“Don’t be fooled NZ”
Greta Thunberg calls “Bullshit” on New Zealand’s climate neutral by 2050 target.
“Humanity Must Not Be Fooled by ‘Bullsh*t’ Climate Targets of World Leaders”
Greta Thunberg
The Swedish campaigner says insufficient goals and empty rhetoric represent the “biggest elephant there’s ever been in any room.”
Pledging to be carbon neutral by 2050, while doing nothing about carbon emissions in the present, is the biggest most dangerous “bullshit” lie of all time.
New Zealand is guilty, more than most, of promoting this dangerous, ‘kick the can down the road’, strategy.
The Ardern administration has pledged that New Zealand will be carbon neutral by 2050, while in the present, giving financial support to major polluters, like Air New Zealand, like Comalco, Like permits for Bathurst Resources to mine for coal on Crown Land near Huntly, and, (except for the recent downward blip caused by covid), overseeing an upward trend in carbon emissions annually, with no realistic foreseeable end in sight, right up until we reach the magical cut off date of 2050.
And New Zealand has the cheek, as the chair of the recent global climate summit, to call on the world to follow our lead!?!?
Global climate summit: Jacinda Ardern urges other nations to follow NZ’s lead
RNZ, April 23, 2021
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has urged other nations at a global summit to follow New Zealand’s lead in taking financial action to address climate change.
Ardern said New Zealand had been leading the charge on “climate finance” such as ending fossil fuel subsidies.
A matter of days before Prime Minister Ardern claimed before the world, that New Zealand has ended fossil fuel subidies, her administration made $1.5 billion in “finance” available to one of the most polluting fossil fuel industries on the planet.
Covid-19: Government increases Air NZ loan by $600 million; $1.5 billion total
RNZ, April 09, 2021
Some people have no shame:
Ditch the “Bullsh*t” Ardern
New Zealand emits 0.2% of the world’s carbon pollution burden.
New Zealand’s emissions are tiny on a global scale.
In the previous government, Professor Gluckman was chief science adviser to Prime Minister John Key.
On the official government climate website, Professor Gluckman wrote, New Zealand’s greatest ‘contribution‘ to solving global climate change, New Zealand must be as an example to the world. (ie become a leader on climate change)
“New Zealand is a small emitter by world standards – only emitting some 0.2% of global greenhouse gases.”
“…..anything we do as a nation will in itself have little impact on the climate – our impact will be symbolic, moral and political.”
Famously John Key disagreed with his Chief Science Adviser, and said instead that, New Zealand would be a “Fast Follower” on the climate.
So what will it be, New Zealand?
Fast follower, or leader?
To avoid the worst affects of climate change the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, (UNFCCC), has set a target for the globe to be carbon neutral by 2050
If New Zealand is to be a leader on climate change, 2050, which is the target date for the whole world to be climate neutral, cannot be New Zealand’s target date to be carbon neutral.
Any governmentmental body or organisation, (including the newly set up Climate Change Commission), that has 2050 as its target date to achieve carbon neutrality has surrendered to the fast follower doctrine of John Key.
In going for 2050 as our Target date, we are just following the herd, but worse than this, 2050 is just far enough into the future that we won’t have to take any hard or meaningful measures in the present. Leaving up to the next generation to do so.
By avoiding taking the hard decisions now, avoiding making the cuts in our emissions in the present, we will leave the coming generation with a problem which will be too late for them to anything about.
In the present we will continue business as usual, our emissions will keep going up year by year. We will continue to subsidise major emitters like Air New Zealand.
In the South Island we will continue to supply Tiwai Aluminium Smetler with cut rate subsidised electricity prices, while we burn coal and gas for electricity in the North Island. We will not rationalise and upgrade the electricity transmission system. We will build more motorways while we continue to underfund public transport. We will issue permits to mine coal on crown land in Huntly, We will continue to convert traditional cropping land in Canterbury to intensive dairying. We will still dig mine and export coal. We will not ban ICE vehicle imports. We will not set one leading example for anyone.
