So we’ve taken another step towards a full-on war on the degradation of our environment

The government has appointed a committee that will eventually become a commission in charge of combating climate change.

Top of their agenda will be bringing agricultural emissions into the Emission Trading scheme by the next election

Obviously, the farming community is up in arms at the possibility that the burps of their cows could be taxed.  The cows our economy stands on the shoulders of.

Now, this is no surprise because it’s been Labour and the Greens policy for a long time but the disquiet is very real.

Now, I’m going to ignore the debate as to whether cow burps in New Zealand created global warming. I’d rather concentrate on whether a tax like the ETS really addresses the problem.

What is the point of taxing burps? To create a so-called better environment it would have to reduce the number of animals in our country. We can’t afford that and I don’t believe that will not happen.

I’m beginning to get frustrated that all the environmental measuring introduced will result in absolutely no reduction in emissions.

The oil and gas exploration ban is now widely accepted as being symbolic just as our stand against nuclear power was.  An already nuclear-free country purely declared itself to be what it was. But unlike our stand against nukes, this exploration ban will cost us dearly yet decrease our emissions not one jot

A Uk economist, Ann Pettifor, one of the few to predict the GFC, has been visiting the country and speaking and she has said that "If the Greens and the Labour Party want to do something about [climate change] they're going to have to invest.

But at the moment they seemed more inclined to punish with taxes and bans than to invest. They seem uninterested in creating an environment that creates real alternatives.

Now I’m interested in having a cleaner world and if it results in less climate change then that’s a nice bonus.

But I’d rather make the environment cleaner rather than punishing the imagined bad guys.