In a breathtaking coup of investigative journalism, NZ Herald reporter Jaime Lyth revealed Friday that James Palmer, former CEO of the HB Regional Council and now Chief Executive of the Ministry for the Environment, was championing emissions reductions in the face of climate change while hypocritically flying weekly from his home base in Hawke’s Bay to Wellington.
I was so stunned by this revelation that I looked into the background of this deeply insightful journalist, given that all of us HB journalists had overlooked this travesty.
I discovered that Jamie Lyth, a 2021 graduate of Massey has worked for The Herald in her present role for all of two months, and before that was a reporter for the no doubt highly esteemed Northern Advocate newspaper in Northland for sixteen months, honing her investigative instincts.
Clearly this reporter is deeply informed about both James Palmer and the remarkable public servant he is, and the global challenge we face with climate change and his ability to make a difference. You can see that oozing from her article. In fact, Ms Lyth seems to know jack shit about both, but The Herald has given her a mouse and a keyboard nonetheless.
In fact, James Palmer is Hawke’s Bay’s generous gift to national policy-making on climate change … and other monumental environmental issues facing NZ. He knows more in his pinky toe about these issues than most people in NZ at full capacity … certainly more than this reporter. Personally, I don’t care if he flies a private jet to Wellington … the benefits are worth it.
But emissions should be addressed. We here in Hawke’s Bay should gladly offset James’ carbon cost of flying to Wellington, because we and the nation are getting so much in return. And I propose we do just that.
Apparently, James’ flights generate 70 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions per round trip from Wellington to Napier. Maybe James, slacker that he is, takes some weeks off occasionally, so let’s figure 48 trips times 70 kgs, or 3,360 kgs of emissions. I will gladly sign-up to offset 5 of those trips, or 350 kgs of emissions. I implore BayBuzz readers to help liberate James from this opprobrium. Email me at [email protected] if you are willing to join the ‘James Net Zero’ cause and make your pledge.
[The article notes that James is already offsetting his air travel, but clearly a more substantial guarantee is called for to get Ms Lyth and The Herald to move on to serious reporting.]
I’ll reserve my thoughts on what this reporting says about The Herald’s journalistic nous for another day.
But I don’t want to leave out ACT’s spokesman for climate change, Simon Court, who termed Mr Palmer’s behaviour “next level hypocrisy”. MP Court is from Auckland. I would suggest journalist Jaime follow MP Court on his next bicycle ride from Auckland to Wellington.
P.S. If you want your own read on whether James Palmer adds value, view this BayBuzz video interview.
If James was to travel by car, instead of joining a number of other travellers to Wellington, his emissions would be higher! There are a myriad of other ways to address climate emissions other than what is considered essential air travel. I have family overseas; I have reduced my carbon footprint by half; I will be visiting my family.
Her article smacks of cheap shots, altogether low ebb reporting. Well done Tom for calling it out.
I’m with you on this Tom!
What are his options? As Leonie says above, driving is worse for emissions (especially alone) and a return trip on a bus would cost him 2 days out of his very valuable time.
James is an exceptional public servant who we were fortunate enough to have at the helm of our Regional Council for some years. He will be making a difference nationwide in his new role.
He also has a family here and I’m glad he is able to return home to see them on weekends.
Join me up! Thanks for giving us the opportunity to show our support.
Thanks Leonie and Maxine. Have received a few emails offering support as well. And no objections yet!
Sadly if we had invested in passenger rail years ago we may not be having this ‘debate’.
Hi Tom, like you I was somewhat surprised by the attack on James but then I remembered that it seemed to coincide with School Strike For Climate Day & I guessed that mightn’t be a coincidence. All power to Jaime Lyth for journalistic enterprise & enthusiasm but I think most in HB will agree that James is overwhelmingly an asset in the fight against climate change, not a liability. Count me in too.
PS. Re the carbon comparatives, I’m going to stick with the idea that for a sole traveller, a reasonably modern ICE car at 12km/100L has a lower carbon footprint than flying. 25L of petrol for a 300km trip is about 60kg C02, 300km of flying is about 90kg CO2, so 50% higher carbon footprint for flying – according to business.govt.nz anyway. And just gets better when you ride-share, or drive an EV!
Only concern from me would be to note maybe some of those meetings could have been by zoom rather than so many face to face interactions.