If we were doing something about climate change we wouldn’t need targets, because we would be doing it. Instead of setting targets we would be measuring our progress.
Greta Thunberg, as she always does, cuts to the chase:
Forget 2030 or 2040, Says Greta Thunberg, World Must ‘Reduce Our Emissions Right Now’
The world needs “to stop focusing on dates and numbers” and recognize that taking immediate action is what must be done, says the 18-year-old Swedish climate leader.
Common Dreams, April 01, 2021
Comrade Patrick John O’Dea is a fierce fighter for worker rights.
Agree that the Prime Minister and her cabinet are full of empty rhetoric.
Not confined to climate but indeed to all of their policies which in most every case have worsened under their leadership.
Martyn – it’s ALL bullshit, because in essence, that’s all she’s got.
For example, if we were serious about say, electrifying our vehicle fleet, one of the first things we’d need to do was to plan to install more renewable electrical generation capacity. And not just a little either. We’d need gigawatts more base load generating capacity. So where is that plan? Neither wind nor solar will do it. It’s either more hydro (dam several more rivers) or a nuclear power plant on the Kaipara. Take your pick.
Oh and there never was a “climate emergency” that was only ever more bullshit: A cudgel to beat her opponents with when she was in opposition:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/apr/21/there-is-no-climate-emergency/
Usually people will cite out of date problems or the waste issue but really it is decades of fear mongering from the anti climate change movement.
The problem with nuclear, so far as there is one, is that it produces Radioactive Waste, which needs dealing with. The current solution; shove it in a depleted mine, is not great, because the waste can last 1000s of years.
Which is what is great about theoretical nuclear fusion reactors; the waste from them is relatively short lived; 100s, not 1000s, of years. That’s still a long time, but it is easier to contain things for 100s of years than thousands.
Concerns about safety are asinine.
Interesting straightforward link Andrew. Perhaps AFKTT can point to the inaccuracies.
D J S
We don’t need Greta Thunberg to tell us.
People in NZ have been describing government strategies as destructive bullshit for well over a decade. Indeed, almost two decades now.
[snip]
‘Your party, the Labour party, nearly every industrialist and most of the world are surely mad. We are poisoning the very planet that sustains us, when even the meanest animal species knows not to foul its own nest, and yet this is what all of you seem determined to do. It is literally beyond all reason, all comprehension and all morals.’
http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/monro_03.htm
‘Sadly, it is coming generations, who have no say in the matter, who are going to pay the horrendous price for the ignorance, greed, and collective stupidity that characterise modern industrial societies. That is a message most people still do not want to hear.’
http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/moore_09.htm
‘Just why is it that politicians and community leaders stubbornly refuse to become informed about, or deal with, the crucial issues that will determine whether their own children and grandchildren will have a habitable planet to live on, just a few decades from now?
Just why is it that our so-called leaders refuse to acknowledge or prepare for the imminent and drastic decline in energy that will see the end of industrial agriculture, and will therefore lead to widespread starvation (even in New Zealand)?
Just why is it that our so-called leaders refuse to curb the emissions that are already causing abrupt climate change and will probably render the earth too hot for most life forms in the very near future?’
http://www.oilcrash.com/articles/mystery.htm
What matters are:
1. Per capita emissions. New Zealand’s are almost as appalling as Australia’s.
2. The total unpreparedness for the massive infrastructure damage commensurate with increasing climate instability.
3. The total unpreparedness for the massive sea level rise that comes over the period 2030 to 2050.
4. The total unpreparedness for the dire effects Planetary Overheating is already having, i.e. half the US will be ‘toast’ in the summer of 2021 if current trends continue.
https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
Ahhh Afewknowthetruth your #3 has been touted ‘massive sea level increases’ by the year 2000 (Al Gore)…nope, no massive rise!
‘Massive sea level rises’ by the year 2010-2020 by anyone who would listen…nope, no massive rise!
Its cute the same rhetoric, after the ‘deadline’ passes, with no significant rise…millimeters or a centimeter only.
