Tue, 24 Nov 2009 6:04p.m.
Simon Boxer
By Samantha Hayes
Two weeks out from the Copenhagen climate conference, environmentalists are rallying their armies.
One group has begun preparing troops to engage in "try and arrest me" suicide runs, and Greenpeace gathered around 80 protestors outside Fonterra's headquarters in Auckland to accuse the diary giant of climate crimes.
Marshalled by Greenpeace's Simon Boxer, the protesters came armed with sacks representing the coal and palm kernel feed Fonterra uses in its daily operations.
"Emissions are skyrocketing under Fonterra and they need to bring that under control," he told the crowd, "as well as the emissions that come from their dairy processing facilities."
Greenpeace claim that Fonterra is responsible for over 20 percent of New Zealand's total emissions, based on Ministry for the Environment figures and information submitted to the Government by the company itself.
"We're a growing and successful business, and in total our emissions are growing, and that's the challenge," says Fonterra's Barry Harris, director of sustainability.
Fonterra's Barry Harris says the company is serious about sustainability, but Greenpeace offered pictures to support its counter-claim - that large scale deforestation is being used to create more and more dairy farms.
"Here in New Zealand we're seeing a major increase in deforestation of the pine estate," says Mr Boxer. "In fact, the Ministry of Agriculture have predicted that up to half-a-million hectares of the pine estate is at risk."
Fonterra rejected those figures. MAF told 3 News the at-risk forestry from the same report is more like 170,000 - 280,000 hectares.
Greenpeace says trees, not cows, are what's needed, because methane and nitrous oxide emissions from herds are super warmers.
"One kilogram of methane emissions has about the same warming effect as 25kg of carbon dioxide averaged over 100 years," says Andy Reisinger, NZ Climate Research Institute, "whereas one kilogram of nitrous oxide is about the same warming affect as 296kg of carbon dioxide."
Fonterra is pouring approx $10 million a year into environmental and climate change research, its own PR counter-offensive.
Short, sharp Greenpeace skirmishes like this are another sign the environmental armies are gathering for battle. One pressure group calling itself Beyond Talk plans to have 10,000 soldiers signed up and willing to be arrested when the conference starts in Copenhagen on December 7.
3 News
