Today, the NZ Herald reported (not online):
So basically the NZ Herald editorial against Mike Joy was inaccurate and made a number of unfounded and baseless accusations. With no real apology forthcoming, I hope that Mike Joy writes a complaint to the New Zealand Press Council about the misreporting that has clearly maligned him.
Unfortunately Mike Joy has received a large amount of abuse and undeserved ridicule for letting the public know the details of his research... Abuse that's designed to try and keep the scientist quiet about New Zealands environmental degradation.
Thankfully Dr Joy has a good sense of what's wrong or right and has used the media to focus attention on the things that are important, namely 90% of our lowland rivers are too polluted to swim in, 60% of our native freshwater fish are threatened and the current government is doing nothing about these problems.
In fact National is ensuring further environmental degradation through a $400 million fund for regional irrigation schemes that will ensure even more diffuse nutrients derived from agricultural sources will end up in our waterways.
National has even removed a democratically elected council to ensure the regional irrigation schemes are fast-tracked and made changes to the RMA that mean it will not properly protect the environment for future generations. Clearly short term profits are the only thing they care about.
The environmental problems Mike Joy highlights have been recognised by many scientists and environmentalists as well as concerned citizens who don't want their outdoors way of life further impacted by polluting industries. However the concerns they have raised have been totally dismissed by National politicians and their propagandists... In most cases they don't even acknowledge there's a problem at all.
Thankfully New Zealand has a hero in the form of Mike Joy who's justifiably outspoken about protecting the environment and is infinitely qualified to be heard. He's undoubtedly a patriot to his country and deserves praise for working to protect it from polluting industries and deluded politicians. So well done mate, that's why you've won this weeks Hero award. Keep up the good work.
Correction
Monday's editorial criticised the 'timing' of comments made by Massey University scientist Mike Joy to the New York Times ahead of The Hobbit launch and a new Tourism NZ campaign on 100% Pure.
Dr Joy points out that he made the comments one month before they appeared in print. Another statement by Dr Joy that New Zealand would not be 'in the top half of countries in the world when it comes to clean and green' was made to the Herald in a follow-up, not to the Times itself as stated in the editorial.
So basically the NZ Herald editorial against Mike Joy was inaccurate and made a number of unfounded and baseless accusations. With no real apology forthcoming, I hope that Mike Joy writes a complaint to the New Zealand Press Council about the misreporting that has clearly maligned him.
Unfortunately Mike Joy has received a large amount of abuse and undeserved ridicule for letting the public know the details of his research... Abuse that's designed to try and keep the scientist quiet about New Zealands environmental degradation.
Thankfully Dr Joy has a good sense of what's wrong or right and has used the media to focus attention on the things that are important, namely 90% of our lowland rivers are too polluted to swim in, 60% of our native freshwater fish are threatened and the current government is doing nothing about these problems.In fact National is ensuring further environmental degradation through a $400 million fund for regional irrigation schemes that will ensure even more diffuse nutrients derived from agricultural sources will end up in our waterways.
National has even removed a democratically elected council to ensure the regional irrigation schemes are fast-tracked and made changes to the RMA that mean it will not properly protect the environment for future generations. Clearly short term profits are the only thing they care about.
The environmental problems Mike Joy highlights have been recognised by many scientists and environmentalists as well as concerned citizens who don't want their outdoors way of life further impacted by polluting industries. However the concerns they have raised have been totally dismissed by National politicians and their propagandists... In most cases they don't even acknowledge there's a problem at all.
Thankfully New Zealand has a hero in the form of Mike Joy who's justifiably outspoken about protecting the environment and is infinitely qualified to be heard. He's undoubtedly a patriot to his country and deserves praise for working to protect it from polluting industries and deluded politicians. So well done mate, that's why you've won this weeks Hero award. Keep up the good work.