I know, lets just keep pushing it out, whats next 2030?, naaaah make it 2030-2050 that should get us to retirement without the funding being cut as we can just use the previous alarmist charts but just change the dates….sorted!
‘#3 has been touted ‘massive sea level increases’ by the year 2000 (Al Gore)’
Referenced link please.
You’re so right, ‘im right’. There is absolutely nothing to worry about, unless you live in Bangladesh, on a Pacific island, in Florida, in or near New Orleans, in Holland, in or near Venice, in New York, in London, or in any of a a thousand other places already affected by rising sea levels. And that’s BEFORE Thwaites Glacier slides off Antarctica and into the ocean.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54079587
The last time I was in Pakuranga the coastal footpath was underwater at high tide.
Keep burnin’ those fossil fuels, and watch Auckland-Northland separate from the rest of the North Island.
Afewknowthetruth it seems you actually don’t know the whole truth. Here are the bare facts on sea level rise:
> Sea level has been rising for the last 15,000 years. This is a natural phenomenon that occurs in every interglacial period.
> During the previous interglacial maximum, sea level was over 9m higher than it is now, so expect it to continue rising regardless of what we humans do. Best we plan for this!
> In Auckland harbour, sea level has recorded as rising 1.6 to 1.8mm per year for the past century.
> Is this current sea level rise out of the ordinary? Not so according to this research: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200228102254.htm#:~:text=Sea%20levels%20along%20a%20stretch,a%20new%20study%20has%20revealed.&text=%22In%20the%2020th%20Century%20we,least%20the%20last%203000%20years.
This shows that sea level rise prior to industrialization was very similar to what we have recorded in the last 100 years. So the very basis for the alarmists to blame CO2 emissions is undermined.
Need we worry about this? Yes we need to accommodate sea level rise in our planning and budgeting but consider the Netherlands: It is one of the richest countries on earth and 22% of it is below sea level! So its not all doom & gloom.
I am with you on this matter. So many claims just do not gell. Talk,of starvation when thousands of tons of food is wasted every year. Despite the so called sea level rises homes with a sea scape still get premium prices . Our government is supposed to be Green thinking but do not buy any EV for their new police fleet.
If lateral thinking is done the moves this government makes do not mesh with cutting down travel such as making cigarettes harder to get . Their moves will close local dairies which means people will need to drive to get smokes and the casual purchases made at the same time.
Forgetting that the seas have risen 400 ft in the past 10,000 years. And guess what the population has exploded during that time.
Lol. This Muppet is trying to link sea level rise with population growth. BG must have a Phd in the economy. Wow, so amazing.
Two facts. Please dispute them.
NB I don’t need to lower myself to abuse
First you have to establish any relationship between sea level rise and population growth. Imnjust xhexking to see if you understand causes and effects before we can have a normal discussion.
Ha doesn’t need to establish a link between sealevel rise and population growth. He is just pointing out that there has been no contra relationship.
D J S
Think he’s gone death dumb and mute.
Im R
You obviously choose what you read to support your continuing stance and you are not alone
A normal expectation is that when new information arises that its message is researched thoroughly of course and also how it fits in with the pattern of other connected events and accumulated evidence from peer reviewed scientific consensus.
Old data on sea level rise can be confusing if applied directly to the new situation of close to 1.3 Deg C temperature rise, ocean expansion and the “runaway” melting of the reflective ice shields.
But its the whole picture that is needed and the consequence of increasing sea level rise is but a relatively but important small part of the bigger changes humans are responsibly for.
Read this carefully as the bigger picture is touched upon
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2020.615419/full
“Humanity is running an ecological Ponzi scheme in which society robs nature and future generations to pay for boosting incomes in the short term”.
The average member of the public has little cognisance of our total dependence on the wider ecology within the biosphere. It is a complex understanding and ignorance of its complexity is to be expected but denial of it is plain stupid in this age of access to good scientific opinion.
