Today, youth climate change campaigners Generation Zero welcomed the announcement of the Interim Climate Change Committee, and congratulated the six experts selected to lay the groundwork for progressing a Zero Carbon Act for Aotearoa New Zealand.
“Today’s appointment marks another step towards our transition to a carbon neutral future, and we are pleased to see the Government is moving along with this,” said James Young-Drew, Policy Lead for Generation Zero’s Zero Carbon Act.
“The Zero Carbon Act will set legally-binding targets for reducing New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions, while also helping us adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change. The interim committee has a crucial role to play in providing expertise and long-term thinking as this climate law takes shape.”
“We commend the Government on the diversity of expertise selected across a range of key sectors and issues” says Young-Drew. “Independent climate commissions play an instrumental role in countries such as Denmark, Finland and the UK; it’s clear that we are following a model of best practice.”
“The transparency and accountability that comes from establishing an independent body is crucial to the success of a Zero Carbon Act, and is something we’ve included in our proposed policy framework from the very beginning.”
In Generation Zero’s proposed Zero Carbon Act, the final Climate Commission would be established as a Parliamentary Office, equivalent to the Auditor-General, the Ombudsman and the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, for the purpose of holding the government of the day to account.
The beginnings of Common sense being applied by Govt.
Climate and pollution are intertwined but the third element is the ravage of the global Non Renewable Natural Resources [ NRNRs ] which are the key item as far as management of both pollution and climate are concerned.
Nothing effective is being done or even discussed regarding NRNRs. Humans have consumed over 75% of all available NRNRs since 1800. and our consumption is at a high rate never seen before.
Since 1800 our rate of consumption has increased exponentially but is now at a peak rate and decline is inevitable and soon the rate will rapidly reduce, in other words it will crash. There is no way we can create a new store of NRNRs.
Our planet is finite. Kid your self that we will go to another planet and continue on if you like, but the maths of what that would take just in resource consumption alone, is astronomical, let alone the physical, mental, cultural, political, economic and educational adaption of the human form that would have to be faced, by a race that can’t even cope with looking after their existing home.
All solutions being talked about for the climate change mitigation and reduction of carbon footprint in our consumption, are all based on using NRNRs differently but not a reduction of NRNR use.
This is am impossible situation as far as reaching climate goals are concerned.
Another over looked factor is energy use and large scale energy harvesting.
As we have historically harvesting more energy, we have consumed NRNRs at a faster rate. Energy harvesting and energy use both demand consumption of NRNRs.
Solar and wind power both require use of NRNRs so both of these technologies as presently developed on a large scale, have a limited future and consume vital and shrinking store of NRNRs.
As we consume NRNRs on a large scale, we also create pollution and environmental degradation. Doubling consumption has been show to nearly quadruple pollution.
Technology is quoted by many short sighted reductionists as being our solution but they never look at the wider consequences of their “brilliant” prophecies as the usual scenario is dealing with one or two aspects of the picture and not the whole picture.
Humans are near peak population and food supply is at peak now.
We have overshot on many fronts with population, energy use, NRNRs drastic consumption at a and terminal rate of depletion; which add up to a massive and rapid change not too far away.
Our best path would be to localise food production totally, reduce human population with birth control rather than wars wasteful of NRNRs and gear towards a future of very low energy use, minimal consumption and a complete re-evaluation of education towards sustainability as our main aim.
The structure of finance and market being in control has not worked yet is still creating inertia to drive us to the inevitable uncontrolled collapse, starvation and mayhem. We live on myths and deride any thoughts of changing that.
Taking immigrants from countries that have not controlled their population is misguided.
The solution to our planet’s environmental destruction will either be an intelligent move by humans to reduce numbers, restore environments as quickly as possible by using much less and stopping destructive practices such as farming animals ( extremely wasteful of limited resources) and living more simply.
Industry will collapse and if left to run its present course the collapse will be abrupt, so industry should be wound down now to conserve the scant remaining NRNRs.
A complete rethink will happen and be forced upon us with the consequences of our last 200 years of exponential population growth and NRNR consumption, yet we ignore the well established and reviewed information available for over 40 years, to continue to follow the myths that materialism has flourished on.
The younger generation in general appear to be a lot more motivated than the fat cat wasteful consumptionist, head in the sand, parents and grandparents ,who continue to wallow in greed and use their wealth and short term power to deny any intelligent planning towards inevitable change and pending collapse.
It is a criminal situation.
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