THE MAINSTREAM NEWS mediaās constant and effusive praise for Green co-leader, James Shaw, draws into sharp focus the partyās fundamental contradiction. That the supra-political character of the present planetary crisis must doom to failure any attempt to present the Greens as just-another-political-party. Undaunted, Shaw exploits with considerable skill the urgent need of the status-quoās defendersā to keep ācommon-sense solutionsā in play. Were in not so tragic, this acquiescence to the short-termism that defines both the intractability of climate change, and of modern politics, would be hugely and comically ironic.
If Shawās acquiescence could be offset by a co-leader determined to bear witness to the long-term challenges of responding to anthropogenic global warming, then the damage to the Green cause might be mitigated. Unfortunately, Marama Davidson seems to be as much a prisoner of the short-term as Shaw. In the passing circus parade that is day-to-day politics she has opted for the role of clown.
In fairness, playing the whole Green thing for laughs must be tempting when the challenges are so very, very great. How, for example, do you inform humanity that their sheer numbers preclude any sort of āsoft landingā for the climate change crisis?
Saving the planet and feeding all its people, long ago ceased to be a practical proposition. The amount of cultivatable land will shrink ā along with the quantity of water necessary to ensure adequate harvests. As the mean global temperature increase passes 2oC, millions of human-beings will begin to starve. What is the correct moral response to famine, disease and conflict on an unprecedented scale? When the boatloads of desperate climate-change refugees start appearing off New Zealandās coast, what should a Green New Zealand government do?
This is a long way from green technological fixes and rehabilitating four-letter words.
So, too, is deciding what to do when the big container ships and the oil-tankers stop venturing this far south. When the sheer number of super-hurricanes renders voyages too far out into the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans uninsurable. How will a Green government keep the chronically-ill provided with their life-saving pharmaceuticals; and crucial machinery supplied with spare parts; when the flow of these vital imports ceases? How will it keep the lights on and the electric cars powered-up when the snow refuses to fall and the hydro lakes are empty?
Who in todayās Green caucus has the courage to tell New Zealanders that teaching young people the skills required to keep the post-industrial communities of the future functioning is now a matter of urgency. Because in 100 yearsā time Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin will be only a fraction of their present size and most of the population will be living in the countryside ā where the food is. Which of todayās Greens are working with Maori to preserve the indigenous medical and pharmacological knowledge built-up over the 600 years of non-European occupation of Aotearoa?
Who will dare to tell todayās captains of industry that in 50 years the Internet will be but a memory? That the genocidal global resource wars will kick off with the destruction of the undersea communication cables. That the revolutions, civil and religious wars that roll across the sweltering continents will leave the control hubs for satellite communication unmanned for a generation. That the rocket launching pads will become nesting places for such birds as still fly through Earthās fetid air.
These are the challenges which Green parties should be preparing us for. The challenges arising out of the fundamental transformations anticipated and demanded in the latest IPCC report. Deluding voters into thinking that somehow the scientists will come up with a way of saving us all: a way which allows capitalism, consumerism and narcissistic individualism to continue unchecked and unmodified; is not something with which any responsible Green should be associated.
Green leadership should be about thinking the unthinkable and working through the changes required to live in the world which humanityās unthinking folly is steadily bringing into being. It may even be about anticipating that world by encouraging the formation of communities capable of guiding the survivors of humankindās addiction to fossil-fuels towards a very different way of living on ā and with ā the planet.
Like the medieval monasteries which kept literature, art and music alive when all around them the vestiges of civilised order were disintegrating, these Green communities may serve as bridges between the devastating collapse of our fossil-fuelled civilisation and the new, much smaller, more self-sufficient and ecologically humble human societies of the future.
Those who preach this Green gospel must anticipate scorn and ridicule from the majority of todayās voters. For a crucial minority, however, this Green version of the future will resonate loudly. And as, one after another, the predictions of the scientists come true, that minority will grow. Until the day eventually dawns when the Greensā long-prepared and uncompromising policies strike the overwhelming majority of New Zealanders as the only ācommon-sense-solutionsā on offer.
Very good Chris.
D J S
I think it might be the very wealthy and their protectors that come here, as the only habitable land left on the planet. Those of them with some fore site have already established they fortresses. Many more will come, welcomed by our neoliberal globalist rulers. When it gets overcrowded it will not be the New Zealanders who live here now that will survive.
D J S
Old Erik Prince the owner of private security firm Balckwater is trying to take over the Afghan 39 billion dollar contract from the Pentagon. I’m not kidding. Princess reckons he can do the job of 10,000 marines, all the bells and whistles of the Navy and Air Force with only 2500 mercenaries and he reckons he can subcontract the Afghan airforce to do flight ops. Now ain’t that some Rambo shit.
