I wonder how the Greens's manifesto would have worked out for us in the 19th century?

 

"It could be said in passing that if enterprise in 19th century New Zealand had operated under anything comparable to the legal requirements regarding conservation [and the environment] imposed on it today, and had it been confronted by comparably eager 'watchdog' groups [or political parties] anxious for their pound of flesh, New Zealand could hardly have developed as a high-income country. One need only reflect that the process of farm formation over much of the North Island, which involved burning down a large proportion of the bush cover, would have been quite impossible."

~ John Gould, from his 1985 book The Muldoon Years: An Essay on New Zealand's Recent Economic Growth