Rise with Courage

A FEW MONTHS ON from the two cyclones and a massive atmospheric river which wreaked havoc in northern and eastern parts of the North Island, I feel a brokenness in our land, and a sadness in our people.

Our climate, rivers, hillsides, weather, roads, power, communications, livelihoods — even our homes — no longer seem stable, reliable or predictable. Those most affected throughout the country suffer trauma, and struggle to rebuild their lives. Even we who are merely inconvenienced have developed a mistrust of rainstorms, hillsides, and low-lying areas. And we think twice, now, before visiting family or friends in the damaged areas, or planning a holiday.

A Final Warning

This upending of our lives could be one last wake-up call. Last month the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) issued its clearest and most dire report yet: “The pace and scale of climate action” is insufficient to keep climate warming to 1.5C or even 2C in the coming decades.

We are on track for 1.5C warming by the early 2030s, and 3.2C by 2100. The latter would be a literally unmitigated disaster for our planet and many of its species, including our own.

Today our planet is 1.2C above its pre-industrial ambient temperature. We have already seen the destruction and heartache caused by this seemingly small change. Each incremental degree upwards will bring more extreme heatwaves, drought, rainstorms, cyclones and flooding, causing more and more destruction of homes, farmland, livelihoods and infrastructure and resultant trauma
on humans.

Climate change has exposed millions of people around the world to escalating food insecurity and water scarcity.

Increases in human displacement, disease, mortality, trauma and loss of livelihoods have resulted from extreme climate events.

The regions most affected have suffered 15 times more human mortality than regions like our own that have been less affected.

All this sits alongside a precipitous decline in biodiversity — the demise of thousands of species and loss of critical forest, tundra and wetland ecosystems around the globe. Recent research has also signalled an imminent collapse of ocean systems because of melting Antarctic ice sheets.

Two Gaps in Response

What has happened? The IPCC report highlights two gaps. First, despite some successes at various annual COP (Conference of the Parties) meetings of the countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which came into force in 1994, there is an “emissions gap” between individual countries’ pledges for global carbon emissions reductions by 2030 and the reductions needed to keep warming to 1.5C.

Second, there is an “implementation gap” between what most countries have pledged, and policies and legislation that would enable reductions to be made.

Aotearoa’s Gaps

Our country suffers from both these gaps. The Climate Change Commission and the climate change minister have long admitted that our emissions pledges are less than our fair share toward keeping global warming to 1.5C.

An even greater gap results from our colossal lack of political will to stay a course on policy and legislation that would enable Aotearoa to meet even our inadequate emissions pledges. Cases in point are the extension of petrol tax cuts and the politically expedient dumping in March of the biofuel mandate, clean car and social car-leasing schemes and lower speed limits.

More importantly we are not reorienting our economic system to a “circular economy” in which all we make or extract from Earth is fully reused in non-polluting ways. Our declaration of a climate emergency has not been followed by plans to tighten building standards, put solar power panels on rooftops, fix the Emissions Trading Scheme, or encourage transitions to sustainable agriculture and forestry.

The Spirit Is with Us

This month we celebrate the feast of Pentecost when we recall how the Holy Spirit transformed Jesus’s fearful disciples. It’s not that the Spirit wasn’t already working in the world — she had been hovering over the deep since the time of creation. She impassioned prophets and writers of wisdom. But after weeks of their retreating from the world, working through their sadness and uncertainty, and in prayer, the disciples were empowered with a Spirit-filled fearlessness to act in ways that would transform their world.

I wonder if we are a little like those early disciples. Our rapidly changing world can frighten, overwhelm, and paralyse us. Perhaps we, too, need some time away to listen to ourselves and the Spirit, and come to clarity about what we are called to do in this era of climate chaos. Jesus’s early followers set about reforming themselves as community, including caring for their poor. Our task today is nothing less than the transformation of all Earth’s community.

The Challenge

This is clearly a mammoth task, involving change at many levels.

Individually we can attend to our own household’s carbon emissions: eating less meat; using public transport, walking and cycling and opting for renewable energy sources; being mindful of emissions when purchasing vehicles, and of battery disposal when using e-vehicles or solar panels; but mostly by making
do with less and with used and recycled items.

Corporate change is often the hardest, because most companies operate with a profit motive first and foremost, and only when that is threatened will they respond to customer demand for greater ecological accountability.

We can demand (in correspondence and in our consumer choices) ecologically sound products and packaging, and a switch from fossil fuel use, as well as fair pay and conditions by companies themselves and in their supply chains.

Governments have a responsibility to ensure the common good. This means legislating especially with the poor and vulnerable in mind, against gross inequality, and also safeguarding the health of our planet.

A humanly liveable Earth will not survive without policies designed to nearly halve our carbon emissions by 2030. This requires governments to legislate in ways that will make it easier, and in some cases, mandatory, for individuals and companies to make environmentally sound choices — and our advocacy to make sure that happens.

Celebrating Pentecost

It is easy to be overwhelmed with the immensity and urgency of the changes we need to make. It helps to remember that we don’t have to do everything at once, or on our own. Every step is valuable. And the Spirit goes before us, in the many agencies, communities and people who are already working in many ways to “renew the face of Earth”.

As we celebrate Pentecost this month, let’s mark it — not just as a birthday — but as a turning point that recommits us to living in ways that will enhance and not destroy life, and to the vigilance needed to guide governments and corporations to do the same. 

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 281 May 2023: 12-13