By Cate Owen
For years, Professor David Bellamy was one of the best known faces on TV. The botanist has written 35 books and presented about 400 programmes.
These days his name is linked with headlines like “Global warming myth” and “Global warming is nonsense”.
Professor Bellamy says that “climate change has always happened” – but doubts man-made climate change.
“It is total poppycock.”
He says that warming of the planet is a good thing.
“We could grow more food in Siberia,” he told Sunrise's Carly Flynn. “If you go back 2,000 years ago in Britain we were growing good merlot in the borders of Scotland – and that was three degrees to five degrees warmer then it is now.”
Professor Bellamy is calling for more balance in the climate change debate.
“Why won’t Al Gore stand up and have a head-to-head with some of the people? He won’t.”
Professor Bellamy also wonders how Mr Gore can be carbon-neutral. “How can anyone be carbon neutral? He flies around. He flouts the truth. If you looked at his famous DVD, there are 25 very, very dodgy statements politically.”
But what if Professor Bellamy is wrong about man-made climate change?
“Well if I’m wrong I expect they’ll put me in prison,” he chuckles.
Professor Bellamy is in New Zealand to visit various parks and says that the government stocktake and potential mining is a bad thing.
“They really shouldn’t do it, should they?” He comments.
He is working with Maori and DOC to move certain environmental projects forward and thinks that New Zealand is doing a good job in that area.
“Wherever I go, I see people are doing the right thing now.”