Climate change tipped

MORE floods, droughts and nor'westers can be expected in Wairarapa due to climate change, says the Wellington Regional Council, which sees an opportunity in this for more links with farmers.
A report by Dave Cameron, land management manager, and Ian Gunn, senior policy adviser, listed climate change as background to the proposal for a "hill country liaison group" endorsed by the rural services and Wairarapa committee yesterday.
The report said the east coast of the North Island would see "greater extremes in weather patterns, meaning increases in high-intensity rainfall events and droughts, plus an increased frequency in north-westerly wind patterns".
This would bring challenges "not only for the hill country but for the whole of the Wairarapa community".
The council considered that "it would be a worthwhile exercise to review how the hill country can be made more resilient, both in the short term and long term".
?? A Government discussion document, Sustainable Land Management and Climate Change, had received criticism from foresters, the report noted.
This was the document that had received so much opposition from the forestry industry during public meetings.
As far as agriculture was concerned, the report had focused "almost solely on the effects of agriculture as a cause of global warming rather than achieving sustainable land management", Mr Cameron and Mr Gunn said.
"An opportunity to build a bridge with the farming community has been lost."
Mr Cameron said later in the meeting that the authors of the consultation document had proposed several solutions and "most are being criticised, but there are no new ones".
"Obviously the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry feel they've offered all the tools in the toolbox and said 'choose one'," Mr Cameron said.
If no new solutions were proposed, one of the consultation options would probably be taken, "which won't please everyone".
Meanwhile, committee member Ron Southey said he believes climate change "is a load of codswallop".
"I've been called a dinosaur," he said, "(but) this is just a political mess, and will possibly go out the window when there's a change of Government.
"It's just costing this country a fortune."