This week, Martyn sounds the alarm. Extreme weather is here. Climate change is accelerating. And New Zealand’s resilience infrastructure is nowhere near ready. Worse — the polluters funding alt-right astroturf groups and lobbyists are actively undermining local government, so that by the time climate reality hits, no one in power can respond. We need serious Civil Defence investment, resilient infrastructure, and to finally expose the dark money sabotaging our response. You might not believe in climate change — but climate change believes in you.
Are we ready for climate change? Far from it. There’s a lot to take in.
Off the bat are recent severe weather events – gale force winds, intense temperatures, torrentual rain – directly related to climate change or simply indicative of extremely complex processes that are always at play? The science days yes. Yes, weather is dynamic but increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are most certainly the culprit. And the tipping point is not far off.
Floods, drought, coastal erosion, fires, and more are real events being played out. That too is complex. Often it’s as much to do with land use. Building on flood plains; planting pine forests in the hills above catchment areas. In hindsight poor decisions. But not too late to change?
Then theres the stuff we can’t really see happening = although those with skin in the game can. Take a recent conversation with a long term Hawkes Bay resident. Hes noticed changes that will long term impact on agricultural practices there. No doubt happening elsewhere’ in different ways – and not only in our neck of the woods. New pests getting a foothold in a changing climate is another story.
Adaptation or mitigation? Go down the renewables path big time. Subsized solar power installed in every home? Tinker around the edges knowing the datus quo is no longer sustainable. Nothing short of a paradigm shift regarding how we make and use energy and how it is priced and used. Some big decisions there.
Political initiatives or grassroots community initiatives? Individuals reducing their own footprints? All those?
And the people keep saying in amazement and sorrow – this is the worst I have ever seen it, for 20 year, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years. You pick number. And not a mention of climate change. No move from judging what has happened against the past, to referring to the why and the trend, what has been published time and time again to advise and prepare us.
We have to understand our effect on our land and water and air, and the way we live and survive because of them and learned ways of coping with hazards. Children we are, born of Eros and of dust. (WH Auden 1 September 1949). Regular wars kill off a majority of good young men and warp the visions of the winners, black marketers, the old warriors and conservative pundits.
That’s why the young must learn to work with the thinkers and practicals amongst older humanists to accept our vulnerabilities and our strengths so we can adapt and make cautious, timely changes.. A noble task for those who undertake it, commit it, and don’t go mad on environmental or cultural or ideological mania.
Just one aspect, of the changes needed to supply services and meet the demands brought by climate change, how to get electricity as needed? (And I think the demand is to be boosted exponentially by the requirements of Data Banks.)
From Charlie Mitchell The Press Oct.18/25
The Solar Wars putting the heat on rural NZ.
https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360855722/solar-wars-heating-rural-new-zealand
…a proposed $450 million solar farm destined for gently rolling farmland between Naseby and Ranfurly…
Jeff Schlichting, the American co-founder of Helios, has built his career on renewable energy. He is a permanent resident of New Zealand and in 2020 received an Edmund Hillary Fellowship, a programme inviting overseas entrepreneurs to start businesses here. Fellows must honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and carry those values into their work…
This unease is echoing across the country. At the start of the decade, New Zealand had no grid-scale solar farms. Today, dozens are in development. Solar now makes up most new generation in Transpower’s pipeline.
For a market straining to meet demand, the pressure to build is crushing. “It is beyond doubt that New Zealand cannot afford delays in the development of new generation,” Transpower chief executive James Kilty warned recently.
(See image of giant solar farm already in NZ – ‘Genesis opened a $104 million, 63-megawatt solar farm at Lauriston, 20km north of Ashburton’.. And this on flat farming land/ Also think we are offering aluminium maker whatisname and Rio Tinto etc well-priced electricity to help make their war planes etc.)
…Only after reading a brochure from Helios did they [objectors Rose Voice and her husband] understand the scale. The farm would stretch across 660 hectares — larger than Naseby and Ranfurly combined. Its 550,000 panels would connect to container-sized batteries, generating enough electricity for 70,000 homes. That’s 90 homes for every property in the Māniatoto..
…This intrusion was being justified on the basis that the country needed electricity. Few disputed that. But what good is it to the Māniatoto when much of that power flows north? More generation is supposed to lower prices, but power bills are higher than ever.
It was an old, deep suspicion that rural areas carry the burden for the cities. That they are, in the end, disposable….
Very interesting article, and the point made, it is so costly to consult, and people shy from it with unprovable and disprovable fears, and likely many will be right. The objections are mostly over-ruled. It seems that everything we had built up ourselves
in New Zealand is being sold off, limited through poor supply to locals, high prices, or dismantled and monopoly services replacing our own choice, all over the country.
We are not able to develop our own things and keep them in our NZAO ownership, we sell off our major supply companies. We are so casual about the strength and capability of ourselves within the country, choosing to be a satellite, a pimple on the pumpkin; the fine developments and achievements we have been proud of are out of our ownership and will gradually be sold off further, or closed down.
The political parties, the weak education system, the mindset of a servant class which came from the UK, and a class society in love with money, self-interest and pretension, has nearly ruined our spirit. I doubt that we could draw a practical, adequate plan absorbing or facing all the likely problems from the 1-10% of people who are not living in dreamland and who know themselves as clever monkeys. But the prevailing attitude is that of the conventional middle class ladies and gents and me-too swingers of all sorts.
Desdemona Despair
https://desdemonadespair.net/
Global biodiversity report shows “catastrophic decline” in wildlife populations – “In just my lifetime, 50 years, we’ve seen a decline of 73 percent in the average size of these wildlife populations”
https://desdemonadespair.net/2024/10/global-biodiversity-report-shows-catastrophic-decline-in-wildlife-populations-in-just-my-lifetime-50-years-weve-seen-a-decline-of-73-percent-in-the-aver/