11 Comments
author
Feb 16, 2023·edited Feb 16, 2023Pinned

Aw crumbs. I've just found out I restricted comments to paid subscribers only. This was a genuine mistake - this post was meant to be free to all, and free to comment on. I've now fixed this, so if you had something in mind, comment away. Open comments can be a minefield, which means that if I do get comments, I'll be moderating them heavily. I wish I didn't have to say this, but calls for violence or climate change denial or anything else inappropriate will be deleted, and anyone leaving comments like that will be blocked. Happy commenting!

Expand full comment

Great stuff, Josh.

Recently and with regret cancelled my Stuff subscription following yet more denialism from a certain galaxy brained libertarian columnist.

And to those who always seem to pop up and say we are too small to make a difference: NZ is in the top 10 worldwide in emissions per capita. We (well, those named above) are a massive part of the global problem.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks Matt. It's a shame that Stuff undermines their excellent climate credibility by continuing to publish denial in the opinion section - as if the label on the section makes any real difference to how readers interpret the contents. If anything, opinion is *more* convincing than news reporting!

Expand full comment
Feb 15, 2023Liked by Josh Drummond

Thank you for this - it really crystallised what had been an incoherent rage blur induced by reading opinionists (great descriptor!) and political actors/vested interests climate propaganda: many in the MSM are not doing their jobs & reporting on the consequences or even the validity of the statements (sorry ‘opinions’) being published. Thank you also for naming the groups and their key operators, I’ve shared this piece with friends & family - many of whom take anything some of the entities you mention as gospel.

Can we start Voices for Climate? Maybe siphon off some of the misguided energy in the protest space to a place it’s really needed?

Expand full comment
author

Thanks Tamara. I really love the idea of helping the people who've been hoodwinked by conspiracies, especially since the truth when it comes to climate really is kind of a stranger-than-fiction conspiracy. Lots of the conspiracy crowd are being all "weather manipulation" and I'm over here yelling, yes, the weather *is* being manipulated, by unchecked carbon emissions, and we're being terminally mislead by a small group of callous elites! You're *so* close! I have an idea for a kind of Voices for Climate thing, and also for a way to reach out to people who've been sucked in by conspiracies (which, ironically, are often funded by fossil fuel interests) but argh it takes time and money and energy and I think a lot of us are low on all three right now.

Expand full comment
Feb 16, 2023Liked by Josh Drummond

Bravo 👏

Expand full comment
author

Thanks doc, and thanks for all the work you do too.

Expand full comment

You forgot to mention Fonterra, which is the worst culprit in New Zealand as far as climate change is concerned. The animal agriculture industry are not only responsible for climate change but In New Zealand and wildwide are also responsible for water pollution, extinction of fresh water fish, habitat destruction, desertification and topsoil depletion.

Animal agriculture has also been a major factor in zoonotic pandemics including covid 19 and the emerging bird flu pandemic. And that's before we even mention the immense suffering it causes to non human animals.

Expand full comment

What we need is a great big melting pot. Big enough to fit these malcontents and all they got. Keep it stirring for a hundred years or more and turn out blocks of stored carbon by the score. I'm serious. They're just carbon begging to be sequestered.

Expand full comment

I'm glad to be a subscriber - independent investigative journalism such as yours is to my mind the only way forward - I positively loath the opinionists in this country - they do alot of damage - keep doing what you do - pleased I can support you

Expand full comment
author

Thanks Jo. Much appreciated!

Expand full comment