National proclaiming they want to find climate change solutions is like the Tobacco industry proclaiming they want to find solutions to cancer

ByMartyn Bradbury

Oh really?

Dear National

You can’t ‘take the politics’ out of climate change – it’s no longer a scientific question as to whether or not it’s happening, inaction is now a political problem and seeing as your party has the largest number of climate deniers in NZ, that makes it YOUR problem!

The latest research from Antartica warns of a run away event that will cause catastrophic flooding…

‘Grim future’ on the horizon as Antarctic ice melt triples

Antarctica has lost three trillion tonnes of ice over the last 25 years – roughly the volume of Wellington Harbour each day – with almost half of the melting happening in the last five years.

A major analysis of the frozen continent’s ice sheets and glaciers found the loss has caused an 8 millimetre rise in global sea levels since the early 1990s.

The rate of melting has tripled since 2012, with the 219 billion tonnes of ice being lost every year since then contributing to a 3mm rise in sea levels.

…and the IPCC, the most conservative environmental body on the planet, now believes we are in real danger…

Leaked UN draft report warns of urgent need to cut global warming
The world is on track to exceed 1.5C of warming unless countries rapidly implement “far-reaching” actions to reduce carbon emissions, according to a draft UN report leaked to Reuters.

The final draft report from the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) was due for publication in October. It is the guiding scientific document for what countries must do to combat climate change.

Human-induced warming would exceed 1.5C by about 2040 if emissions continued at their present rate, the report found, but countries could keep warming below that level if they made “rapid and far-reaching” changes.

…we are now beyond the possibility of mitigating and controlling our climate change causing emissions and must rapidly become an economy and culture of adaptation.

National have spent every minute tearing down the decision to ban future oil exploration, to now claim they’ve seen the green light is beyond disingenuous.

That’s not to say Labour or the Greens are much better than National in paying lip service to the need of rapidly adapting our economy and culture to the realities of climate change. The Green decision to just allow a Chinese company to take millions of litres of our fresh water for a mere 60 jobs over 4 years and the Government’s pitiful Carbon Neutral 2050 plan are as good as nothings in terms of the magnitude of the crisis we face here.

Climate change is an existential threat to the survival of our species – if the current political spectrum in NZ can’t change the hegemony then new, far more radical political solutions, will be offered to the electorate.

In the meantime, a tweet from Simon Bridges means sweet fuck all.

 

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19 Comments

  1. Simon Bridges; – That politician is as slimy as Bill English was.

    When we asked English for the funds to reconnect our rail to Gisborne again (after a rain storm damaged our rail in a one km section in 2012), so we could breathe safe un -polluted air again in Napier as all the 25000 trucks trips that come to the Port of Napier every single 24 hrs is killing us with their toxic emmisions, National said nothing at all; – with no response to our repeated eight years of emails sent to them!!!!

    And now this creepy guy ‘Simon Bridges wants to work with us now????

    Un-believable; -Ok; Mr bridges, – this is a challenge to you now Simon Bridges; – as of today 16/6/18 I want you Mr Bridges to support our Gisborne Mayor Meng Foon who has yesterday sent a letter to Kiwi Rail CEO Peter Reidy to request he ask Government Minister for regional development Shane Jones fund the (well over due repair and reopenning of the gisborne rail line) as last week in Napier we saw Peter Reidy re-open the Napier to Wairoa leg of that line and he said to the press here; https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/article.cfm?c_id=16&objectid=120
    65344

    QUOTE : KiwiRail chief executive Peter Reidy said it was “a great day” for rail.

    “Rail is a critical enabler of infrastructure in regions, and today’s story, enhanced by the PGF, has ignited an opportunity to grow value in the regions.”

    Not only would the line’s reopening make roads safer and lower maintenance costs, it would also get rid of 1500 tonnes of carbon emissions from trucks.
    END OF QUOTE;

    So now you can stop killing regional rail and join us all to save our rail and to lower the transport emissions that are now at 46% of our total carbon emissions today; – as truck freight is a very large emitter of carbon. NIWA reports say one truck emits 100 times more air pollution and carbon emissions than one car.

