NT: Climate change may not be man-made, farmers told

AAP General News (Australia)
04-01-2009
NT: Climate change may not be man-made, farmers told

By Tara Ravens

DARWIN, April 1 AAP - Farmers in the Northern Territory are calling on the federal
government to cease work on climate change policy until all scientists agree that global
warming is man-made and not part of a natural cycle.

The commonwealth is also being warned that the agriculture industry could become unviable
if the proposed carbon emission scheme pushes ahead.

At a conference in Alice Springs last week, the outgoing head of the Northern Territory
Cattlemen's Association Roy Chisholm said it was a fallacy that farmers were anti-environment.

"The wider community continues to be hoodwinked by the ill-informed into believing
that the pastoral industry flogs the land," he told a gathering of about 300 delegates
at the organisation's 25th annual conference.

"This is a belief founded on emotion, not fact.

"The truth is that the Northern Territory pastoral land base is in a healthy state,
and this is almost exclusively the result of sound land management practices."

But Mr Chisholm expressed concerns about federal plans to push forward with a carbon
emissions scheme, despite the financial crisis.

He said local beef herds had "copped a belting" in recent years following a massive
destock from the Barkly region in 2008.

Herds in Alice Springs were greatly depleted due to ongoing adverse season conditions
which, coupled with the drought, complicated the stock movement.

"Government policy is determined to follow the climate change agenda in spite of the
recent economic downturn," he said.

"Policymakers have failed to recognise that this could cause the agriculture industry
to be unviable."

Mr Chisholm said more research needed to be done before there was an accepted consensus
on the causes of global warming.

"Until there is incontrovertible evidence that climate change is having the effect
on the earth that the government-paid scientists would have us believe, there must be
a hold on any further development of climate change policy," he told the conference.

"Governments need to cool their heels until the whole scientific community can agree
on whether climate change is actually being caused by man-made influences or whether a
natural life cycle is the culprit."

Mr Chisholm also slammed the proposed emissions trading scheme, which will put a price
on carbon pollution in order to reduce emissions by between five and 15 per cent by 2020.

"It is irresponsible for the federal government to introduce legislation and impose
penalties on business and industry, particularly the agriculture industry, which could
unhinge the economic viability of the food production of the Australian economy."

But this does not mean that farmers aren't green.

Mr Chisholm said farmers took land management and other environmental factors "very
seriously" because it was the lifeblood of the cattle industry.

"They are staunchly committed to protecting the land as a productive and healthy source,"

he said.

AAP tr/srp/de

KEYWORD: CLIMATE FARMERS

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