Last night over 200 people crowded in to Dunedin’s Glenroy Auditorium for the Dunedin meeting in the government’s emissions consultation process. I (r0b) will write up my notes for a post over the weekend, but here is the reaction of one person who attended. She describes herself as not a political person – just worried about our future.
Tonight I attended a meeting in Dunedin to discuss, with representatives from the Ministry of the Environment, NZ’s position for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris.
There were over 200 people in attendance and for more than two hours many took turns to ask questions and to speak about climate change. They spoke about what they want for our children, for future generations, for New Zealand, for the South Pacific and for the world. A child spoke, as did many students, researchers and a great grandmother!
To paraphrase one speaker, I am not a scientist, I am an ordinary woman, who has been feeling emotional about climate change for a while. It was an emotional meeting and I felt in turns angry, frustrated, helpless, very sad, and disillusioned. I also felt privileged to be in the company of so many knowledgeable, passionate people.
In summing up, one of the MoE’s reps said that he had seen hope this evening. It must have been a brief sighting, maybe I was blinking or wiping my eyes because I missed it. Thank you to all the people who came tonight, thank you to all the people who spoke tonight – we all agreed that we are not doing enough and that we have to begin now. I am sad and tired because I don’t think our government is going to listen or to take our submissions seriously.
The hope thing – I suppose there was hope at the meeting tonight, because, in spite of all the inertia and non-action of the past, people still fronted up to speak and to support the speakers. I suppose had there been no hope, no-one would have turned up at all.
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