    Truck uses five times of the fuel to move each tinne one km than rail uses so get back onto rail Simon.

    1. +100 CLEANGREEN

      ….and Naomi Klein’s book ‘This Changes Everything ‘ shows why the National Party or the Nact Party is the last political party to be an advocate for climate change issues and Green environmental issues…

      ( except I dont think the Green Party have caught on to this yet…and unfortunately there are a lot of pseudo greenies around …next thing we will hear jonkey has always been a Greenie)

      https://thischangeseverything.org/book/

      “Forget everything you think you know about global warming. The really inconvenient truth is that it’s not about carbon—it’s about capitalism. The convenient truth is that we can seize this existential crisis to transform our failed economic system and build something radically better.

      In her most provocative book yet, Naomi Klein, author of the global bestsellers The Shock Doctrine and No Logo, tackles the most profound threat humanity has ever faced: the war our economic model is waging against life on earth.

      Klein exposes the myths that are clouding the climate debate.

We have been told the market will save us, when in fact the addiction to profit and growth is digging us in deeper every day. We have been told it’s impossible to get off fossil fuels when in fact we know exactly how to do it—it just requires breaking every rule in the “free-market” playbook: reining in corporate power, rebuilding local economies, and reclaiming our democracies.

      We have also been told that humanity is too greedy and selfish to rise to this challenge. In fact, all around the world, the fight for the next economy and against reckless extraction is already succeeding in ways both surprising and inspiring.

      Climate change, Klein argues, is a civilizational wake-up call, a powerful message delivered in the language of fires, floods, storms, and droughts. Confronting it is no longer about changing the light bulbs. It’s about changing the world—before the world changes so drastically that no one is safe. 

Either we leap—or we sink…

    2. 25000 logging trucks to Napier every 24 hours?? I think you had better find an accurate source for your info. Your credibility has been blown away.

    3. The reality is Bridges is a lawyer, knows how to make leading statements but is really just a leech!

  2. Never took me comrade for a modern Major General, but after reading the above I relies now that there’s literally nothing he can’t do.

  3. The danger iies in that word “independant”!!!!!

    Independant from who???

    Is it protected from control by any bussiness lobbyists or climate change deniers perhaps???

    We already know see cant trust most independant agencies alreadty so best we stick for a government agency that is under the eyes of the communities that see what is going wrong all the time.

  4. Sorry, I correct the truck trips number as another 0 got in there so we measure an average truck trip flow through napier every day by camera and the truck flow is now at 2500 trips each 24hrs day and night.

    At this level of truck flow, peoople cant sleep without a radio at their bedside drowning out the noise.

    Mr Bridges, just try this for a unhealthy way to live near the “contraversial” HB Expresway which is just a simole single lane road going straight through the heart of west Napier’s most populated area.

    The raod was designated only as a “commuter” road for the people of Hastings to get to the new Airport (Napier won the bid, & Hastings lost) situated north of Napier. and was then never designed for 2500 truck trips every day; – so there is the problem.

    By NZTA standards our truck flow is at the highest of any “residential road” in NZ.

    We asked English and Bridges to come to our meeting to discuss it and they refuse to answer our requests.

    So Simon Bridges best you contact us as you have our 105 emails we sent you, and face up to your words to help or we will just say you are making it all up.

  5. The problem remains the electorate….Labour and The Greens may be inadequate in their response but every tiny step is opposed/questioned not just by the vested interests but the wider public….. If CC were truely of concern Green support wouldnt be languishing around the threshold.

    We wish our cake and to eat it.

  6. “We want practical solutions that won’t harm our economy or drive up costs”.

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah.

    Mr Trickledown also promises to find a solution for cold fusion, turning lead into gold, and will demonstrate how financial market Ponzis can operate for ever and ever.

