonterra will start becoming a legitimate target for eco terrorism

There is a tipping point for activists watching the science that direct action against polluter infrastructure that damages the ability to pollute will become philosophically justifiable and Fonterra’s appalling secret agenda is marking them out a s legitimate target…

Fonterra exposed as major player in global attempts to undermine climate action

Greenpeace Aotearoa is raising the alarm about Fonterra’s role in derailing international climate action. A new investigation has uncovered that globally, large agribusiness corporations are deploying the same playbook used by Big Tobacco and Big Oil to thwart regulations meant to protect the public interest.

The new report, entitled The New Merchants of Doubt, was released by Changing Markets Foundation today. It analyses the actions of 22 of the biggest meat and dairy companies across four different continents, and it specifically highlights Fonterra and the New Zealand livestock industry as key players in an industry-wide strategy to delay regulation of emissions from animal agriculture.

Nusa Urbancic, CEO of the Changing Markets Foundation stated: “This report exposes the blatant hypocrisy of Big Meat and Dairy, which claim to be committed to climate solutions while employing deceptive tactics to distract, delay and derail meaningful action. These tactics mirror those of Big Oil and Big Tobacco, allowing them to continue their harmful practices unchecked.”

Greenpeace Aotearoa spokesperson Amanda Larsson says, “Big Dairy is New Zealand’s worst climate polluter, and now the New Merchants of Doubt report exposes Fonterra’s leading role in work to undermine climate action and avoid accountability for their climate pollution both here and overseas.”

Agricultural emissions, primarily from intensive dairy, made up more than half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2022. Animal agriculture is the single largest source of human-made methane emissions, which are 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. 

The New Merchants of Doubt report exposes how, rather than acting to meaningfully reduce livestock emissions, Big Meat and Dairy use a smokescreen of weak voluntary targets, green marketing and promises of future technological fixes that rarely materialise, while mobilising significant lobbying resources behind the scenes to delay and derail progressive legislation.

“The report highlights years of predatory denial and delay by New Zealand’s intensive dairy industry, spearheaded by Fonterra,” says Larsson.

“Not only are they lobbying the Government here in New Zealand to delay climate action, they’ve also spent millions of dollars in the last decade on lobbyists and political donations in the European Union and the United States.”

Fonterra also faces accusations of greenwashing, as the report reveals they spend more than five times their yearly research and development budget on marketing and PR, which often portrays New Zealand dairy as natural and environmentally-friendly. 

“It has now been more than 20 years since the first attempt to put a price on and reduce New Zealand’s outsized agricultural emissions,” says Larsson. “The Luxon-led Government has delayed this yet again, by scrapping He Waka Eke Noa, removing requirements for agriculture to enter the Emissions Trading Scheme, and failing to address dairying – the biggest source of climate pollution – in the draft Emissions Reductions Plan.”

“We all pay the price for the dairy industry’s failure to take responsibility for their pollution. The climate crisis is here and now. In New Zealand, communities are still recovering from extreme weather events, from Cyclone Gabrielle to the recent Wairoa floods.

“As the New Zealand Government once again backtracks on its responsibility to hold a polluting industry accountable for the damage it is causing, the report makes it clear that overseas customers are wising up to agri-industry greenwash and expect real action. Fonterra and the Luxon Government are doing farmers here in Aotearoa a disservice by trying to deny and delay the inevitable.”

…ACT, NZF and National are Climate Fascists who have done everything to bend over backwards for the interests of the polluters at a time when global warming can no longer be portrayed as a socialist hoax.

The disconnect between the bribed Political class and their polluter donors vs the people living with the realities of climate change is beyond the current political spectrum and I can only see more mass civil disobedience or the rise of eco terrorism.

As the speed of climate change hits us, as the true cost of our denial is realised – protestors will get angrier and angrier at the inaction.

Sometimes the machine is so hateful and evil you have to throw yourself onto the gears to stop it.

…the recent report on sea warming is so fucking grim and I think pretending shit is going to get better if we recycle, ride a bike and become carbon neutral by 2050 is nothing more than vacant optimism…

I just don’t think the vast majority of Kiwis have any comprehension yet just how bad things are going to get from a purely scientific point of view.

Here is the data…

…and here…

…and here…

…National’s attempt to gloss over the fact they are making climate change far more dangerous was beneath the country’s mana…

Government releases climate strategy ‘pamphlet’ on day of damning oil and gas ban advice, emissions impact

Opposition MPs have slammed the Government’s climate change strategy, released today, arguing Climate Change Minister Simon Watts has essentially published a “pamphlet” on climate change to disguise the fact most of the Government’s actions have done little to reduce emissions and many will increase emissions.

The three-page strategy was released the same day the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) published 49 pages of advice on the Government’s decision to reverse the offshore oil and gas exploration ban, which showed the impact of reversing the ban will be an additional 51 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions pumped into the atmosphere in the years to 2050.

For comparison, in the years 2026 to 2030 New Zealand’s net annual emissions are meant to be about 61 megatonnes a year.

Labour’s climate change spokeswoman Megan Woods argued the Government appeared to be getting in ahead of the Climate Change Commission delivering its “monitoring report” – a semi-regular assessment of the Government’s progress towards its multiple climate goals. That report is due to be handed to Watts next week and will be made public no more than 10 days after that.

…even though Farmer’s are being warned our international clients are prepared to pay higher prices for environmental products…

ETS exemption: Farmers warned customers’ ‘voices getting louder’ for action

…watching National, ACT and Corporate Farmers use their economic and political muscle to avoid responsibility for what comes next can only be resolved by civil unrest and a campaign of civil disobedience against those interests.

Just consider how the Corporate Farming Lobby have managed to avoid any tax on their pollution since mid 2004!

They have pushed and pushed and pushed it off for 20 years!

National have already promised ANOTHER 5 year extension which will mean the agricultural industry have managed to stop any tax on their pollution for quarter of a century!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Claiming that NZs emissions mean nothing in comparison to China and India isn’t a justification to do nothing, it’s an acknowledgement that radical adaptation is the only move left because those Goliath economies have already doomed us to a dangerous climate change future!

The economic research tells us that our economic future is not more dairy and cheap exports to China and the environmental research tells us we are running out of time…

How climate change will make your life more expensive

The impacts of climate change extend beyond the environment – global warming is also hitting people in their wallets.

From rising insurance premiums to increased energy bills and grocery prices, the economic impacts are wide-ranging. The financial burden of climate change also has the potential to infiltrate our finances in other, more subtle ways.

Here’s how the warming planet could significantly drive up day-to-day costs.

…the vested interests of the polluter class dictate National, NZF and ACT policy. Working within that system will do nothing.

Only mass civil disobedience will revoke the polluters influence.

We are running out of time, the planet is burning and Fonterra’s actions are making them a legitimate starting point for a new radical eco activism.