Just imagine a lesser billionaire trying to pull this shit. It’s so idiotic at this level, scaling down to say a bunkers of the rich and famous makes even less sense.
FFS IT IS OVERCROWDED NOW, you deluded person. New Zealand is already over populated, it is having a population and they have a lifestyle that is totally UNSUSTAINABLE. Wake up man.
And how many of them do you actually believe will survive more than a week on tussock salad in their preferred South Island High country retreats ?
Rather bleak today Chris.
A good 25 years too late by my reckoning
As a lifetime ‘green’ I have never supported the ‘Greens’.
Their only consistency has been their complete lack of Political nous and completely unwarranted sense of moral superiority.
Not once have heard/seen them , Greenpeace or any other green group condemn the grotesque and growing major contribution to Greenhouse gas levels by Air travel.
The wanton waste of oil for non-productive purposes must stop. We don’t need to stop exploring for and producing hydrocarbons because even in the bleak but feasible scenarios you describes trade and the productive economy can and will continue, albeit in a vastly different form.
One that finally dispatches the toxicly flawed 17th century philosophy that underlies neo-liberalism and ‘Free’ trade.
Thanks Chris this is certainly one very likely projection of what the future may hold and one with ideas I haven’t seen posited before, not even in science fiction. Humanity is hurtling towards certain destruction to life as we know it, climate change is certain, resources are finite….although sitting here, looking outside onto the beautiful day its hard to grasp it. This is where Netflix comes in, why don’t you with your great descriptive and literary skills pen a series based on these ideas and how societies may function in a future world where all the things you say here are likely to happen. One way to reach many people anc make them think. I hope you do it. Sea level rise, where to base these communities will be a challenge if you take a look at the maps that show the sea swallowing the land in vsrying degrees of sea level rise. Thinking about the monks you mention here and how they carefully preserved books and culture, so few and so isolated, makes you wonder what was lost.
“…..looking outside onto the beautiful day it’s hard to grasp it”
Yep, Lone Comet, considering Chris is saying the apocalypse is just around the corner…it seems as if the 4 horsemen haven’t even saddled up yet.
Trouble is NZers live in a very remote place, that has not quite yet been hit by the serious challenges humanity and economies overseas are facing now, so there is this time delay, it has existed for decades.
Hence Kiwis never quite register what goes on and how serious it is, until the shit hits the fan first overseas.
This country is a country bumpkin backstop kind of place when looking at the global scenario, you do not understand that the shit has already hit the fan in many places, and in time delayed fashion, this will hit us also, very soon. So keep on watching that movie unfolding, perhaps.
Oh, but they have….
Saddled up I mean…the horsemen. And that’s true what you say about NZ, we live in a bit of a green bubble its hard to imagine the environmental wasteland that is much of the world it use to hit me like a freight train when I use to come back for breaks from Asia where even isolated beaches had litter, endless suburbs…NZ seemed like a precious green gem far far away. This is quite true of course, even with poor water in lakes and rivers, and some beaches.
It’s all very well for people to keep on placing expectations on the Greens and complaining about their ineffectualness but let’s not forget that they are a very small party. How about expecting National, Labour and the millions who vote for them to actually carry some of the load
Bugger me!
I thought it would be some time yet before somebody actually put it in print….well done.
Careful. Some one might give you an honorary doctorate in economics
You do realise that we can produce all we need here right? It’s only our delusional financial system that makes it look like we can’t.
I take it you weren’t there when Shaw outlined the Green policy of developing our silicon and other resources to produce solar panels here?
No it’s not. We actually do have enough knowledge in NZ to develop our own sustainable industry that only utilises our own resources.
Importing and exporting will be bygones because both are unsustainable.
Except it won’t be. Not in NZ as we have the resources to maintain it as well as computers.
Hopefully – sink them.
Playing the same old same old eh my boy. Never learn a trick did you. Actually did you ever learn anything beyond flipping burgers.
I mean come on, sink em? What kind of policy is that.
Sink em seems harsh?
What other options will exist.
You are talking about survival.
Land ownership will be a crucial factor and private land ownership has well passed its use by date as it that thinking.
Henry George was at least a century ahead of present practice.
“Hopefully ā sink them.”
That’s a sick thing to say.
Not sick, totally realistic .
Sink them with what? Our to meke navy eh? Or perhaps we could borrow some planes from Australia, we borrow everything else. I know, we can sick the SAS on them, that’ll fix em.
