Leighton Smith: Global warming preaching flies in the face of tourism dollars

Conventioneers are expected to fly in by the tens of thousands to attend events at the new convention centre in Auckland. Photo / Michael Craig

Opinion

COMMENT:

Hypocrisy is both a wonderful accusatory word as well as dangerous to assert. It immediately puts the recipient on the defensive, thereby advantaging the accuser, unless the accused can counter effectively. Most struggle. It's like we're all hypocrites now.

It is questionable whether the power of some words is what it used to be. Through overuse, lack of word knowledge, breakdown of education, particularly in multilingual societies, it's hard to say. And as the acceptance of slang and vulgarities encroached on the need for expressive language, so the requirement for language command has shrunk. What is the point of being a walking, breathing verbal work of art when the F word can convey any meaning and mood you choose?

The world seems to overflow with hypocrisy at present. But there is no way of knowing if that statement is true because of the continued growth of technology and information flow. The mid-90s is where it began, very slowly, but has grown exponentially ever since. It's the age-old question, is there more hypocrisy now or just increased awareness?

It's been highlighted over the past 10 days by news from SkyCity. The gambling and entertainment giant is placing a green "bible" in every hotel room under its administration, in order to instruct guests how they can contribute to the battle with global warming, climate change, climate emergency!

There are numerous articles criticising flying, particularly long haul, because of the global warming crisis. Photo / Supplied

"Rising international air travel flies in the face of the global warming crisis," claims an opinion piece in the Herald in April. It is now one article of many criticising flying, particularly long haul. The author wants the Prime Minister to "declare a climate emergency and ban all government-related international air travel below the level of Prime Minister, Finance, Foreign Affairs, and Trade Ministers".

"When other governments follow, what next? Well, London has announced carbon taxes on all flights, so we would surely follow? Then when the emotional blackmail fails to deter holiday flyers, we could encourage the schoolkids to swap lying on Queen St for Runway1. Do you think that would never happen?

So let's get this straight. Tourism is a major income earner for New Zealand. International tourism is worth $16.2 billion a year. That's $44 million a day, providing jobs, GST and other taxes to government revenues. Which in turn goes toward hospitals, welfare, education, etc. Tourism is the country's biggest export earner; 21 per cent of foreign exchange earnings. According to the industry, almost one in seven jobs is related directly, or indirectly, to tourism. That is 216,000 and 149,000 respectively.

Tourism is a major income earner for New Zealand; international tourism is worth $16.2 billion a year.

SkyCity is building a fabulous new convention centre. By far the country's biggest. We were encouraged to believe it was necessary to score our share of the global convention market. Presumably, those conventioneers will fly in by the tens of thousands from the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia, etc., enjoy their business activities, and hopefully then fly down to Queenstown and spend some more. Let's say they fly from London, paying their new carbon tax on exit, land here and pay a tourist tax, contribute to the economy and get their just rewards. That is, a nice 10-minute read from their bedside "green bible" about how they are wrecking the planet and should never have flown here in the first place. There's that hypocrisy word again. It's not the gambling that bothers me. I've done more than my share.

It should also be recommended that these visitors not get sick or injured, requiring hospitalisation. For the Associate Minister of Transport, fresh from exciting announcements on motoring matters, is now exercising her influence in her other associate guise, that of Health.

Julie Anne Genter, fresh from exciting announcements on motoring matters, is now asking hospitals to cut back on meat and dairy. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Peddling this portfolio as only she knows how Julie Anne Genter is asking hospitals to cut back on meat and dairy. It's all about the magic of sustainability. May I suggest she cut out the middlemen and go straight full-on totalitarian.

It came as no surprise that the Associate Minister's alma mater is the University of California Berkeley campus. California's Education Department has just issued an "Ethnic Model Curriculum" and is recruiting public comment on it till August 15.

Under this legislatively mandated guide, capitalism is described as a form of power and oppression alongside patriarchy, racism, white supremacy and ableism. Capitalism and capitalists appear as villains several times in the document.

Critical thinking is described not as reasoning through logic and consideration of evidence, but rather a vague deconstruction of power relationships so that one can speak out on social issues. One course is Math and Social Justice. The Wall Street Journal asks, "Will you be graded on having correct answers on the math or politically correct answers on social justice?….Teaching objective history clearly isn't the goal. Rather it's training students to become ideological activists and proponents of identity politics."

There is a line from an old joke that I have often repeated, about "living in a cave and scrubbing yourself in the creek with a rock". It's not so funny anymore.