“Government departments and state agencies who continue to use the extreme RCP 8.5 emissions pathway are plainly
deceptive and should be reprimanded,” according to Owen Jennings, the Manager of F.A.R.M. – Facts About Ruminant
Methane.
Various speakers at the New Zealand Agricultural Climate Change Conference just completed in Wellington continued to base their predictions on the RCP8.5 scenario that is rubbished by most
climate change scientists and rejected by farming groups including F.A.R.M. It is time for some truthfulness and
accountability. NIWA scientists continued reference to the extreme position is deeply disturbing. The National Risk
Assessment presented earlier in the year relied on the RCP8.5 option as well despite knowing it is an almost impossible
option involving increasing coal use by 600% and no mitigation of any sort occurring despite the numerous changes
happening every day to reduce CO2.
“Using the extreme scenario that has been widely discredited and that was never intended to be a viable option reeks of
deceit and deliberate scaremongering. Even the IPCC has ceased using the bogus option having replaced RCP’s with Shared
Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP). New Zealanders have every right to ask what other deceptions are being perpetrated on them
by NIWA, Ministry for the Environment and other agencies who are comfortable running bogus scenarios,” continued
Jennings.
The Agricultural Climate Change Conference ignored any reference to the age-old, natural carbon/methane cycle where most
farms are using more Greenhouse Gas than they produce. They ignored the fact that stable livestock numbers mean no
additional methane is being emitted because of the short life of methane in the atmosphere. They ignored the latest
science out of the UK that says NZ is overstating warming by farmers by 400%. They ignored new scientific findings from
the USA proving extra methane cannot add to warming because of the dominance of water vapour.
One speaker made the assertion that increased temperatures from climate change had inflicted losses of 21% on
agricultural output. This is clearly bogus as all the measurements by NASA and other show the world greening, crop
yields soaring and farmers benefitting. The extra CO2 is the best fertilizer going.
Farmers can be forgiven for thinking they are being very deliberately conned – the fall guys for the highly prejudiced,
anti-farm lobby and extreme green groups out of touch with reality.