The NZ environment is being severely degraded by basically confused endevour and greed along with corporate investment without responsibility for outcomes apart from shareholders dollars.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/440120/polluted-waterways-why-are-we-subsidising-environmental-harm
Most generation care for their precious kids but the present power brokers show no regard for the next generation and beyond.
As the younger generation grow and assume power they will be faced with a mess of enormous proportion, created by the irresponsible supporters of BAU plus the lack of empathy by boomers who appear to be high on material comforts in their consumerist immersion.
The cliff edge is creeping closer across several fronts.
The economic front will probably collapse earlier than the others but already the environmental degrading and rapid species loss is not without a cascading acceleration of ecological break down.
This article is now two years old but gives evidence to the inaction since this warning and many others have been made widespread.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/plummeting-insect-numbers-threaten-collapse-of-nature
Here is a warning 5 tears old
https://e360.yale.edu/features/insect_numbers_declining_why_it_matters
2 years ago the loss was quantified across a representative sample of important species. The loss has increased since.
https://www.statista.com/chart/16960/percentage-decline-in-selected-global-insect-populations/
Without a balance of insect life the changes are unpredictable. Increase in pests seem likely.
So picking holes in sea level predictions is hardly invoking personal action to actually doing something constructive to increase personal understanding and supporting/creating political action.
The sea level rise in NZ since 1800 is approximately 200mm plus a bit but the rate of rise does show increase. The sea level rise is not even across the worlds oceans..
500nn to 1000mm rise in NZ by 2100 was extrapolated from the scientific consensus several years ago but based on very conservative estimates.
But newly observed increased rates of melting and increased rate of heating have been found since then.
Our CO2 emissions and other GHGs, keep rising with no effective action taken politically to stop or reverse that human induced alteration to the balnce needed for life as we know it.
Now peaking over 420ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere and also rising levels in the oceans as they continue to absorb CO2 and become more acidic which is causing observed die off
Political pressure to do nothing comes from some businesses and some of the rural sector but not all. There is finally signs of a growing awareness ij the Agricultural community who have stopped using fertiliser, reduced dairy stock levels and through regenerative farming guidelines are getting better cheques from their operations.
” Ditch the “Bullsh*t” Ardern ”
Yeah right like you can’t see right through her now on her utter failure with regards to our nuclear free moment which by the way using that term was an insult to David Lange over his determination and guts in the face of serious threats to his personal safety and that of his country that he and the others made a stand in the face of enormous pressure.
” Famously John Key disagreed with his Chief Science Adviser, and said instead that, New Zealand would be a “Fast Follower” on the climate ”
Hilarious he got one thing right New Zealand is a follower not a leader and he made sure of that with his under the table negotiations with the yanks and their corporate business interests even breaking the sovereignty of parliament to make our corporate workplace slavery legislation even more user friendly for the likes of Warner Brothers who were threatening us over the Hobbits if we did not do as they demanded.
Where was Key in ” getting some guts ” in not selling us out to the highest bidder and a firm independent foreign policy not dictated by foreign interests and allowing his foreign minister Mc Culley and his American ambassador Tim Groser to whisper sweet nothings into the ears of the yanks and then bend over.
I am sure Nicky Hagar could enlighten us with another expose on Key and his rotten corrupted plutocracy.
Why Hager on Key Mosa? Key hasnt been the PM for over 5 years….Arden is the one his book should be about, but he tends to not do books on left wing PMs.
His Income must have taken a hit when Labour took power, im sure his trust fund has been topped up so need to worry.
” but he tends to not do books on left wing PMs ”
No have a look back at the book he released that became a major issue in the July 2002 general election which was titled seeds of distrust.
2002 – Corngate: an investigation into the alleged release of genetically modified corn, exacerbated by an ambush interview with Prime Minister Helen Clark by broadcaster John Campbell.[25]
Helen Clark was put under considerable pressure over the contents of Nicky’s book and she was the PM at the time and like all the others who are elected to high office are accountable supposedly to the people who have elected them and i think that get’s forgotten reasonably quickly.
