Not just the Amazon Rainforests

Interesting to learn, in the National Museum of Aotearoa New Zealand, Te Papa, that before the Maori people came here about a thousand years ago, a very high proportion of the lowlands of this country was forest. Maori needs and practices cut this down by a fair amount: but when the white settlers started moving in, around 1840, even more forest was cut down to make farmland, and much of that was to supply the UK with cheap meat and dairy products. The New Zealand Lamb industry, for so long a mainstay of the British food supply, had meant the clearing of forests long before the concerns about MacDonalds chopping down stuff in Brazil for beef ranching. So the connection between meat-eating and the environment goes back a long way. Now, the lowlands here are 51% grassland, well above the world average of 37%, and most of that used to be for sheep, though in recent years market forces have made many farmers switch to cattle.

Having said that, it's not going to change in a hurry, and I don't see any sign that New Zealand's contribution to climate change might be to replant forests. In a country where most of the electricity seems to be from renewable sources (there's a lot of scope for hydro here) I don't think the rest of us can complain that they aren't doing their bit already. But as the money in sheep farming declines, it might be an option, as indeed it might in many other places. Should replanting forests be on more nation's agendas?