At last someone has the guts to say what is blatantly obvious – that the world on its present trajectory cannot be saved unless we are prepared to live life styles far removed from civilisation as it now is.
What it did not say was that our survival can be assured if we reduce population by about a third. Why it’s not said is pretty obvious – someone will have to explain how to carry out that simple solution. Who will do it?
All other things being equal a third less population must mean a third less emissions, which will easily meet the Paris Agreements. I get that number from the accepted fact that if all the nations of the world had the same carbon foot print as New Zealand, to satisfy that demand on resources would require 1.6 Planet Earths
It is possible to reorganise our lifestyles – I think that I am fairly close to living my life that way, but giving the short time span and NZ’s indifference, I dont think this will happen in this nation.
The word ‘population’ does not get one mention in the article or the responses so far. The last time I suggested a solution I was accused of being a mass murderer so its someone else’s turn.
If you are advocating killing a third of humanity and did it then yes, you would be a mass murderer. However you have a point about too many humans for the planet but climate change will sort that son.
Dennis – well said.
Climate is but one of many changes now well underway.
We cannot continue our present civilisation as too many are using too much.
China is the only state to voluntarily impose rules that will see a reduction in their population in a medium term. When I say voluntarily well they have acted ahead of a crisis ahead that is all too plain to see.
Capitalist states do not and will not take any effective action unless forced to do so. Business wants more consumers. A neurotic mindset.
Start the forcing.
One of your better pieces, Chris.
It’s a pity such articles were not commonplace 20 years ago, when mitigation would have been so much easier. As it is, mitigation is more or loess impossible.
One graph always says it all:
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/wp-content/plugins/sio-bluemoon/graphs/co2_800k.png
And every year the predicament is made worse.
Too many comments made for the Daily Blog do consider a āpolitical partyā (e.g. the Greens) or the ārepresentational parliamentaryā (as we know it) as a final, somehow ever-lasting stage of political history.
Climate change ā and what it will create and influence – will be one of the main driving forces for new political milieus, presently not sufficiently anticipated in political visions and strategy development.
The Green Parties will just be a one actor in this process, albeit they can be an important one. Their main strategic role is to open up opportunities provided through the present governing systems guiding knowledge generation, wisdom and prudence, science and evidence, non-violent organizational structures, human / gender equity, and equality of creation in general.
Incubator of autonomous networks, probably.
If they can do this, they have fulfilled their historical role par excellence.
Putting too much of the blame on the NZ Green Party may miss the point. Helpful could be an analysis why āgreenā extra-parliamentary positions in New Zealand are weak, having a low tangible impact on government systems, parties and opinions in the wider public.
A “true pilot must of necessity pay attention to the seasons, the heavens, the stars, the winds, and everything proper to the craft if he is really to rule a ship” (Plato, The Republic, 6.488d).
There is no way science or technology can save us.
The position is worse than what the honeyed words above can describe.
If we had 2 billion humans and tried to live as we did prior to 1800 without the Non Renewable Natural Resources they had then because we have consumed them since, the numbers would continue to shrink.
More energy harvested means more resources used bringing a short term crash closer.
Earth houses and thatched roofs if we grow the wood and learn the skills and had much fewer people.
The greens have little option . If they pushed for the best changes possible then very few would vote for them and change would be slower.
Transport – walk or animal power on land and paddle or sail at sea.
Locally grown food supply.
Living in small settlements not cities.
Cooperative small scale organisation.
No bankers.
Yes.
This recent article is probably optimistic but does at least speak most of the truth:
‘Weāre now at a fork in the road: either we cut out fossil fuels completely, or we pass on a dying planet to our children’
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/30/climate-change-action-effective-ipcc-report-fossil-fuels
Things you own that don’t get used much have guilt associated with them. Admitting that buying it was a mistake is the first step to being free of that guilt.
For example rent seeking in a centralized system go up over time. That means that as we watch a lot of these assets and share prices progress, you’ll see more embezzlement, more meaningless positions, more taxes on transactions as people inject themselves into rent-seeking positions.
So much evil happens in the world because someone in a centralized entity has too much pride and can’t admit that they were wrong.
This is what years of being a government bureaucrat will do to you:
1. You make pedantic arguments expecting to win
2. You threaten people thinking it’ll be effective
3. You can’t follow basic arguments
Heh. Think I’m enjoying this exchange a little to much.
You are part of the problem, this is not about guilt, it is about the damned reality, mate, wake up, and live according to what nature allows and needs.
