Editorial: Nature seems to be fighting back

OUTBREAK: Mycoplasma bovis is a disease new to New Zealand.

IT'S a new year and a time for looking back on the past 12 months through a rosy tint, while rustling up good intentions and high hopes for what's to come in 2018.

One hates to be a party pooper but a report this week on biosecurity issues rather put optimism on the back burner.

Chilean needle grass has been found on a North Canterbury farm. It can reduce crop yield and cause animal welfare problems.

Meanwhile, our agri-experts are battling to contain the dairy disease Mycoplasma bovis which has already resulted in more than 3500 cattle being culled.

Invasive ocean pests include fanworm which threatens the ecology of harbours and a nasty from Australia called droplet tunicate.

Millions have been spent trying to eradicate wilding pines, and let's not forget myrtle rust, Psa attacking kiwifruit and the possible extinction of the kauri tree through dieback.

I'm reminded of M Night Shyamalan's 2008 thriller The Happening about an apparently inexplicable natural disaster which sees people committing mass suicide.

The hypothesis at the end is that this is nature's way of getting its own back on mankind.

Could the movie director's vision be becoming true? The threat of fire and flood seem to increase across the globe week by week. Is nature saying it's had enough?

Sorry to be a killjoy but we do seem to live in perilous times. Still, don't let it spoil your celebrations ... we can worry about it next year.