    1. Spot on. It demonstrates what a fucking idiot Bridges is -or an outright liar!

      Under National New Zealand’s contribution to planetary meltdown increased immensely (can’t put an exact figure on it but a good estimate would be around 30% increase in emissions). And the degree of resilience of the nation was reduced substantially under Key and company.

      I think it is time for Bridges to go the whole hog and publicly pronounce the following:

      War is peace.
      Ignorance is strength.
      Freedom is slavery.

  7. ‘Climate change is an existential threat to the survival of our species’

    Exactly right, Martyn

    We can go on to say that the political-economic system is an existential threat to the survival of our species.

    Pity those that follow us because, in the eyes of most politicians and community leaders and banks and corporations, maintaining business-as-usual for as long as possible comes before everything else.

  8. Where was the voice of the previous National government in ALL the 9 years they were in government even when it came to environmental matters???!!!!
    In fact their, the NZ National Party, past National government and even their Coalition partners; lack of a voice was so noticeable that one can really figure out the so-called priorities of the NZ National Party, ACT, United Future and the Maori Party. And those priorities were indeed not for what was in the best interest of NZ and NZers but what was in the best interests personally for the individual MPs of the previous National Coalition government.
    Whilst he was just a simple MP in the NZ National Party government there was not even a peep out of Simon Bridges even in condemnation of what the previous National government of the day was doing to NZ and its environment. And so that reflects badly back upon the NZ National Party, its MPs and supporters.
    If even one National MP admitted to the public that the previous National government had faults then let them please say so RIGHT NOW. Or are they so fearful of the fact their actions of the past are a true reflection back upon themselves when they try to give NZers the misleading image they are as pure as the driven snow and have never ever made a mistake in their entire lifetimes???!!!! For them to behave in such a manner reeks of arrogance.
    In all reality no-one should trust a political party who refuses to admit there is fault within themselves and within the government they were part and parcel of at the time i.e 2008 through to late 2017.
    But then what do we expect from the NZ National Party and its MPs who allowed arrogance to reign supreme within its very midsts.
    Way to go National. You are a reflection of all that is wrong with a political party.

    1. I cannot remember exactly when it was (must have been about 10 years ago) National went through a phase of pretending to be green and Nick Smith actually generated ‘Blue-green’ literature …..which was absolute bollocks are far as the science of environmental protection was concerned but had all the right buzz-words and neuro-linguistic programming to convince the scientifically illiterate.

      If there is one thing National are good at it is using advertising agencies and other mind-control organisations to present phony narratives that are completely detached from scientific reality and economic reality.

      National should never be allowed to forget the ‘Better, brighter future’ slogans that were plastered across the country a couple of elections ago.

      Yeah right, as the environment progressively collapses and the economy staggers on heading towards complete collapse.

  9. Yet another dire consequence of burning fossil fuels is emerging: falling oxygen levels in seas and oceans.

    As with almost every aspect associated with out-of-control emissions, it is now evident that previous estimates of how much oxygen levels would decline were way off the mark, and the actual decline is far worse than expected. And with more-or-less zilch being done to address CO2 emissions, the decline on oxygen in the oceans must be expected to accelerate over coming years.

    https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-global-warming-is-causing-ocean-oxygen-levels-to-fall

    Deoxygenation is in addition to rapid overheating and acidification, of course.

    No wonder ‘no one’ wants to talk about any of it (Martin Bradbury and few others being rare exceptions).

    I remember a now-deceased friend a decade ago describing the attitude of the majority as ‘better living through denial’.

    For along time we have been stealing the next generation’s future in order to maintain present living arrangements…..and those arrangements are doomed to failure anyway because of resource depletion. So, our progeny get to inherit the worst of all possible worlds.

  10. As I’ve said here before, Blue-greens = toxic (as per BG algae/Cyanobacteria). The Nats on board the Climate Change wagon is a cynical political manoeuvre, designed for some popular support but at the same time kicking necessary policies into the long grass.

  12. It’s really simple Simon. Climate change is not an environmental issue, it’s an existential issue. Go prosecute yourself….

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