President Trump recently pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, much to the disgust of the whole world.
So, a number of locals decided to take action by forming a group to help people in their homes, workplaces, churches and learning institutions to finally push our Government to take the necessary action. Among the group which became an incorporated society, and produced 'Our Climate Declaaration' were Pat Basket, Jeanette Fitzsimons, Dr Joanna Santa Barbara, Amanda Larsson, Catherine Murupaenga-Iken, Rosemary Penwarden, Kristen Gillies and others.
This group believes that climate change poses a powerful challenge to all aspects of our lives: to our feeling of freedom, to how we feed ourselves, to how we move about, to how we keep ourselves and other creatures warm or cool. Resolving these issues will entail changes to our behaviour, both as individuals and as members of a functioning society.
The public launch took place last month, simultaneously at the Grey Lynn Community Centre, and in Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin by live streaming. The launch was a spectacular success. The Grey Lynn Centre space was full and, Rod Oram, as expected, was an excellent chairperson. He was followed by Dr Joanna Santa Barbara, a peace and ecological activist, who is interim chair of the Climate Declaration.
Endorsements followed by James Renwick, leading New Zealand and IPCC climate scientist, (from Wellington) Phillip Mills, businessman and sponsor, (by video) Rhys Jones, Ora Taiao, the NZ Climate and Health Council, Peter Scholes, conductor of the Auckland Chamber Orchestra, who gave a lovely clarinet solo after his speech, Robyn Malcolm, actress, two students from Western Springs College (it is our future) and finally Pippa Coom, chair of the Waitemata Local Board, who enthusiastically endorsed the declaration.
The declaration outlines ‘the bad stuff’ we have to stop doing, and ‘the good things we have to pursue’. Among the bad stuff is continuing to extract and burn fossil fuels, especially by ever more difficult mining methods including fracking for oil and coal. We also need to replace the never-ending drive for economic growth and consumerism with an economics of ‘enough’.
The good things we can do include insisting on sustainable energy alternatives for transport, farming and industry. The declaration calls for the restoration of 1.3 million hectares of marginal land to native forest to increase carbon sinks.
It calls, too, for people to eat less meat and dairy, and to help to develop an economic system that respects nature’s limits.
Finally the Climate Declaration calls on us to pressure the Government to comply with and facilitate the above transformation, to withdraw investment from the fossil fuel industry, and to establish a Climate Commission to set a binding carbon budget and develop a plan to meet it.
The Government needs to abandon the Emissions Trading Scheme and replace it with a carbon tax. Those who commit to the Climate Declaration pledge to work together at every level of society, celebrating our common humanity, acknowledging the different climate-changed world we are entering, respecting the needs of all people, present and future and of other living beings.
If you agree we should all help to create a climate-safe Aotearoa, based on economic fairness, democracy, respect for human rights and the intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, where we live in harmony with nature and with each other, go on line to www.ourclimatedeclaration.org.nz and sign on to join the challenge.
This is not a petition, but a pledge to honour the objectives of the Climate Declaration - now. (JOHN ELLIOTT)