There is a dreadful disconnect between the Government’s policies and the extreme weather events that are generated by climate change that are hitting NZ.
Climate denier Trolls scream the extreme weather events are all natural.
Bullshit.
The planet continues to dangerously heat thanks to human pollution.
The Polluters employ Bot armies to denounce anyone who points this out and fund Think Tanks to constantly strangle any environmental policies.
We are seeing that in COP30 where 2000 polluter advocates are stopping any changes.
NZ is heating up, this means more fires, more extreme droughts and more land erosion when extreme rain hits those droughts.
What’s the Government’s response (other than bullshit Methane targets and prevent Climate Commissioner Oversight?), why cut Emergency services of course…
Emergency response roles on the chopping block with Government merger
FENZ aims to save $50m a year: ‘We can’t keep doing everything for everybody’
…cutting emergency responses when there is going to be a massive jump in emergencies is so inanely counter productive, but that’s the short term focus of Right Wing Governments who don’t believe climate change is real in the first place.
We need a massive upgrade of Civil Defence and far more resources spent on ensuring our infrastructure has the flexibility to withstand these types of extreme weather events.
We need RSAs and Maraes to be built up into Community civil Defence Hubs and we need a solar panel campaign to ensure a flexible electrical grid alongside better battery cell towers.
We need a Civil Defence that is far better resourced than they are now with permanent clean up crew staff on stand by because this doesn’t get better right?
The 230km hour winds we just experienced only get worse, as heat continues to pour into the atmosphere because of human made pollution, the extreme weather gets worse and worse, we need a new Civil Defence regime that reflects the reality of what we are seeing.
Dr Bryce Edwards highlights that the recent local council elections had lobby groups like ‘The Local Government Business Forum’ — a coalition including Business New Zealand, the New Zealand Initiative, and Federated Farmers — openly calling for voters to elect candidates with “commercial and financial acumen” and a “pro-growth and pro-development mindset”, part of the problem here in NZ is that business lobby groups can mask their polluter interests with dark Ag money that the wider electorate can’t see.
The reason the astro-turf alt-right are so focused on undermining local councils and Government is because the polluter interests that fund these groups want a Government so undermined that when the realities of climate change finally get into the heads of muddle NuZilind, there isn’t a Government with the capacity to do anything about the Polluters.
Most right wingers refuse to believe in climate change because in their ignorant tiny lives this is just another culture war issue where their feelings matter more than the actual science.
They refuse to believe in it because Left wingers are for it!
The danger for the polluters and the alt-Right is that with every passing year, the scientific evidence for climate change only gets stronger and the extreme weather becomes impossible to ignore, what this will do is force the political class to take the issue seriously.
There is a tipping point where even the climate deniers can’t ignore the realities of what we face.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
It was very noticeable over the weekend that Cluxon apparently had nothing to say about the fire.
It was a non-event for him.
Potaka went and had a look and made noises but when his govt.is undermining the very people who have to respond to such emergencies, with their miserly cost-cutting, anything Potaka says can be taken with a grain of salt.
It’s amazing this has never happened before. That’s probably due to the deep respect most people who go to Tongariro National Park, feel towards the landscape and the local people, both Māori and non-Māori. It’s not an easy environment to live in year-round and many people seem to have about 3 jobs so as to be able to survive.
This was our first national park, made possible by a generous gift and an eye to the future from Tangata Whenua. Despite the life and times of those people they had more fore-sight and understanding of the importance of the area and the natural world in general, than any of our present government, which consists of petty, small-minded bean counters.
I hope DOC refrains from asking some petty politician to re-open the track and repaired areas. They do not deserve that privilege and lazy Cluxon in particular, should keep his distance. He’s made no effort for this vast area of NZ. He’s allowed it to be run down while he pursued ‘international opportunities’ which seem to have resulted in a big fat nothing.
Give that honour to a fire-fighter.
The 3 mountains and the surrounding park are a vast wild area which symbolise a hope for the future. Normally I agree with reverting to Maori place names but the name change of the village of National Park has not added to its mana this time. The significance of the establishment of the park was an excellent reason to have the village named National Park.
The people who love the place, Maori, DOC and FENZ staff will continue to almost kill themselves protecting it. Taking their funding, just when they are needed more than ever, for spurious reasons (tax-cuts for the wealthy, establishment of charter schools etc.) stinks.
This govt. has made so few decisions to benefit NZders, most will be glad to see the back of them.
This is just another nail in their coffin.
What’s that saying about good people putting out fires, especially men? Looks as if the people need to take back the Park as Trustees for the country, above the government, and give it the care and concern it needs and deserves.
Too much of this takes us to a bad place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6n2hZ5sDYo
Then go to a bad place if you don’t want to belong in This Country, Grey-dub.
PETERS RESIGN
Bot armies melting.