Take action, do not defend the corrupt and BS society and system we have, you live in deluded territory.
Iv got a lot of friends and family in that society you call BS. I’m like half MÄori, half Brit so I was fucked straightaway. See my problem? I just love them to much.
Iv even got family members who are former politicians and every one knows what I think about them. One of my nieces told me she loved her step dad (no names) so for the sack of her mental health I had to bite my tongue.
Just don’t ever expect me to put your feelz before experience.
Sorry, mate, I may have misunderstood some of your earlier comment.
It’s ok, just next time, there’s no need to apologise. It kind of makes me feel wierd. Ok so let’s try and be cool about it.
Sam I enjoy your speak.
‘Earthās carbon dioxide levels are likely the highest they’ve been in 15 million years
ā¦.The critical difference today, however, is that carbon emissions are expected to continue rising. With the unprecedented burning of fossil fuels, carbon accumulations will simply keep going up.’
https://mashable.com/article/climate-change-carbon-pollution-15-million-years/?fbclid=IwAR0d7SSYNTNc_UELiRTqcAGMqUX6Kx2V4P2yAND9v3l8Owwkida8_O7Rigo#CU8qscTjHiq5
Trouble is NOBODY listens to you.
It used to worry me that ‘nobody’ was listening because it seemed there was a window of opportunity to change the disastrous course society was on. And it seemed there was a window of opportunity to prepare for what was on the horizon.
About seven years ago I had direct dealings with Andrew Little and saw how he responded to reality: ignore it; pretend the system has a future and would carry on indefinitely largely unchanged.
That response matched the response of every MP, every member of previous governments, every mayor etc. (and including most Green Party members and MPs) I had dealings with over two decades.
It is now clear that the windows of opportunities have closed and that, as a society, we are no nearer to having sensible discussions about the reality of resource depletion and pollution than we were when I commenced serious activism over 20 years ago.
What it amounts to is this: they keep shooting the messenger, whoever it is because the message does not conform to the requirements of the financial-economic-political system. .
At my age it no longer matters too much to me directly. However, the complete failure of the system to respond appropriately to irrefutable facts that have been known for decades will impact disastrously on my progeny….and quite soon, I believe.
Yep
A long post I wrote has been deleted, I hate this shit, I hate TDB, and I have NO hope in this shit government, the shit humanity we have, the whole planet is crap and humanity is corrupt and destructive:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/108217026/were-wiping-out-life-on-earth-wwf-warns
I advise people, take drugs, take more drugs, drug yourselves, it is NOT worth living anymore, this planet is being stuffed by urban spoilt crap consumerist people who have NO link to nature, NO understanding of the complexities, and who only want to carry on as usual. The young generation are totally deluded and ignorant, have NO clue about the natural world, are all city dwellers, happy to see a leopard on screen, they do not need real animals they think.
I hate humanity, best humanity self destroys, it is the worst enemy to animals, to nature, to the environment and itself.
Humanity should consider collective suicide to save the screwed up planet and environment, there is NO other solution.
Nah Marc, enjoy the battle.
Deniers are not winning.
Hehehe… I’m with ANDREW on this one,… NOT ONE OF YOU will have anything to fear from the sorts of things predicted with climate change… yes there will be some changes, bad enough , – but nothing of the extremes that the alarmists, and those with political agendas are trying to say…
But what YOU WILL have to fear is the inevitable escalation of nuclear warfare in the middle east. This war will start out as a small local war , with three nations using conventional arms attacking Israel, and those nations will lose… but will later on escalate to nuclear when Russia gets involved, – primarily because of Israels oil and gas reserves and strategic importance ( and not out of an inherent support for the Islamic cause) … and NATO forces will face off with them.
Here’s a snippet of what can only be described as the effects of a nuclear detonation :
——————————
… [ And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. ] …
——————————-
This is precisely what happened to the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And the term ‘rot’ describes a non biological rot…not one of bacterial origins. Rapid oxidation , through extreme thermal heat.
So , we already have :
——————————
” And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately”…
āSee to it that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, claiming, āI am the Christ,ā and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains ”.
——————————
So when does all this start going down ? , well – here’s a clue…
——————————
The Abomination of Desolation
āSo when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains ” .
——————————
So what does that mean ?,- it means when the leader of the new world order ( who has his headquarters in Jerusalem , – hence Trump moving their embassy to that place recently ) stops the Jews from animal sacrifices and sets up an image of himself in the 3rd temple. And the religious Orthodox Jews see that as an direct affront to their beliefs. He then causes those of the West to pay homage ( worship ) that image.