There is no active left wing in NZ. If you could just put your bias aside you will see that most of us who comment here are complaining about just that there is no left position only centrist pro market that we have now or the Nasty Natz and the Association of corporate takeovers who are the neo liberal right.
The last left wing administration in this country was the third Labour government of Norm Kirk when the term ” Labour ” meant just that.
Despite Key leaving parliament his actions are part of the public record for that time and and can still be held accountable for his behaviour as PM while he held office.
I expect that Nicky being an investigative journalist would publish a book on Adern if he has the information and sources to show that Adern or her colleagues are acting improperly.
I would expect nothing less.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Hager
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeds_of_Distrust
It’s a great idea to be a follower when there is no first prize.
Most of our trading partners are not intending to do anything significant – because they know too well that to realize Greta’s utopia would take us back to horses & carts. If you scratch beneath the surface, the Greens have no actual solutions to this issue.
Mosa – Thanks for referencing John Key’s, “Get some guts”. That shocking performance in the N Z Parliament came to mind when I read Mike Treen writing on war. Key always seemed Hollywood dazzled, but there was more to it. Similarly either RT or Al Jazeera – I think the former- has published an exposee on the Ardern govt’s giant subsidies to Bezos and Amazon, apparently for more whoring of the Tolkien fantasies, but with other unwelcome connections which Nash did not mention.
Key was not working for the people of NZ.
Greta has spoken more sense than key could comprehend.
The message is not difficult to understand for an open mind.
The problem with the so called ‘climate crisis’ as I see it, is that the moment one can justifiably howl ” OH FUCK! THE CLIMATE IS IN CRISIS!” With some authority then it’s already too late. In short we’re fucked. Our planet’s got the literal wobbles because we’re displacing water to parts where it shouldn’t be.
The Guardian.
Climate crisis has shifted the Earth’s axis, study shows
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/23/climate-crisis-has-shifted-the-earths-axis-study-shows
And you know what got us up to this wondrous and hilarious point? Greed did. Greed did this to us and by extension, we did it to our selves. We only have ourselves to blame.
I started out in my life as a smelly, shit spattered little grub then ‘evolved’ into a farmer then a warrior of sorts fighting for survival in a bland city where the streets were lined with advertising hoardings and life became all about who had the most stuff, things and sundry junk.
And then it got worse. Much worse. I worked in the film industry.
As churches struggled to get a few stragglers in The Warehouse etc, for example promised everyone a bargain and were packed up to the plastic pap in the aisles with money fetishists with junk addictions.
Don’t get me wrond. I’m no God botherer. I’m simply being metaphorical.
Is our beautiful biosphere dying because we’ve been rendered down to a kind of entry level organism who’s been emotionally and intellectually brainwashed to do the bidding of ever more greedy others who’re just a bit better at fucking people over than those lessor others below?
I’ve just watched The Life Of Brian. In that fabulous film there’s a gaggle of dissidents plotting against the Romans. The trouble is, they can only plot. They’re incapable of initiating actual action and just like our ill equipped politicians they instead just talk and plot and scheme while achieving absolutely nothing. Is very funny and if you’ve not seen it then you know what to do. Talk about seeing it but don’t bother? Most likely.
I think the problem with ‘taking action’ is the first step. A young woman actor in the Life of Brian came running into the room where the dissidents were plotting and shouted “ Don’t just sit there! Go outside and do something! “ I think it was John Cleese’s character who said “ Right! I have another motion! I move that we make a motion to discuss standing up and going outside! Any seconders? “
I think the problem with AO/NZ now is that we have no people of passionate vision who’re brave enough to risk looking foolish or silly etc. We’re left with robotic line tow’ers to Big Business. Our once brave world first’ers have become cap doffers and snivelling, cowardly weaklings who acquiesce
to puffed up little be-suited wankers in offices who’re well trained in the grotesque arts of encouraging us to live wasteful, non creative lives for their pay checks and profits.
[ Acquiescence.
