Oh for the love of Christ, if we could harness all the misplaced smug self congratulations over the Zero Carbon Act we could solve the energy needs of the entire planet overnight!
The only reason there has been so much cross Party support for the Zero Carbon Act is because it doesn’t fucking do anything!
Being Carbon neutral by 2050 is NOT a response to the climate crisis!
Comrades, I believe passionately that the climate crisis is an existential threat to us as a species every bit as dangerous as the war against Fascism, what this do nothing go nowhere bit of legislation promises is that after Germany invades Poland in 1939, we will be in a position to defeat the Nazi’s by 1970!
Yay!
By 2030, over 50% of the oceans will be collapsing as bio-habitats.
By 2030, East Coast cities in the U.S. can expect to see two to three-times as many flooding incidents.
By 2030, 122million will be driven into extreme poverty as direct result of climate change.
By 2030, 100million will die as a direct consequence of climate change.
By 2030, even if the Paris Agreement is actually implemented, we will see a planet warm to 3.4 degrees by the end of this century meaning there will effectively be no future civilisation capable of surviving on a planet that warm.
By 2030, the global annual cost of global warming will be $3trillion.
2030, the number of extremely hot days — classified as maximum temperatures of more than 35C — are tipped to climb in all capital cities.
But don’t fret folks, by 2050 NZ might be carbon neutral!
The only reason National and their farmer mates are on board is because this doesn’t do a bloody thing! If this sophistry is a ‘win’, your definition of ‘win’ is as meaningless as this Government’s definition of ‘transformative’.
If Climate Change is this Generations nuclear free moment, the Zero Carbon Act is David Lange farting in an elevator.
The reason we are facing runaway abrupt climate change is the can has been kicked down the road by successive governments.
Members of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand have facilitated this dereliction of duty.
They should be ashamed of themselves going along with the corporate response of their co-leader James Shaw.
https://kevinhester.live/2019/10/10/irreversible-runaway-abrupt-climate-change-unfolding-now-not-long-off-in-the-future/
When political parties actually acknowledge the urgency and severity of the climate emergency then they will act appropriately.
OK, I’m singling out National but Labour’s little better – they will proclaim about Paris and a split gases approach and the need to provide food yadda yadda but I’ve yet to hear a National politician get anywhere near acknowledging that global warming is a severe threat to New Zealand let alone an existential threat to humanity. Mostly they seem petrified by the threat of climate change legislation not the effects of climate change itself.
A victory for political theatrics and marketing. A loss for all of us.
“Climate change is my generations nuclear-free moment”. Yeah right! Tell that to your child in 20 years time and especially try to explain the part of how you had the very rare privilege to be in a position to make a difference but did about as much as Scott Morrison and Trump combined.
NZ probably will be carbon neutral in 2050 because the present set of unsustainable living arrangements will have collapsed long by 2050 and anyone still alive will be living as Maori did before Europeans arrived.
In the short term the dire warning that politicians routinely ignore will increase in frequency, and extreme weather events will hammer infrastructure and food systems with increasing severity.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/05/climate-crisis-11000-scientists-warn-of-untold-suffering
‘The world’s people face “untold suffering due to the climate crisis” unless there are major transformations to global society, according to a stark warning from more than 11,000 scientists.
“We declare clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency,” it states. “To secure a sustainable future, we must change how we live. [This] entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems.”
There is no time to lose, the scientists say: “The climate crisis has arrived and is accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of humanity.”
Missed your comments, welcome back, you are so true.
Lucky (sarcasm) our government and councils are speedily giving away our natural assets like water permits for decades to offshore business sometimes with a NZ facade to fool the steeple, like the stupid and gullible Jenny Shipley’s of the world… rubber stamped by the woke and right wingers of the world and enforced by the free trade agreements of the world…
Overseas business needs those profits more than locals need that water or a clean environment! Now we can pay for the council to set up an environmental committee to worry about the pollution from those plastic bottles they just greenlighted!
Yep, it means almost NOTHING, but that is what the wider population is happy with, a feel good action, leading to nothing.
Every day I watch NZers waste and pollute as per usual, pretending they are ‘clean and green’. This country is a FAKE PRODUCT, if you follow the tourism advertising.
We are NOT clean and green, we are per capita one of the most polluting people here.
And punishing farmers will do nothing, nor will it do anything letting off the largely urban people continue driving their cars everywhere.
This country is less prepared for climate change than most other developed countries, at least they have mass and the ability to educate and influence people in most European countries, they are facing an uphill battle here.
Virtue signalling it is, this law, and where are the so called climate protesters and school strikers? It seems they conveniently chose the last day of the last and third term to ‘strike’, basically to have an early holiday, but they do nothing now and since then, all talk and BS.
Get rid of your fossil fuel cars, ride a bike, walk, and do something real for the climate on the planet, do not BS us anymore. I recommend also to take out cars that pollute, but who dares disabling such, or even burn them as they did during the G20 protests in Hamburg in 2017.
Well stated Marc it’s all about
The money In NZ the supposedly free market has turned into a oil market a car market and And as there influence is so great and so subliminal only a few realise it the fact that NZ has the highest per capita of car ownership should be that start point as to why the nation is reaching shit hole status.
Hopefully it lays the foundation for more urgent action when the penny finally drops amongst the wider the public.
here’s a really good idea ,
https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/protect_half_our_planet_loc_sus/
Yep more bullshit from our bullshit govt.
Analyses without practical, organizational consequences lead to nothing.
As repeatedly demonstrated, the present national parliamentary set-up does not have the capacity to guide the required changes.
The system will only respond if there is
a) external political pressure,
b) replacement of individual parliamentarians / parties,
c) institutional change within the administration.
If these conditions are not met now, nothing relevant will change, even if a second term is won by the present government, and even if “the queen is protected”.
Especially, institutional change within the administration is a long-term affair.
A new left political platform has to be established driving change of the agenda. Preferably, this should be an eco-socialist party; in case it does not directly compete in the next election, it still would develop weight among the public, influencing the process and outcome.
…. a few days ago, Switzerland has voted two different green parties into the national parliament: a neo-liberal version and the left Greens. Combined they garnered 21% of the vote:
https://www.thelocal.ch/20191020/green-party-makes-historic-gains-in-swiss-vote
System Change. Now.
…i come in peace…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL_RTEia1dU
….. fire it up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUAWjXdX9y0
“By 2030,100million will die as a direct consequence of climate change.” No one likes to die so these people will look for some where else with better prospects, New Zealand for example. Since we have accepted some responsibility for Pacific Islanders we should accept those who are likely to be inundated but beyond those, who else? To appear callous, very few I think. To save ourselves we need to reduce world population by perhaps 40%. Shifting populations from countries that suffer unbearable heat, to New Zealand will not help.
We need to stop the immigration of 10,000s of people until we have a clear idea of what New Zealand can stand and the infrastructure needed to support them. I see no evidence that this government has an long term plan about this.
The best solution is to turn southern Africa’s agrarian land into massive forests (carbon sinks). Use alamism to enact population control on an otherwise out of control breeding frenzie. THEN we can all get behind climate alarmism.
Sadly the bill is virtue signalling: will anybody who matters (in the “real world” out there ) care? No.
NZ may survive as a temperate zone bolt hole- it has rain, high land and people who can get along well enough to agree on zero carbon bills!
The logical extension of the facts suggest NZ will need defenses : I suggest submarines doubling as fishing boats.
All NZ people should be fully immunised even against smallpox and yellow fever as a bulwark against germ warfare.
Forewarned IS forearmed…..
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