Perfectly possible in today’s computer generated models. The reason he does that is because of the cashless society he will introduce. He will demand fealty from the West.
And before the above happens, – the third Temple of the Jews is to be rebuilt and animal sacrifices resumed. They have located the whereabouts of the 2nd Temple destroyed under Titus in 79 AD and it is in the Old City of David ,… NOT on the Dome of the Rock as many have assumed now and in the past. Where the Dome of the Rock is, – is the location of the old Roman fort of Fort Antonio. And that IS NOT the historical Jebusite city which later became the City of David when King Davids men conquered it.
For more on this- watch this youtube vid.
The Temple | Bob Cornuke – YouTube
Video for the temple bob cornuke you tubeā¶ 30:50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKqDx3RDCos
NOW ,… how does,.. a would-be leader of the One World Govt solve the age old conflicts in the Middle East between the Arabs and the Jews? Quite simply , – by using recent archaeological findings , utilizing mass media to spread the news , – that a ‘peace treaty’ in the Middle East is now feasible because it has been found that the site of the historical 2nd Temple will no longer impinge on the Dome of the Rock and thus both groups will be compatible to a mutually beneficial agreement without political / religious conflict.
So , in conclusion, we see that yes ,… there will be earthquakes, wars, famines , a global economic crash and weather pattern changes that will increase in severity BUT,…
The end of this age is to be found in the Middle East , … and NOT belching forth from the rear end of cows , cars and factory chimneys all around the world as some would have us believe. The caveat to all that, however, … is that it still does not let us off the hook in being good stewards of the environment in any shape or form. We are still obliged to look after the ‘garden’ while we are all still here.
Whatever it is that you’re adding to your morning cuppa , you’d be well advised to forgo.
1 Israels closest ally in the ME is Saudi Arabia.
2. Israel’s greatest military expertise is Software/hacking and you can bet every shekel in Christondom on the fact that they hold defeat codes on every fancy piece of weaponry the Nato arms peddlers have ‘supplied’ to various kingdoms and republics surrounding them , for the past 20 years.
3. It’s my regular bedtime happy thought that Russia is ‘involved ‘ on day 1 of your scenario and that involvement is simultaneously nuking Tel Aviv and Riyadh. The peaceful silence that ensued would be the harbinger of a thousand years of peace.
Wild Kat
I hope you manage to remember to pay your tithes to the parasites who use mumbo jumbo to hold fold in fear and reverence.
1.Water = Food = Civilization /Urbanization
2. Less Water = Less Food = Less Civilization / Urbanization
Our future has already been confirmed by the past . The Middle East
wasn’t always a desert, but it is now.Feeding 300 million people on a daily basis in the USA at 4 degrees . Good Luck .
Chris: to preserve the indigenous medical and pharmacological knowledge built-up over (millenia by many).
Oh, it’s preserved, all right by some teeny-minded folk.
Cultural appropriation. Not.
Mumbo-jumbo and not approved by Authority.
Must be patented and exploited only by Businesses who can profit from it.
Chris – I know it’s against the prevailing wind yet – the use of herbs and shamanism and many many other healing modalities are NOT the sole preserve of Maori.
If it were so – how come their health status figures are so poor? Who is stopping them from accessing their own healers and traditions?
But ‘whatever you say, say nothing, when you talk about you know what…’
And acknowledge that there are many of us from many places who also hold to and use those ways, eh? We can share, for the greater good of many.
If you want any traction on the minor matter of the persistence of the human species on this planet, then step one has to be to get rid of the antiquated systems of government we are cursed with.
Plus the ‘sorts’ that ‘go into politics’. They’re too short term, narrow minded, and timid to do anything.
Then get rid of every religion that promulgates propagation to keep the planet flooded with tithers and cannon fodder.
If we can advertise the useless products such as over-sugared carbonated water, and people respond with cash and loyalty for decades, we can also use marketing techniques to start shifting public desires for Better Things – and technologies to lure people into planet-saving.
You won’t and can’t get there by austerity and go-without. Anyone do know that.
Make it easy, make it desirable, make it so socially advantageous to do the beneficial things.
Carrots before sticks. Make it impossible for the critical mass to fail, to rebel, to backslide. We already know how. We already have the technologies and the influencers – and we know they work.
Just – no politicians, no religious ‘leaders’, and no ‘captains of industry’. Too timid.
James Shaw is practically economically illiterate, believing the same tired old myths the rest of our parliamentarians cling to.
He’s a slightly more youthful looking old codger, but an old codger nonetheless.
Can you explain what you mean in terms of policy or actions.
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