It’s a climate crisis special and probably the most bleakly honest appraisal of how bad the climate crisis is actually getting.
The IPCC report has always infamously been conservative and underplayed or simply ignored the impacts of naturally occurring feedback loops that once crossed represent tipping points from which no technological advance can mitigate.
What is most concerning about our response to the Covid epidemic (which is exacerbated by overpopulation and bio-habitat collapse), the flooding we just experienced or even the Spanish forest fires and European heatwave is that these extraordinary events that we are totally ill equipped to cope with are all occurring at a time of relative peace.
How would these services cope with a plethora of events erupting at climate crisis speed on numerous fronts?
We can barely cope with the first wave of disruptions, how on earth will we cope when the enormity of events eclipse these small ones?
My contention is that in a future like that voters will throw their weight behind any party promising radical proposals.
That’s why I argue that Fortress Aotearoa is simply a matter of when not if.
The current political spectrum in New Zealand can not radically adapt fast enough to adopt the changes we must make if we are to survive the climate crisis. It will require a radical Political Movement that elects a Party to implement Fortress Aotearoa…
- Move away from intensive farming and look to become domestically self sustainable in terms of food.
- Immediately ban all water exports.
- Empower local communities to make local decisions and set up resilience programs.
- 5 year Parliamentary term so Governments can actually plan for change.
- Upper and Lower House (Upper House 50-50 split between Māori & Pakeha that can hold up legislation if unhappy about Treaty issues)
- Massive investment into R&D from Government with the understanding research is to benefit NZ first before sold offshore.
- Large scale increase in Navy, Army & Airforce.
- Mass limiting of tourism numbers with huge increased tourist taxes.
- Only citizens can vote.
- Sustainable immigration and an end to exploitative migrant workers.
- Resettlement Programms for all pacific island neighbours.
- Increase refugee in take to 10 000 per year
- Fully funded public services focused on real welfare of people.
- Mass Green housing rebuild.
- 100% renewable energy for entire country.
- Massive tree planting across previous farming land.
- Wholesale re-write of state services act to end commercial values.
- Investment into basic pharmaceutical production.
- Financial transaction tax
- Wealth tax
- Multinational tax
- Inheritance tax
- Capitalist monopolies in energy, transport and finance have to be brought into public ownership and control. They should be subject to democratic plans drawn up by the whole community. Workers should have much stronger decision making powers within them.
- All economic sectors to be made take steps needed to decarbonise the economy as much as is needed to reach zero net emissions by 2030.
- Free and frequent public transport on electric buses and/or trains in all main cities.
- Health care and education for life should be free and universally accessible.
- Welfare, pensions, child allowances, should be universal wherever possible.
- Public housing at fixed and affordable rents should be a right of all not just the desperately poor.
- All workers should have a right to a job and the workweek reduced with no loss of pay to make that possible.
- Local communes should be supported for control and delivery of as many functions of the centralised state as possible – including housing, education, health care.
- Local communes to support cooperative forms of production of food, solar and wind energy, electric transport, and media.
On a rapidly warming planet, NZ will increasingly be the life boat for Earth and the tyranny of our distance will become our blessing.
Pretending that we can ‘stop’ the climate crisis cascade is sophistry, we require radical reform and adaptation now.
The bleak honesty of the NIWA expert reminds us that the climate crisis is here and pretending being carbon neutral by 2050 is a legitimate response to that crisis makes you the problem.
At some point the NZ political spectrum will splinter viciously as voters turn against politicians who are not dealing with this climate crisis reality.
Isolationism is the only political plank rejected by globalist National, ACT, Labour, Greens & Māori Party. If Winston Peters captures that Isolationist lightening, he is over 5%.
Ashley Blomfield is on and he is such a national treasure! His leadership during this pandemic has been a celebration of the State harnessing public good will using the best science for the best outcomes.
He acknowledges mistakes made, and defends direct criticisms of lock down and MIQ, and his answers stand up straight against them.
He’s the first person I believe who has actually earned a knighthood.
The sadness of Tim Shadbolt was explored. We all love him, but he looks and sounds like a boxer who has been in the fight too long and someone should step in. Marcus Lush should totally run.
Reserve Bank womble wonk is on giving another warning that the economic apocalypse is coming and that house which has warped peoples perceptions of wealth that is illusionary is about to lose a lot of value quickly.
Shit really hits the fan when middle class people start feeling economically frightened.
The US inflation blows out predictions…
US inflation hit 9.1% in June to put further pressure on Fed
Markets price in higher chance of 1% rate rise this month after bigger-than-expected jump in prices
…they were predicting 8.9% so 9.1% is way outside the top range.
Inflation is a sizzlin’ and pundits are now suggesting a 100 point basis rise by the Fed!
That puts enormous pressure on Adrian Orr now that our inflation rate has hit 7.3%.
Add into this the next wave of Covid, new zero Covid restrictions shutting down supply chains again in China, a possible foot and mouth outbreak and the full impact of the war in Ukraine hitting base metal, food, gas, mineral and oil prices and Orr either gets ahead of this now or risks being avalanched
I’ve often talked about Orr’s 75 point Bazooka, a sudden lurch of a jump to tell the Market who is boss, but this 50point incrementalism could be creating longer term pain if the Market doesn’t believe the Reserve Bank is serious!
