Cathrine Dyer & Bernard Hickey chat about the week's big climate news, including tweaks to the Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and the challenge to speak plainly about the challenge and focus on what works
Great recommendation on that Conversation article. I'm passing on a comment underneath George Monbiot's column:
'It reminds me of the time I showed a woman I met at a party the NASA CO2 graph showing a gentle variation across ice ages and then a sudden jump in the last 50 years. "If that were true scientists would be running round the street screaming" she said.'
And a comment by ecologist Corey Bradshaw (Flinders University, Australia) on a recent podcast: "I think most climate scientists are shitting their dacks, basically that we, every time we
come close to understanding a projection we exceed it."
Converting sheep and beef farms to forestry so emitters can farm carbon credits needs to stop. I live in a rural district where, when farmers retire, the farm is bought by those with bottomless pockets for forestry. A few hectares round the homestead are retained and sold as lifestyle blocks.
It is almost impossible for younger farmers to buy this land as forestry interests have pushed the land prices to eyewatering levels.
As a country we need to have a discussion about the emissions trading scheme and using productive hill country farms for forestry. Farmers out here have done a lot to mitigate environmental concerns; every winter thousands of natives and other trees are planted, stocking levels have been lowered, wetlands fenced off and we have active community catchment groups improving rivers.
Our rural area is becoming depopulated as farmers retire and they're not replaced with younger, keen farmers as they can't afford the farms. We need the young farmers to keep the schools open - some children travel nearly an hour as it is. Our rural fire and emergency crews need young, fit farmers to keep our district safe and to fight the inevitable forest fires that will result if we have dry summers.
And finally I heard Mike Joy comment that if we covered New Zealand end to end with forestry we would only deal with possibly 10% of emissions.
At a local govt level, LGNZ just released a how-to guide for councils with tips around assemblies and participatory democracy. There's a very real need for this, given that massive imbalance of who submits on local plans etc too.
Love these discussions. Thank you, Cathrine and Bernard 🌏
I totally agree! Thank you both so much!!
Great recommendation on that Conversation article. I'm passing on a comment underneath George Monbiot's column:
'It reminds me of the time I showed a woman I met at a party the NASA CO2 graph showing a gentle variation across ice ages and then a sudden jump in the last 50 years. "If that were true scientists would be running round the street screaming" she said.'
And a comment by ecologist Corey Bradshaw (Flinders University, Australia) on a recent podcast: "I think most climate scientists are shitting their dacks, basically that we, every time we
come close to understanding a projection we exceed it."
Converting sheep and beef farms to forestry so emitters can farm carbon credits needs to stop. I live in a rural district where, when farmers retire, the farm is bought by those with bottomless pockets for forestry. A few hectares round the homestead are retained and sold as lifestyle blocks.
It is almost impossible for younger farmers to buy this land as forestry interests have pushed the land prices to eyewatering levels.
As a country we need to have a discussion about the emissions trading scheme and using productive hill country farms for forestry. Farmers out here have done a lot to mitigate environmental concerns; every winter thousands of natives and other trees are planted, stocking levels have been lowered, wetlands fenced off and we have active community catchment groups improving rivers.
Our rural area is becoming depopulated as farmers retire and they're not replaced with younger, keen farmers as they can't afford the farms. We need the young farmers to keep the schools open - some children travel nearly an hour as it is. Our rural fire and emergency crews need young, fit farmers to keep our district safe and to fight the inevitable forest fires that will result if we have dry summers.
And finally I heard Mike Joy comment that if we covered New Zealand end to end with forestry we would only deal with possibly 10% of emissions.
First time for me to listen to this conversation !
Excellent information ,easy to understand and much to consider .
Submissions going nowhere 🤔 and the skewered bias of those who make them .
BRING ON CITIZENS ASSEMBLIES !!
Thanks Catherine and Bernard . 👍
At a local govt level, LGNZ just released a how-to guide for councils with tips around assemblies and participatory democracy. There's a very real need for this, given that massive imbalance of who submits on local plans etc too.
https://www.localism.nz/localism-guide/
Te Ao Māori hui & wananga spaces are effective at considering complex problems where all participants can be heard and a concensus reached.