New Zealand to tax cattle flatulence to combat global warming

Ananova ^

[Jimmyclyde]

New Zealand to tax cattle flatulence

New Zealand farmers are angry after the government announced plans to tax the flatulence of their livestock.

Farmers face a levy of up to 25p a head on cattle and 3p on each sheep as part of the government's policy to combat global warming.

Methane from the animals' belching from the grass they munch, and nitrous oxide from their dung and urine accounts for more than half of all New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions.

The government will spend the tax it collects from the flatulent animals on researching ways to make them less windy.

Farmers accused the government of a political sleight of hand in making them pay for research after promising the agricultural sector would be exempted from emission charges.

Federated Farmers' president Tom Lambie complains New Zealand is the only country to impose a levy like this on its farmers.

Story filed: 13:38 Friday 20th June 2003

[Jimmyclyde]

Wacko alert!!!

[Jimmyclyde]

BUMP

[Wolfie]

A flatulence tax is actually a good idea, but it should be on the politicians, not cattle.

[MEG33]

The words coming out of their PM's mouth qualify.Tax her.

[MEG33]

Ha! see#4

[basil]

Ain't that the truth! Only, most politicians have a lot more hot air than a cow or goat, so they should be taxed a great deal more---LOL!

[basil]

Ain't that the truth! Only, most politicians have a lot more hot air than a cow or goat, so they should be taxed a great deal more---LOL!

[Servant of the Nine]

The EPA is talking about the same thing here.
I predict guerilla warfave between the EPA wanting to thread cow butts for catalytic converters, and PETA types fighting to save the cows.

So9

[Ditter]

What a scam! NZ has crystal clear air & water. They do have more livestock than people, lots more, so I guess this had to happen.

[chachacha]

Beam me up LORD I'm ready!

[tnlibertarian]

Well that stinks!

[SKI NOW]

Methane from the animals' belching from the grass they munch, and nitrous oxide from their dung and urine accounts for more than half of all New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions.

Silly statement alert!

Since New Zealand is volcanicly active with venting geysers and fumaroles, the emissions from cows would be rather inconsequential.

[LizardQueen]

Time to tax the volcanos..../sarcasm

LQ

[alloysteel]

Why not simply eliminate the entire category of domesticated ruminant hooved animals? The herds would all simply be shot and dumped into huge mass graves, and the methane generated by their decomposing carcasses would be collected and used for power generation. As a one-time situation, the herds and the refuse from their eradication would be gone within only a few years, as the great goddess Gaia re-assimilates her children, and New Zealand will return to its pristine state that existed before the rapacious white race came and exploited the land.

(In case anybody missed it, the foregoing was sarcasm.)

[The Great RJ]

If it were President Gore in the White House (shudder at the thought)there would be such a flatulance tax as well as a tax on SUV's and another $2/gallon tax on gasoline.

[MizSterious]

Looks like another wacko attempt by PETA to me. Some groups, including PETA, would like to end all meat eating. Taxing cattle so high ranchers can no longer afford to raise them might assist them in that goal. This has less to do with cattle flatulence than it does with food nazi flatulence.

[Gritty]

This sounds silly.

So did bra burning!

[rintense]

How and the world is taxing cow gas going to make global warming go away?

[alloysteel]

Obviously, you have missed the point. No problem is ever supposed to be solved, it must be first stated to be a "crisis", and the way to exploit the artificial crisis, is to propose a means of control (in this case, a tax), which will in no meaningful way eliminate the problem, but structure a balance between "control" and "benefit" that goes on by perpetual motion. Until somebody finally exposes the fallacy of the original assertion.

[Chewbacca]

What about sheep flatulance? People flatulance?