STOP THE GREENWASH!- Skycity Protest today

Today; inside Sky City- the 4th Australia-New Zealand climate change and business conference is underway. This is a chance for the biggest polluting companies of both nations to get together and figure out how they’re going to keep causing the world’s most catastrophic environmental and social disaster human beings have ever been subjected to, while at the same time giving us all the impression that everything is fine. They would like you to think that business can keep ticking along as usual as long as you buy some new fancy lightbulbs and shut up, but this ain’t the case. Lets take a look at their credentials…

Fonterra - The worlds second biggest Dairy exporter and New Zealand's most powerful company. New Zealand's Agricultural sector is responsible for producing 49% of the country's greenhouse gases, with Dairy responsible for the biggest increases since 1990, for wrecking the country's rivers, driving small family farms out of the industry and being the single largest driver of deforestation including that of native forests. Fonterra is by far NZ enviro-criminal number one yet is exempt from climate change legislation , leaving it up to you, your taxes and your children to deal with the problem.

Genesis Energy - Owner of Huntly power station, the biggest source of carbon dioxide in NZ are now promoting carbon capture and storage technology. CC&S as it is known is one of the latest technological fairytales the coal industry have conjured up to delay real solutions coming into place to deal with climate change. Genesis are in the process of building a new Gas fired power station just North of Auckland despite a so called ‘moratorium’ on new thermal powered electricity generation. Rio Tinto Aluminum New Zealand - These guys own Tiwai Point aluminum smelter which devours 15% of New Zealand’s electricity generated each year. Rio Tinto, one of the worlds biggest mining companies holds a legacy of environmental, labor and human rights violations in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Namibia, Madagascar, the United States, Australia, and elsewhere.

Solid Energy - A state owned enterprise which was exposed last year for paying a private investigations company to spy on the environmentalist group 'Save Happy Valley coalition'. The investigations company is currently in court facing charges of using illegal investigative techniques. Internationally, Solid energy has recently secured an $80 million contract to supply 'coking coal' to the Tata group, India's largest private company. Coking coal is used in steel manufacturing and Tata have designed the world's cheapest car with PricewaterhouseCoopers suggesting that by halving the cost of India's entry-level vehicle Tata could create 1.8 million new car buyers. How stupid is this??

So would you trust these charactars to halt climate change? The point we’re making here today is that asking big business to look after the environment is a bit like asking a monkey to mind a banana. Executives who work for massive companies like these are legally obliged to maximise shareholder value no matter what. The climate, your welfare and that of your family, community, children simply dosen’t come into it. These are the same companies and people who organise campaigns to make sure that climate change legislation and our safety doesn’t get in the way of their profits and therefore is rendered useless. The New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme is such an example of rubbish legislation made even worse by the people inside Sky City today.

Get out there and Get active on climate change, because they don’t give a damn about you