Could Orr dump the 75 basis point Bazooka and bring forward the mighty 100 basis point Taiaha?
I don’t think people get how bad the economy is about to turn.
It is my considered opinion brothers and sisters, that we Comrades, are not in fact ready for this jelly.
Jack Tame and the Q+A team are the best public broadcasters in the game right now, providing insight and oversight in an age where complacent lies and tribal defensiveness is preferred.
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We need many more Taniwha
Taniwha or Taiaha?
Forget about. Climate Change!
The Dooms Day Clock is at 100 seconds to midnight!
With WWIII knocking on Russia and China and Iran & Syria’s doors. We’re going to be lucky to see the end of this year let alone decade. We might even not drown from global warming.
Somebody had better have a word to Biden and his Neo-Cons. They have definitely over-estimated their capability and haven’t considered the downside!
World annihilation!
5 year terms for Government — no way! I want the option to vote them out if they start getting cute towards Kiwis — Politicians are not the wisest, nicest people…and we MUST keep them honest at all times.
Why an upper House with 50 50% Maori/ Pakeha? What about a hand picked group of moderates with a track record of balanced thinking. I am thinking David Parker, Geoffry Palmer, Helen Clark, Mason Durie. Mike Baker. These sorts of people who have good character.
The last thing we need it to fill quotas cause this will attract people with ideological agenda’s e.g Prof Joanna Kidman.
it may be time for some Teal candidates as happened in Australia. Let the Greens go Rainbow. That’s where there true interests like.
Oh god…
Autarky! You’re talking up bloody autarky which has always been a suck solution whenever and wherever it’s been tried, North Korea being merely the latest example. No wonder Key’s crack about a smug Hermit Kingdom” stung so.
At some point the NZ political spectrum will splinter viciously as voters turn against politicians who are not dealing with this climate crisis reality.
Uh huh. In regular surveys of voters in the West, AGW regularly comes in far down the list of their concerns, often not even in the top ten. Higher priority worries like inflation, recession, war and so forth, come and go at the top, but poor old AGW is always far lower.
But with the MSM that’s not the case; AGW is either at the top or near in surveys of them; Bubble world
Want to know how pathetic this AGW screaming is, read this from Reuters:
Global coal-fired electricity generators are producing more power than ever before in response to booming electricity demand and the surging price of gas.
The world’s coal-fired generators produced a record 10,244 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2021 surpassing the previous record of 10,098 TWh set in 2018 (“Statistical review of world energy”, BP, July 2022).
Coal-fuelled generation is on course to set an even higher record in 2022 as generators in Europe and Asia minimise the use of expensive gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and U.S. and EU sanctions imposed in response.
MUHAHAHAHAHH. After hundreds of billions of dollars pissed away on wind and solar farms over two decades at least this is what we have come to. No wonder the EU has now declared both nuclear and Natural Gas to be “Green” and sustainable sources of energy.
Politicians solve vey little. Technology driven by industry will solve climate issues.
Never lose faith in the speed of technology it is exponential.
please, tell us more of this technology that will remove thousands of tons of carbon from the atmosphere.
It’s only an opinion standalonecomplex, Bob didn’t say it was true.
Cry more, Yank. There is no better solution that autarky. You Yankee devils haven’t managed to defeat the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea despite trillions of dollars and everything from bombing 90% of cities into ruin to biological weapons. Humanity will defeat you.
You end your piece talking of Comrades which is very appropriate as it sounds like you want a communist state . So much control in the hands of the state while bleeding the workers and investors through taxes to support these pariahs.
I stand by the saying capitalism sucks but the alternative is worst.
U.S scientist and Professor Emeritus Guy McPherson’s climate predictions are starting to look scarily accurate…
Imagine if angry South Island farmers fed up with being picked on by north Island city based liberals decide to hit back !
They take out the Benmore electricity feed to the lower North Island easy to do.
To replace that power wellington would have to build a 600 megawatt power station burning about 3 million tons of coal per year to replace that power.
the IPPC has created the new state sponsored climate religion around the god of CO2. and socialist governments worldwide have signed up along with the media Jack Tame included.
If the western world stopped using coal or oil it would make little difference to the exponential growth of coal and oil use in Asia Communist China and Russia and the middle east.
China started construction on 33 gigawatts of coal fired power stations in 2021 and that’s only half of the worlds new coal fired stations started in the last year. NZ has available about 9 gigawatts to use. So in 2021 new power builds equals 7 times the total power available in NZ. And of course you need a 770kg of coal to make a ton of steel or iron.
It has been said that to keep within 1.5 degrees of warming now by 2030 the world would have to limit polluting economic activity to a level that we saw in a NZ level 4 lockdown for 8 years!
We know that’s never going to happen with rampant globalist neoliberal capitalism and selfish me me me consumerism.
Perhaps there is a use for a one world military green government that enforces radical climate reduction globally at the barrel of a gun!
That’s the only way it’s happening now.
glad that you put agricultural change at the top of your policy list. we will need to figure out how to feed and house everyone without making things worse environmentally and politically. and how to get the wealthy to contribute towards that kaupapa.
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