In law, acquiescence occurs when a person knowingly stands by without raising any objection to the infringement of his or her rights, while someone else unknowingly and without malice aforethought acts in a manner inconsistent with their rights.]
We have a crisis of our climate alright but the real crisis is much larger and far more complex and lethal than that. We have a frightening crisis of logical interpretation.
We’ve been led into the darkest woods by well educated psychopathic lunatics who would, if they thought they’d get their picture on the TV or in social media, burn down the boat they float in. And they are. Look around?
If I was the God, I’d start culling humanity down starting with the grotesquely richest entrepreneurial bandits and stop at about the well educated professionals like Dr’s , dentists etc.
And when I got to the gardeners, tradies, artists, lovers, those with dogs, and kids they love I’d stop and give praise and thanks.
It’s going to take some real guts to wrest our planet back from our abusers and I don’t think we’ve got what it takes. So yeah-nah. We’re fucked.
Greta knows best.
Can I just chuck this in here?
Many of you will have already seen this but I’ve just watched it on Youtube. It’s a conversation between Edward Snowden and Russell Brand and it’s extremely enlightening in my opinion.
Russell Brand
“In part 1 of my discussion with Edward Snowden he explains the methods used to advance the most dangerous conspiracies and threats to our freedoms. Excerpts are taken from my upcoming Luminary podcast with Edward Snowden – released Saturday 24th April. To listen to the full episode then, get a 7 day free trial at http://luminary.link/russell”
Edward Snowden: “The Worst Conspiracies Are In Plain Sight”
C-19 is a dangerous and highly transmissible virus… and it’s also a great excuse to mass-gather information.
I respect Greta’s youthful idealism and belief we can actually stop climate change without collapsing our fossil fuelled civilisation into ruin. Having followed the climate change slow motion train wreck for 46 years it’s obvious the Planet is doing its own thang moving to a new stable state a much hotter World which process is eliminating the biosphere that gave us life with its plants animals etc a new hot world biosphere would take its place. Also this change though slow to the human mind is faster than the biggest climate change event in our Planet’s history. Dolphins at Rakino Island and the PETM Extinction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea_URnkowic
Megadrought: Western USA Entering Worst Drought in 1200 Years https://www.trunews.com/stream/megadrought-western-usa-entering-worst-drought-in-1200-years
It is bloody hard to keep people on track on the existential issue of our times–Climate Disaster.
There is the constant swim against the corporate and media tide as many of us try and work it all out on a personal, political and planetary level.
Some would rather poke around for inconsistencies or head off down dusty side roads in their denial, than acknowledge that we must move beyond blame and investigation, and act NOW, all of us, one way or another. A rainwater tank and survival techniques mean you might last a bit longer in some remote corner. But really it is time to unite all who can be united and fight for eco-socialism in Aotearoa NZ.
During 1787, Nobleman Grigory Potemkin erected phony portable settlements along the banks of the Dnieper River in order to impress the Russian Empress; the structures would be disassembled after she passed, and re-assembled farther along her route to be viewed again as if another example.
In today’s politics and economics, a “Potemkin village” is a construction (literal or figurative) whose sole purpose is to provide an external façade to a country which is faring poorly, making people believe that the country is faring better.
The new master of such puppetry and window-dressing sits as Minister for Climate Change in the Ministry of Environment of the New Zealand Government.
He taiao tōnui mō ngā reanga katoa.
A flourishing environment for every generation.
Another four or five weeks until we reach the seasonal peak for 2021:
Daily CO2 (CO2 earth)
Apr. 26, 2021 = 420.01 ppm
Apr. 26, 2020 = 416.12 ppm
What ‘delights’ we are in for: rampant ‘inflation’ (devaluation of money), a collapsing economy, a collapsing energy supply, a collapsing environment, and a collapsing social order -all brought to us by banks, corporations and their enablers -the bought-and-paid-for politicians and economists.
‘Signs of things to come’
https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2021/04/27/signs-of-things-to-come/
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